What Is a Thinking Disorder?
A thinking disorder or thought disorder involves having problems organizing and expressing your thoughts. The disorder causes disorganized thinking and leads to people being unable to speak or write normally.
Disorganized speech can happen by having a mental disturbance when formulating a sentence. When forming a sentence, a person must think about a topic, organize the thoughts mentally, and then express their thoughts in a way for others to understand. Thinking disorders attack any of those stages of the thought process and the level of difficulty can be used to assess the severity of the disorder. In fact, a thinking disorder is a key symptom of schizophrenia and other psychotic disorders.
Difficulty communicating can affect daily interactions at work, with friends and family, and even when alone when trying to find clarity.
Symptoms Of Thinking Disorder
Diagnosing thinking disorders can be tricky because the symptoms are not unique to this disorder. For instance, problems with thought and language can also occur to many people when in a stressful situation or when exhausted. For this reason, it is important to speak to a trained professional who can correctly diagnose a psychological condition and provide the correct treatment plan. Dr. Cawkwell of PBC Psychiatry provides this expertise with the convenience of virtual appointments.
The following is a list of symptoms that may be indicative of a thought disorder. If you or a loved one is frequently experiencing any of these symptoms, please speak to Dr. Cawkwell and get help from a mental health professional.
Symptoms of Thinking Disorder
- Changing topics constantly
- Difficulty speaking
- Talking rapidly
- Incoherence
- Wandering pervasive thoughts
Other related symptoms that can point to additional or different disorders include
- delusions/hallucinations
- poor judgment
- changes in movement
- Irritability
- lack of emotion/expression
- paranoia.
These related symptoms are associated with conditions including schizophrenia, schizoaffective disorder, and psychosis.
Diagnosing Thought Disorder
There are several tools that are used when diagnosing thinking disorders including:
- Physical exam and laboratory tests to review overall health and check for other medical or mental health conditions.
- Rorschach inkblot test. In this test, people are shown a series of ambiguous inkblots. Dr. Cawkwell can then use a scoring system when interpreting verbal responses to look for signs of disordered thinking.
- Thought Disorder Index (TDI). This assessment involves Dr. Cawkwell asking specific questions and recording your response. After the test, he will evaluate your responses and search for signs indicating a thinking disorder.
- Scale for the Assessment of Thought, Language, and Communication (TLC). Similar to TDI, this assessment involves making observations and rating each action based on definitions of different aspects of thought disorders.
If you are experiencing any of the symptoms mentioned above, and it is affecting your life and ability to communicate effectively, Dr. Cawkwell can provide you with a treatment plan to help overcome the thinking disorder. Together, you and Dr. Cawkwell can find the proper psychotherapy and possible medications that can help you manage the symptoms of thinking disorder.
