ABSTRACT
Behavioral disorders and emotional disorders are broad diagnostic terms, and it is important to distinguish normal and slightly unregulated behavior from what may be defined as a disorder, such as common testing of limits or adolescent rebelliousness versus oppositional defiant disorders. Externalizing disorders include destructive, bullying, fraudulent and aggressive actions of such scope that they become disruptive to children and adults in the environment and require intervention. Internalizing disorders include mood and anxiety disorders. Bipolar disorder is characterized by depressive periods and periods of mania. Anxiety disorders mainly consist of separation anxiety, phobias and generalized anxiety disorder. Children with selective mutism only speak at home and with their immediate family. Eating disorders have many similarities with obsessive-compulsive disorder, but the obsessive thoughts revolve exclusively around food, body, appearance and weight. The most common among these disorders are anorexia, involving under-eating, and bulimia, involving binge-eating and “countermeasures” against food intake such as intentional regurgitation or use of a laxative.
