http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thought_disorder ... -My ?=... How can anyone who is not catatonic have this?

Question

I was checking out wikipedia about New Media and I came upon the word, "portmanteau". That only means to combine words, basically. Somehow I found a word on the page, that lead me to wonder about "thought disorder". http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thought_disorder
WHAT IS "THOUGHT DISORDER"??? Doesn't that seem like an OXYMORON? Our brains are constantly processing information. No matter how this happens... as long as the brain attempts to process any thought... how can there be a disorder? -Unless someone is in a coma or in a catatonic state? Even autistic and/or mentally handicapped people process thought. That is what the human brain does. If anyone goes to the site, that I listed above... let me know your opinion about "Thought Disorder". I am, just, boggled. Not looking for confrentation, just looking for opinions. -Thank you, all.

YES!!! I totally understand the bi-polar thing and the skitz. thing. Which I agree with. But literaly... a "thought" disorder seems to be different than a "personality" disorder.
So it would have to do with the inability to think... like someone would be in a coma or be catatonic- or maybe, even, have a constant and sever short-term memory loss.
This is what I think. But "thought disorder", the term, seems incorrect to me. I am just wondering if anyone agrees. (I won't use any one's names, or anything, to prove a point. I just found the term to be baffeling to me.)
"Personality" diaorders and "Thought" disorders ---I would think--- are to be two different things. I am open to opinions.

Answer 1

They mean by how thoughts are supposed to be transfered and organized in your brain. Brains are tricky things, any reoccuring thoughts that are out of the normal (and by this I mean affecting your life in a negative way) would be a thought disorder. I.E. people who are depressed usually have thought disorders because it is the way we think that makes us that way. How the thoughts are processed in the brain.

Answer 2

In thought disorder, the thinking may be clear or processed, but one of two things happens:
If it is a logical thought, it comes out wrong or incorrectly because the brain can't find the proper way to express it, and,
the thought is illogical, the person's brain thinks it makes sense, and it comes out in pieses that sound reasonable to the person, but not to anybody else.

It is common in schizophrenia. The person's brain is not organized and it takes fragments of ideas and slaps them all together.
It can also happen in Bipolar disorder, the person's brain has so many thoughts, one after the other, that is hard to make sense of it.
Drugs like cocain and acid can cause this too, where the person can't focus on one thought and instead just says the very thing on their mind.

Answer 3

Are you talking about "formal thought disorders"? This usually occurs in schizophrenia and sometimes delirium. It's often manifested as incoherence or loosening of associations. A "word salad" is when a person attempts to make a statement but it's just a string of unrelated words. This is not a disorder in itself but a symptom. It's common in the disorganized type of schizophrenia. The disease affects the brain's ability to think in an organized, coherent fashion. People with catatonia, when vocal, usually exhibit echolalia.

Answer 4

You do have a good point. A person's thoughts are his/her own and how could it be a disorder. I think what they mean by the term though is a person who does process thoughts in the normal way. That may be a different type of illness than a personality disorder.

You do have a way of making peole think though don't you. LOL