Chapter 16 Section 2: Anxiety Disorders

Anxiety  General state of dread or uneasiness  Everyone feels anxiety, disorder is out of proportion  Most common type of mental illness  Shared characteristics  Personal inadequacy  Avoidance of problems  Unrealistic images of self  Constant worrying  Mood swings

Generalized Anxiety Disorder  Anxiety- a vague, generalized apprehension or feeling one is in danger  Feels nervous for reasons one cannot explain  GAD- continous, generalized anxiety  Often have trouble fulfilling responsibilities, which makes anxiety worse (cyclical)  Theories for anxiety  Learned anxiety  Inherited  Environmental- unpredictable traumatic event

Phobic Disorder  Phobia- an intense and irrational fear of a particular object or situation  Range in intensity from mild to severe  Most people deal by avoiding object of phobia  Reduces anxiety, but also reinforces phobia  One form of treatment involves providing person opportunity to experience phobia in safe environment

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1. Arachnophobia: The fear of spiders. This phobia tends to affect women more than men. 2. Ophidiophobia: The fear of snakes. Often attributed to evolutionary causes, personal experiences, or cultural influences. 3. Acrophobia: The fear of heights. This fear can lead to anxiety attacks and avoidance of high places. 4. Agoraphobia: The fear of situations in which escape is difficult. This may include crowded areas, open spaces, or situations that are likely to trigger a panic attack. People will begin avoiding these trigger events, sometimes to the point that they cease leaving their home. Approximately one third of people with panic disorder develop agoraphobia.

5. Cynophobia: The fear of dogs. This phobia is often associated with specific personal experiences, such as being bitten by a dog during childhood. 6. Astraphobia: The fear of thunder and lightening. Also known as Brontophobia, Tonitrophobia, or Ceraunophobia. 7. Trypanophobia: The fear of injections. Like many phobias, this fear often goes untreated because people avoid the triggering object and situation. 8. Social Phobias: The fear of social situations. In many cases, these phobias can become so severe that people avoid events, places, and people that are likely to trigger an anxiety attack.

9. Pteromerhanophobia: The fear of flying. Often treated using exposure therapy, in which the client is gradually and progressively introduced to flying. 10. Mysophobia: The fear of germs or dirt. May be related to obsessive-compulsive disorder.

Panic Disorder  Panic- feeling of sudden, helpless terror, such as the overwhelming fright of being cornered by predator  Panic disorder- extreme anxiety that manifest itself in the form of panic attacks  During attacks, individual sense inevitable doom or they are about to die  Common symptoms- choking, can’t breathe, chest pains, dizziness, nausea  Usually last a few minutes, occur without warning  First attack often after s

Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder  Obsession- uncontrollably thinking the same thoughts over and over  Compulsions- repeatedly performing coping behaviors  Obsessive-compulsive- anxiety disorder that combines the two  Everyone has these, only a problem when they interfere with everyday functioning  Most know thoughts and actions are irrational, feel unable to stop them  Seems to run in families- possibly genetic

Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder  Disorder in which victims of traumatic events experience the original event in the form of dreams or flasbacks  Common to war veterans, survivors of natural disasters, crime victims, accidents  Often includes involuntary flashbacks and nightmares  Not everyone develops PTSD from traumatic event  People exposed to repeatedly or over a long period of time more likely to develop PTSD