1. Anxiety and College Students

2. Anyone know what anxiety is?

3. What is Anxiety?
A normal human emotion that everyone experiences at times; feelings of fear, worry, or uneasiness
Feelings of intrusive thoughts or concerns
Can be a reaction to stress
Anxiety helps us anticipate difficulties ahead and prepare for them
Last bullet: note that anxiety can be beneficial, alert us if were in danger

4. What can cause anxiety…
Problems at work or in school
Tests or obligations
Relationship and friend issues
Family
Financial problems
Uncertain about career choices / future
Alcohol
Life

5. EVERYONE experiences anxiety!
What gives you anxiety?
EVERYONE experiences anxiety!
Write down a couple of things that give you anxiety

6. Physical and Emotional Manifestations
Cold or sweaty hands & feet
Shortness of breath
Dry mouth
Heart palpitations
Muscle tension
Physical weakness
Numbness
Nausea
Dizziness
Fear or confusion
Inability to relax
Poor concentration
Feelings of panic
Feeling nervous
Feeling powerless
Sense of impeding danger, panic, or doom

7. Fight or Flight
Involuntary response in which internal processes prepare someone to either fight the perceived threat or run away
It is triggered when we view a situation as threatening
Was a necessary response when we used to encounter physical dangers on a daily basis  now most of our dangers are psychological
Example: you see a lion, heart beats, muscles tense up, intensely alert, you are paralyzed for a second with fear and then you make a decision to either defend yourself or run away
People with anxiety may have a hypersensitive fight or flight response (may activate really easily)
Is common among those who suffer from anxiety

8. When is it a disorder?
“When symptoms become chronic and interfere with our daily lives and ability to function” (PsychCentral)
Excessive, intense, persistent worry and fear
Most common mental disorder, affects more than 25 million Americans
Anxiety vs. Anxiety Disorder
Last bullet: disorder consists of persistent or recurrent anxiety that prevents one from full participation in life.

9. Diagnoses Generalized Anxiety Disorder Panic Disorder Panic Attacks
Social Anxiety
Phobias
Agoraphobia
Separation anxiety disorder
Selective Mutism
OCD
PTSD

10. Generalized Anxiety Disorder
Persistent or excessive worry about activities or events (what-ifs)
Worry is out of proportion than the actual situation
Difficult to control, impedes ability to focus on current tasks
Becomes a vicious cycle
Affects 3-4% of population
Does not usually cause people to avoid situations, no element of a panic attack
Responds well to CBT
It is the thinking, dwelling, ruminating
Someone is ten min late  fear they got into a car crash
Cbt: learn to see problems in a different perspective, learn methods to reduce anxiety, can be fully treatable

11. Generalized Anxiety Symptoms
Physical: headaches, trembling, twitching, irritability, and frustration
Inability to concentrate, disrupts sleep, high levels of self-consciousness, quick startle response, and inability to fully relax
NOTE: as opposed to most other anxiety disorders, they don’t feel too restricted in certain settings, they don’t avoid certain situations but it is still debilitating

12. Panic Disorder
Repeated episodes of sudden intense anxiety, fear, or terror that strike suddenly with no warning and peaks within a few minutes
Many tend to develop anxiety between episodes in which they worry about when the next episode will arise
Strikes between 3 and 6 million Americans
Twice as common in women as in men
Lives become restricted, avoid many things such as driving, shopping, etc.
Criteria: recurrent panic attacks and at least one of the attacks has been followed by one month or more of one or more of the following (persistent concerns about the consequences of the attack such as losing coonctrol, having a heart attack, or fears of having additional attacks, OR, a significant change in behavior related to the attacks so for example avoiding exercise.

13. Panic Attacks
Panic attack: severe episode of anxiety in response to a certain trigger
An episode is also known as a panic attack
Feelings of impending doom, shortness of breath, pounding heart, chest pain, sweatiness, weakness, faintness, dizziness, numbness  many think they are having a heart attack
Typically lasts a few minutes, can last up to 10 minutes and in rare cases an hour or more
REMEMBER, not everyone who experiences panic attacks will develop a panic disorder
Also, a panic attack can occur in the context of any anxiety disorder or other mental disorder or medical condition.

15. Social Anxiety
Overwhelming worry and self – consciousness about everyday social situations
Fear of being judged or behaving in a certain manner that may cause embarrassment, humiliation, or ridicule
Fear of “messing up” when talking or interacting with others
May fear public speaking, may avoid eating or drinking in public due to fear of being embarrassed
Typically experience anxiety symptoms
Typically experience anxiety symptoms like heart palpitations, dry mouth, tremors, sweating, gi issues, muscle tension, shaky voice, blushing or even a panic ayttack
Avoid certain people or places
Incidence is between 5 to 13 percent of people in US will experience this during their life time
Women outnumber men 3:2 among those with social phobia
Most likely to develop in teenage years

16. Phobias
Intense irrational fear of a certain object or situation (snakes, elevators, flying)
Level of fear is usually inappropriate to the situation
May result in desire to avoid this object or situation
Can result in panic attacks
Strikes more than 1 in 10 people (more prevalent in women)
A phobia is not the same thing as lets say social anxiety or a social phobia (they fear social interactions where they think they’ll be judged, theyre not fearing oanic attacks or enclosed spaces or specific objects)
The fear of r anxiety is out of porportion to the actual danger posed by the object

17. Agoraphobia
Anxiety of certain places or situations in which you may feel trapped or helpless
Feelings of panic
Results in avoidance of going to those specific places

18. Separation Anxiety Disorder
Childhood disorder consisting of excessive anxiety related to separation from parents or guardians
It is a normal life stage that develops around 7 months of age, strongest between months of age, and typically subsides by 3 years of age.
4%-5% of children suffer
Up to 80% of children who refuse to go to school suffer from SAD

19. Selective Mutism
Consistent failure to speak in specific situations (ex. School)
You are willing to speak in other situations but not all situations
Can interfere with school, work, and social functioning

20. OCD
Marked by persistent invasive thoughts or compulsions to carry out repetitive or ritualistic actions to decrease anxiety
Common symptoms: frequent washing, concerns about harm to self or others with consequent checking
Problems with symmetry, arranging rituals, hoarding

21. Post Traumatic Stress Disorder
Living through an actual or perceived life and death experience or being surrounded by violence and death (wartime experiences, sexual abuse, emotional abuse, natural disasters)
Elicits fearful feelings including flashbacks, hallucinations, and panic attacks
Avoidance of reminders of event
Lack of interest in normal daily activities
Emotional Numbing: dethatched from reality
Treatment: CBT talk through horrors
They may not forget what they witnessed, but they can learn to focus on other, more positive things

22. Comorbidity

23. Comorbidity

25. Causes
Brain chemistry: part of brain that controls fear response may be involved (brain chemicals involved such as serotonin, dopamine, and norepinephrine)
Genetic predisposition: anxiety disorders run in families
Environmental factors: traumatic experiences and stress
Medical factors: stress from illness, side effects of medication, symptoms of a medical illness
Traua resets bodys normal fear processing system so that its hyper reactive to stress

26. Ways to cope with anxiety
Deep breathing
Accept that you are anxious
Use positive-self talk
Use a calming visualization
Remind yourself that your brain is playing tricks on you
Talk to someone
Exercise
Journaling
Lavender
Reduce caffeine intake
Deep breathing: diaphragmatic breathing activates the bodys relaxation response, helps body release fight or flight mofe response of sympathetic nervous system and activates parasympathetic nervous system
When we don’t accept anxiety and we try to eliminate it at times, it can perpetuate the idea that the anxiety is intolerable and may worsen it.
Brain playing tricks: panic attacks
Positive self talk: the anxiety feels bad but it wont kill me and I can use strategies to manage it Remove anxiety provoking things: not everything, but some things like turning off the news
Journaling: (pay attention to what is causing you anxiety)
END with saying that these can be good techniques for anxiety symptoms, bot if you have an anxiety disorder, it could be helpful to seek out counseling…

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28. Write down techniques you can use next time you feel anxious