1. Anxiety Disorders

2. Anxiety is a part of life –Everyone feels it at one time or the other We fail to make eye contact Avoid talking to someone A disorder characterized by distressing, persistent anxiety or maladaptive behaviors that reduce anxiety –Generalized anxiety –Panic disorder –Phobias –Obsessive Compulsive

3. Generalized Anxiety Disorder A person is unexplainably & continually tense & uneasy 2/3 are women are –continually tense & jittery –worried about bad things that might happen –plagued by muscular tension –Agitation –sleeplessness

4. Panic Disorder Minute long episode of intense dread in which a person experiences terror & accompanying chest pain, choking, other frightening sensations 1/75 who suffer experience minute long panic attacks –Heart palpitations –Shortness of breath –Choking sensations –Trembling –dizziness Come to Fear, Fear itself & avoid situations that cause attacks

5. Agoraphobia A fear or avoidance of situations in which escape might be difficult or help unavailable when panic strikes Charles Darwin suffered from panic disorder –“Even ill health has saved me from the distraction of society & its amusements”

6. Phobias A focused anxiety on a specific object, activity, or situation Irrational fears that disrupt behavior Some specific phobias are incapacitating Sometimes it is possible to avoid the stimulus that arouses the fear Irrational fear of Specific animals Insects Heights Blood Tunnels Rollercoasters

7. Obsessive Compulsive Disorder An anxiety disorder characterized by unwanted repetitive thoughts and/or actions the fine line between normality & disorder is crossed when the behavior becomes so persistent that they interfere with the way we live or cause stress Obsessive fear of germs Reclusive Hand washing rituals Forbid staff to touch him “Everybody carries germs Around with them, I avoid Germs”

8. Explanation Behind Freud believed that beginning in childhood, people repress intolerable impulses, ideas, and feelings & that this causes the anxiety Today’s psychologist believe that it biological & learned

9. Biological Perspective Humans are biologically prepared to fear threats faced by our ancestors –Easy to condition but hard to extinguish –Evolutionary explanation –Our phobias focus on dangers faced by our ancestors –Genes Predisposed to particular fears & high anxiety Vulnerability to anxiety disorder rises when a relative also has it –Physiology Biologically measurable as an over arousal of brain areas involved in impulse control & habitual behaviors

10. Behavior Therapy Learning Perspective Fear conditioning (traumatic event) –When a bad event happens unexpectedly & uncontrollably anxiety often develops –association Stimulus generalization –A fear that we have long after we have forgotten the experience behind it Reinforcement –Avoiding & escaping the cause Observational learning –Learn by observing other’ s fears

11. Counter Conditioning Pairing the trigger stimulus with a new response –Claustrophobia Caught in an elevator –Panic –Claustrophobia Caught in an elevator –relaxation –Aversive Therapy Nail biting = Chile’ Exposure Therapy Systematic Desensitization

12. Cognitive Therapies Changing your thinking patterns with more constructive ways of thinking that benefit you Aaron Beck –Our thoughts can lead to our own destruction I am a failure = self fulfilling prophecy Cognitive behavior therapy –Not only alters the way a person thinks but also they way they act –Fear of social situations learns a new way of thinking but also practice approaching people to engage in a conversation