Anxiety Disorders

Exploring Anxiety Disorders

• People with anxiety disorders…– Feel overwhelming

tension, apprehension, or fear when there is no real danger

– May take extreme action to avoid the source of their anxiety

Types of Anxiety Disorders• Panic attacks• Agoraphobia• Specific phobia• Social phobia• Generalized anxiety

disorder• Obsessive-compulsive

disorder (OCD)• Posttraumatic Stress

Disorder

Panic Attacks

• Apprehension leading to intense fear

• Sensation of “going crazy”, losing control, or of huge looming catastrophe

• Physical signs include racing heartbeat, rapid breath, dizziness, nausea, feeling like you’re going to have a heart attack or die

Why/When panic attacks occur

• Situationally bound: always occur during the same situation

• Unexpected: never knowing when one might occur which may lead to avoidance of any situation that may be unsafe

Agoraphobia (fear of the market place)

• Fear/avoidance of situations and people that may be unsafe to have a panic attack

• In extreme cases, inability to leave house or even room

• Begins after a panic attack, but can continue for years even if there are no more panic attacks

Specific Phobia

• Fear of specific object that triggers the attack

• Develops from personal experience of traumatic event with the object, situation, or misinformation

Interesting Phobias

• Fear of spiders: arachnophobia

• Fear of snakes: ophiodophobia

• Fear of heights: acrophobia

• Fear of storms: astraphobia

• Fear of tight spaces: claustrophobia

• Fear of the dark: nyctophobia

• Fear of needles: aichmophobia

• Fear of clowns: coulrophobia

Social Phobia

• Fear of being in situations that call for some kind of “performance” that may be judged – speaking in public, meeting new people, going to work

Generalized Anxiety Disorder

• Biologically vulnerable • Uncontrollable,

unproductive worrying about everyday events

• Inability to stop the worry/anxiety cycle

• Physical symptoms of muscle tension

Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder (OCD)

• Obsessions: unwanted and uncontrollable thoughts

• Compulsions: repetitious behaviors

• OCD: fear of obsessions leads to compulsive behavior (the person finds the behavior to be relaxing)

Common Examples of OCD

• Contamination fears of germs: washing

• Imagine harming self or others: repeating

• Imaging losing control: checking

• Forbidden thoughts: arranging/organizing

Posttraumatic Stress Disorder

• Fear of reexperiencing a traumatic event (rape, war, life-threatening situation)

• Nightmares of traumatic event in flashbacks

• Avoidance of intense feelings through emotional numbing

Causes/Treatment

• Biological Influences• Cognitive-Behavioral• Psychodynamic• Diathesis-Stress

Biological Influences

• Inherited vulnerability to experience anxiety or panic attacks

• Activation of specific brain circuits and neurotransmitters

Biological Treatments

• XANAX and other anti-anxiety medicine

• PROZAC and other anti-depressants (SSRI- selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors)

Cognitive-Behavioral Influences

• Learned behaviors (usually undesirable behaviors)

• Feelings that physical symptoms of panic are catastrophic

• Spiral out of control

Cognitive-Behavioral Treatment

• Cognitive therapy to change irrational thoughts

• Systematic desensitization

• Shaping

Psychodynamic Influences

• Unconscious conflicts from past

• Repressed memories from childhood

Psychodynamic Treatments

• Free Association• Hypnosis

Diathesis-Stress

• Potential + Situation

• Eclectic treatment