Download Anxiety Disorders

Anxiety Disorders
Anxiety
•Anxiety – general state of dread or
uneasiness that occurs in response to a
vague or imagined danger.
•Puts us on physical & mental alert,
preparing us to defensively “fight” or “flee”
potential dangers,
•Behaviors include – nervousness, inability
to relax, concern about losing control,
trembling, sweating, rapid heart rate,
shortness of breath, high blood pressure,
light-headedness.
When is Anxiety a Problem?
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In the anxiety disorders, the anxiety is maladaptive,
disrupting everyday activities, moods, and thought
processes
Three features distinguish normal anxiety from
pathological anxiety. Anxiety is a problem when it is:
1. Irrational—it is provoked by perceived threats that are
exaggerated or nonexistent, and the anxiety response is
out of proportion to the actual importance of the situation.
2. Uncontrollable—the alarm reaction cannot be shut off even
when the person knows it’s unrealistic.
3. Disruptive—it interferes with relationships, job or academic
performance, or everyday activities
Phobia
Phobia
• An anxiety disorder characterized by disruptive,
irrational fears of specific objects or situations
• The fear must be both irrational and disruptive and
cause avoidance behaviors.
• About 10 percent of the general population will
experience a specific phobia at some point in
their lives.
Phobias
Generally, the objects or situations that
produce specific phobias tend to fall into
four categories
1. Natural environment—heights, water,
lightening
2. Situation—flying, tunnels, crowds, social
gathering
3. Injury—needles, blood, dentist, doctor
4. Animals or insects—insects, snakes, bats, dogs
Development of Phobias
• Preparedness theory—phobia serves to
enhance survival.
– Humans seem biologically prepared
to acquire fears of certain animals
and situations that were survival
threats in human evolutionary history
Social Phobias
• Social phobias—fear of failing or being
embarrassed in public
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public speaking (stage fright)
fear of crowds, strangers
meeting new people
eating in public
• Considered phobic if these fears interfere
with normal behavior
• Equally found in males and females
Watch this
video of a
girl with a
phobia for
pickles.
Panic Disorder
&
Agoraphobia
Panic Disorder
• Panic attacks—sudden episode of helpless terror
with high physiological arousal that can last for a
few minutes to a few hours.
• Symptoms include – intense fear, shortness of
breath, dizziness, rapid heart rate, trembling,
sweating, choking & nausea.
• Very frightening—sufferers live in fear
of having them. Feel like they’re dying.
• Agoraphobia often develops as a result
Agoraphobia
• Fear of situations the person views as
difficult to escape from
• Causes person a fear of leaving one’s
home or room in the house
• 50-80% of phobics are this.
Cognitive-Behavioral Theory
of Panic Disorder
• Sufferers tend to misinterpret the physical signs of
arousal as catastrophic and dangerous
• This interpretation leads to further physical arousal,
tending toward a vicious cycle
• After their first panic attack, they become even
more attuned to physical changes, increasing
the likelihood of future panic attacks
Generalized Anxiety
Disorder
Generalized Anxiety Disorder
(GAD)
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More or less constant worry about many issues
Lasts for more than 6 months.
The worry seriously interferes with functioning
Physical symptoms
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headaches
stomach aches
muscle tension
irritability
Are Your Worries Excessive?
• Add up your TOTAL Score
• 0-11 points = You are not the fretful type. Worry,
which no doubt makes you uncomfortable, goads
you to take necessary action in your life.
• 12-20 points = You’re a potentially unhealthy
worrier.
• 21-30 points = Danger zone! Agonizing constantly
about small matters isn’t good for you physically
or emotionally.
ObsessiveCompulsive Disorder
Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder (OCD)
• An anxiety disorder characterized by unwanted,
repetitive thoughts and actions
• The obsessions/compulsions begin to take control of the
person’s life.
• Obsessions—irrational, disturbing thoughts that intrude
into consciousness
• Compulsions—repetitive actions performed to alleviate
obsessions & anxiety
– Overt physical behaviors, such as repeatedly
checking or washing your hands
– Covert mental behaviors, such as counting or
reciting certain phrases to yourself
Finding Your OCD Score
• Circle the following item numbers if you marked TRUE
for them: 1, 2, 4, 6, 7, 8, 16, 17, 21
• Circle the following item numbers if you marked
FALSE for them: 5, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 19, 20, 22
• Now add up your total score. Highest score possible is
a 20 (items 3 & 15 are validity checks)
• The mean (average) score is 11.15 for males and 11.24
for females.
• Remember, even if you scored high on this scale it
doesn’t mean you have OCD. Always ask yourself,
“Do these tendencies I have disrupt my daily life and
relationships?” If the answer is NO you don’t have a
problem.
Trichotillomannia:
The Disease of Hair Pulling
• What it’s like to live with it – video
• Trich – An explanation – video
Other Obsessions…
• Obsessive Texting - video
Posttraumatic Stress
Disorder
PTSD
Posttraumatic Stress Disorder
(PTSD)
• Follows events that produce intense horror or helplessness (traumatic
episodes)
• Core symptoms include:
– Flashbacks
– Nightmares or unwelcomed thoughts
– Numbness of Feelings
– Avoidance of things that trigger memory
– Sleep disturbances
– Drug Abuse – Alcoholism to deaden memories.
• There is a high correlation of suicide and drug abuse in
PTSD – See news report on Military Suicides in Soldiers
fighting in Iraq – 2 min.
Causes of Anxiety
Disorders
Psychological Causes
• Psychoanalytic – forbidden childhood urges that have
been repressed result in anxiety.
– If they do emerge it may be in the form of a compulsion (hand
washing).
• Learning Theorists – People learn to reduce anxiety by
avoiding the situation (neg. reinforcement). Can’t get
better because they don’t face it.
– Phobias are classically conditioned in childhood. Traumatic
event or seeing someone else experience it causes our fears of
that object.
• Cognitive - People make themselves anxious by
responding negatively to most situations and coming to
believe they are helpless to control what happens to them
increasing their anxiety.
Biological Factors
• Hereditary factors may result in a predisposition for
developing anxiety disorders
• Brain functions appear to be different in an anxiety
disorder patient
• Twin Studies – If one identical has it then 45% of
the time the other had it even when raised apart. If
fraternal twins it drops to 15%.
• Adoption Studies – adopted children more likely to
have anxiety disorder if birth parents have it.
• Evolutionary Theory – Those that could develop
fears quickly often survived better.
Interaction of Biological &
Psychological Factors
• Person may be biologically predisposed to overreact
to physical symptoms of panic (shallow breathing &
fast heartbeat) causing them to react with more fear
increasing their panic.
• Anxiety about having another panic attack become a
disorder itself.
Behavioral (Learning) Causes of
Phobias
• Classical conditioning may be involved
in the development of a specific phobia
that can be traced back to some sort of
traumatic event.
– People with phobias may have developed
a conditioned response of fear to a
conditioned stimulus
– Problems with this theory:
• often no memory of a traumatic experience
• traumatic experience may not produce phobia
Other Learning Factors
• Observational learning--watching another
experiencing fearfulness--may result in
developing fear.
• Operant Conditioning - Fear of an object may be
negatively reinforced when by avoiding the
feared objects.