Download Anxiety Disorders

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
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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
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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
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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 antianxiety medicine
• PROZAC and other antidepressants (SSRIselective 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