Anxiety Disorders

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Anxiety Disorders
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• Anxiety

• Anxiety is an unpleasant emotional state
  characterized by physical arousal and feelings of
  tension, apprehension, and worry
• Puts us on physical alert, preparing us to
  defensively fight or flee potential dangers,
• Also puts us on mental alert, making us focus our
  attention squarely on the threatening situation

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Anxiety Disorders

• In the anxiety disorders, the anxiety is
  maladaptive, disrupting everyday activities,
  moods, and thought processes
• Three features distinguish normal anxiety from
  pathological anxiety. Pathological anxiety is
• Irrationalit 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.
• Uncontrollablethe alarm reaction cannot be shut
  off even when the person knows its unrealistic.
• Disruptiveit interferes with relationships, job
  or academic performance, or everyday activities

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Generalized Anxiety Disorder and Panic Disorder
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Generalized Anxiety Disorder

• An anxiety disorder characterized by disruptive
  levels of persistent, unexplained feelings of
  apprehension and tenseness

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Generalized Anxiety Disorder (GAD)

• More or less constant worry about many issues
• The worry seriously interferes with functioning
• Physical symptoms
• headaches
• stomach aches
• muscle tension
• irritability

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Symptoms of Generalized Anxiety

• Must have at least three of the following
• Restlessness
• Feeling on edge
• Difficulty concentrating/mind going blank
• Irritability
• Muscle Tension
• Sleep Disturbance

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Model of Development of GAD

• GAD has some genetic component
• Related genetically to major depression
• Childhood trauma also related to GAD

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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 Youre a potentially unhealthy
  worrier.
• 21-30 points Danger zone! Agonizing constantly
  about small matters isnt good for you physically
  or emotionally.

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Panic Disorder

• An anxiety disorder characterized by sudden bouts
  of intense, unexplained panic
• Panic attacks may happen several times a day

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Panic Disorder

• Panic attackssudden episode of helpless terror
  with high physiological arousal
• Very frighteningsufferers live in fear of
  having them
• Agoraphobia often develops as a result

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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

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Phobia
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Phobia

• An anxiety disorder characterized by disruptive,
  irrational fears of specific objects or
  situations
• The fear must be both irrational and disruptive.
• About 10 percent of the general population will
  experience a specific phobia at some point in
  their lives.

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Phobias

• Generally, the objects or situations that produce
  specific phobias tend to fall into four
  categories
• Natural environmentheights, water, lightening
• Situationflying, tunnels, crowds, social
  gathering
• Injuryneedles, blood, dentist, doctor
• Animals or insectsinsects, snakes, bats, dogs

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Phobias

• It is not phobic to simply be anxious about
  something

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Phobias
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Some Unusual Phobias

• Watch this video of a girl with a phobia for
  pickles.
• Ailurophobiafear of cats
• Algobphobiafear of pain
• Anthropophobiafear of men
• Monophobiafear of being alone
• Pyrophobiafear of fire

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Social Phobias

• Social phobiasfear of failing or being
  embarrassed in public
• 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

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Agoraphobia

• Fear of situations the person views as difficult
  to escape from
• Fear of leaving ones home or room in the house

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Phobia

• Play Three Anxiety Disorders (408) Segment 37
  from Psychology The Human Experience.
• The segment includes a discussion on Generalized
  Anxiety Disorder.

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Development 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

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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.

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Development of Phobias

• Preparedness theoryphobia serves to enhance
  survival.
• Humans seem biologically prepared to acquire
  fears of certain animals and situations that were
  survival threats in human evolutionary history

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Cognitive Therapy for Phobias

• In this video, the therapist tries to get the
  person to rethink their phobia. (7 min)

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Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder
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Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder

• An anxiety disorder characterized by unwanted,
  repetitive thoughts and actions
• Obsessions repetitive thoughts
• Compulsions repetitive actions
• The obsessions/compulsions begin to take control
  of the persons life.

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Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder (OCD)

• Obsessionsirrational, disturbing thoughts that
  intrude into consciousness
• Compulsionsrepetitive actions performed to
  alleviate obsessions
• Overt physical behaviors, such as repeatedly
  checking or washing your hands
• Covert mental behaviors, such as counting or
  reciting certain phrases to yourself
• Potential Biological Causes
• Heightened neural activity in caudate nucleus
• A deficiency in the neurotransmitter serotonin

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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 doesnt mean you have OCD. Always ask
  yourself, Do these tendencies I have disrupt my
  daily life and relationships? If the answer is
  NO you dont have a problem.

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Obsessive Compulsive Disorder

• Play Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder (257)
  Segment 36 from Psychology The Human
  Experience.

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Trichotillomannia The Disease of Hair Pulling

• Quick example (3 min)
• What its like to live with it video
• Trich An explanation video
• Other Obsessions
• Obsessive Texting - video

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Posttraumatic Stress Disorder
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Posttraumatic Stress Disorder

• An anxiety disorder characterized by reliving a
  severely upsetting event in unwanted recurring
  memories (flashbacks) and dreams

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Posttraumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD)

• Follows events that produce intense horror or
  helplessness (traumatic episodes)
• Core symptoms include
• Frequent recollection of traumatic event, often
  intrusive and interfering with normal thoughts
• Avoidance of situations that trigger recall of
  the event
• Increased physical arousal associated with stress
• 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.

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Potential Causes of PTSD

• - Post Traumatic Stress Syndrome Studies of the
  Hippocampus in PTSD patients find that on
  average, their hippocampus is 25 smaller.
• - Some think this is a warning sign that someone
  is susceptible to PTSD.
• - Others say it is due to excessive stress
  hormones during trauma or an excessive
  sensitivity to these hormones after trauma.
• - Coping strategies to avoid PTSD in traumatic
  situations Holocaust Case Study Read the 7
  strategies described on pg. 11 of Myers Guide.

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Causes of Anxiety Disorders
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Biological Factors

• Hereditary factors may result in a predisposition
  for developing anxiety disorders
• Brain functions appear to be different in an
  anxiety disorder patient
• Evolutionary factors may lead to anxiety
  disorders.