12 - 3 Flashcards
Anxiety disorder
is the occurrence of anxiety without an obvious external cause that affects daily functioning.
Anxiety disorder is different than normal anxiety that we all feel as a reaction to a stressful situation.
Three major types of anxiety disorders are
- Phobic disorder
- Panic disorder
- Generalized anxiety disorder
Specific phobia
is the intense, irrational fears
of specific objects or situations.
ex. Acrophobia - fear of heights or a more serious phobia - xenophobia (a fear of strangers)
Although the objective danger posed by an anxiety producing stimulus is typically small or nonexistent
(Specific phobia)
but to the individual suffering from the phobia the danger is great, and a full-blown panic attack may follow exposure to the stimulus.
Phobias may have only a minor impact on people’s lives
if those who suffer from them can avoid the stimuli that trigger fear.
Agoraphobia
Fear of places, such as unfamiliar or crowded spaces, where help might not be available in case of emergency
Ex. Person becomes housebound because any place other than the person’s home arouses extreme anxiety symptoms.
Specific Phobia:
Fear of specific objects, places, or situations
Animal type Phobia
Specific animals or insects
ex. Person has extreme fear of dogs, cats, or spiders
Natural environment type phobia
Events or situations in the natural environment
ex. Person has extreme fear of storms, heights, or water.
Situational type phobia
Public transportation, tunnels,
bridges, elevators, flying, driving
ex. Person becomes extremely claustrophobic in elevators.
Blood, injection, injury type phobia
ex. Person panics when viewing a child’s scraped knee.
Social phobia
Fear of being judged or embarrassed by others
ex. Person avoids all social situations and becomes a recluse for fear of
encountering others’ judgment.
Panic disorder
is the occurrence of panic attacks that last from a few seconds to a few hours.
Panic attacks seemingly come out of nowhere and are unconnected to any specific stimulus.
Unlike phobias, panic disorders
are not triggered by any identifiable stimulus;
instead, during an attack, anxiety suddenly (and often without warning) rises to a peak, and an individual feels a sense of impending, unavoidable doom.
Symptoms of Panic Disoders may include
heart palpitations, shortness of breath, unusual sweating, faintness and dizziness, an urge to urinate, gastric sensations, and (in extreme
cases) a sense of imminent death.
In addition to the physical symptoms, panic disorder
affects how the brain processes information
People with panic disorder have reduced reactions in the anterior cingulate
cortex to stimuli.
It may be that recurring high levels of emotional arousal that patients with panic
disorder experience, desensitizes them to emotional stimuli.
Because they don’t know what triggers their feelings of panic, victims of panic attacks
may become fearful of going places.
agoraphobia
Some people with panic disorder develop
(the fear of being in a situation in which escape is difficult and in which help for a possible panic attack would not be available).
Generalized anxiety disorder (GAD)
is the occurrence of long-term, persistent anxiety and worry.
Sometimes their concerns are about identifiable issues (Ex. family, money, work, or health).
Or In other cases, people with the disorder feel
that something dreadful is about to happen but can’t identify the reason, experiencing “free-floating” anxiety.
Due to the persistent anxiety, people with GAD
cannot concentrate, cannot set their worry and
fears aside; their lives become centred on their worry.
Their anxiety may eventually cause medical
problems.
Genetic factors
are linked to Anxiety Disordors
overactive autonomic nervous
system
may be at the root of panic attacks.
poor regulation of the brain’s locus coeruleus may lead to panic attacks, which cause the limbic system to become overstimulated.
the overstimulated limbic system
produces chronic anxiety, which ultimately leads the ** locus coeruleus ** to generate still more panic attacks.
The behavioural perspective emphasize environmental factors.
Consider anxiety to be a learned response to stress.
Ex. If a dog bites a young girl, when the girl next sees a dog, she is frightened and runs away—a
behaviour that relieves her anxiety and thereby reinforces her avoidance behaviour.
After repeated encounters with dogs in which she is reinforced for her avoidance behaviour, she may develop a full-fledged phobia regarding dogs.
Cognitive perspective suggests that anxiety disorders
grow out of inappropriate and inaccurate thoughts and beliefs about circumstances in a person’s world.
According to the cognitive perspective,
people’s maladaptive thoughts about the world are at the root of an anxiety disorder
Ex. People with anxiety disorders may view a friendly puppy as a ferocious and savage pit bull, or they may see an air disaster looming every moment they are in the vicinity of an airplane.
The trauma- and stressor-related disorders are
a class of disorders in which exposure to a traumatic or stressful event is an explicit diagnostic criteria.
This category includes reactive attachment disorder, acute stress disorder, and—most notably—post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD).
Post-traumatic stress disorder
is a serious psychological disorder that affects all aspects of an individual’s functioning.
key diagnostic criteria of PTSD is
exposure to trauma
A second diagnostic criteria of PTSD is
intrusion symptoms, such as the involuntary, intrusive recollection of the traumatic event.
These occur along a continuum from full flashbacks where the person enters a dissociative state to distressing unwanted thoughts to disturbing nightmares about the traumatic event(s).
Avoidance
is another diagnostic criteria for PTSD, whereby the individual will avoid external triggers or situations associated with the traumatic event(s).
This often leads to individuals with PTSD becoming increasingly socially isolated, and
usually impairs their ability to function in a significant way.
Another diagnostic criteria of PTSD involves disturbances in thinking and mood.
Cognitive distortions could include persistent negative beliefs (“I am never safe”) or
personalization (“that person left the party the second that I showed up because they hate me”).
The final diagnostic criteria of PTSD involves a disruptions in physiological arousal and reactivity.
This often manifests as hyper-vigilance, irritability, or self-destructive behaviours.
causes of PTSD are identified
within the diagnostic criteria: namely, the experience of trauma, which the
DSM defines as “exposure to actual or threatened death, serious injury, or sexual violence”.
PTSD was once referred to as shellshock or battle fatigue, because it was thought to occur only in veterans of active combat.
depending on a person’s perceptions of
the experience and their own individual vulnerability of traumatic experiences
can result in PTSD
But even the most traumatic of experiences cannot induce PTSD in everyone.
In fact, only a minority of veterans of active combat that experience traumatic experience will develop PTSD
Risk of developing PTSD ranges from 10% to 30%.
The risk of developing PTSD depends not only on the experience itself
but also on the individual’s neurological or genetic vulnerability, and past history of traumatic experiences.
This includes childhood experiences but also the experience of historical trauma
