Anxiety Flashcards
What is anxiety?
A feeling of apprehension, uneasiness, uncertainty, or dread resulting from a real or perceived threat.
How does anxiety differ from fear?
Fear is a reaction to a specific danger; fight or flight response.
What constitutes as ‘normal’ anxiety?
Temporary or motivational, promotes constructive behaviors.
What is acute anxiety?
Precipitated by imminent real or potential loss that threatens sense of security; triggered by an acute stressor.
What is pathological anxiety?
Intense emotional response that persists after threat is resolved; response becomes generalized to benign situations.
What is mild anxiety?
This first level of anxiety occurs in the normal experience of everyday living and allows people to perceive reality in sharp focus.
What are symptoms of mild anxiety?
Nail-biting, tapping, foot jitters, irritability.
What is moderate anxiety?
Selective inattention; narrow perception.
What are symptoms of moderate anxiety?
Pounding heart, tension, increased pulse and respirations.
What is severe anxiety?
Bad perception; overly focused on particular details; hyperventilation and sense of doom.
What is panic level of anxiety?
Lose touch of reality; screaming or extreme withdrawal.
What is the nursing priority for panic level of anxiety?
Acute panic can lead to exhaustion.
What are interventions for mild to moderate anxiety?
Don’t introduce irrelevant topics; remain calm; recognize their distress.
What are interventions for severe to panic levels of anxiety?
Always stay with the patient; move person to quiet environment; encourage gross motor activities; speak slowly and wait for responses.
What are symptoms of panic?
Dilated pupils, experience of terror, unintelligible communication.
What is altruism?
Emotional conflicts and stressors are addressed by meeting the needs of others.
What is sublimation?
Channels negative thoughts into socially acceptable activities.
What is suppression?
Conscious denial of a disturbing situation.
What is repression?
Exclusion of unpleasant experiences.
What is displacement?
Transferring emotions from the original source to another.
What is reaction formation?
Defense mechanism by which people behave in a way opposite to what their true emotions are.
What is somatization?
Repressed anxiety demonstrated in the form of physical symptoms.
What is undoing?
Performing an action to make up for a previous behavior.
What is rationalization?
Justifying unreasonable ideas or actions.
