Anxiety Flashcards
Definition?
- an unpleasant emotional state
- feel as if out of control of the world and themselves
What is anxiety characterized by?
- fearfulness
- distressing physical symptoms
Examples of physical symptoms?
- heart racing
- palpitations
- shaking
Example of phobia?
- agoraphobia (open spaces)
- claustrophobia (closed spaces)
When is a phobia diagnosed?
- when the fear is out of proportion to the actual threat of the stimulus
- recognized as being irrational
- disrupts everyday life
What is the amygdala responsible for?
- spotting dangers
- alerts body to activate fight/flight response
What is the biology of the fight/flight response?
- triggers adrenal gland
- heart races to get blood to limbs and body parts
- noradrenaline is released to go back to ‘normal’
Is there a genetic risk to anxiety?
- may be distribution of those with autonomic ability (laid back/ agitated)
- those with 1st degree relatives with agoraphobia have greater risk of the same
Is there evolutionary reasons for anxiety?
-need to be alerted to things around us quickly, those who can react quicker are more likely to survive
How can a phobia be conditioned?
-associate the stimulus with the feelings of fear or danger that was felt when being around it
How is a phobia reinforced?
- through avoidance
- the effect of reducing the arousal state
- increases the chances they avoid it in the next encounter
What are the 2 types of behavioural conditioning?
- operant
- classical
What is operant conditioning?
- learning through the use of positive/negative reinforcement and punishment
- increase/decrease the likelihood of behaviours being repeated
What is classical conditioning?
- associating a stimulus with a specific response
- UCS=UCR
- NS=NR
- UCS+NS=UCR
- CS=CR
What is vicarious conditioning?
- learning a fear through role models
- having fear be reinforced by others
- may be media influence (e.g. horror films)
What is systematic desensitisation?
- treatment for phobia
- unlearning the fear response through associating the stimulus with calm (through coping responses of breathing etc)
What is flooding?
- treatment for phobia
- highest form of stimulus and waits till the patient calms
Definition of desensitisation?
- process of exposure to items of an hierarchy
- given skills to become mindful of responses so they’re able to control it
What is GAD?
- generalized anxiety disorder
- fears over not being able to cope
- triggered by stressful events
- co-morbidity with depression
What is Panic Disorder?
- panic attacks
- common co-morbidity with other specific anxiety disorders/ depression
What is PTSD?
- post traumatic stress disorder
- person has directly experienced or witnessed a serious threat/ injury
- can be one off or continuous trauma
What is PTSD characterised by?
- bi-modal reactions
- go back and forth between the states
What are bi-modal reactions?
- fight/flight (flashbacks/nightmares, hypervigilance, hyper arousal)
- freeze (avoidance behaviour, numb/blunted affect)
What are the biological mechanisms for PTSD?
- biological readiness for fear conditioning
- altered state of readiness cycle due to elevated stress
- Autonomic nervous system (switching between sympathetic (fight/flight) and parasympathetic (rest/digest) systems)
What are the psychological mechanisms for PTSD?
- cognitive-behavioural
- fear conditioning and avoidance learning
- how they experience a shift in self efficacy (sense of control) and risk of negative beliefs
What factors contribute to PTSD?
- pre-morbid history
- being female
- nature/severity of event
Course and duration of PTSD?
- symptoms last more than 1 month
- typically begin within 3 months of the event
- recovery varies
What are the treatments for PTSD?
- CBT
- psychosocial rehabilitation
- group therapy
- medication
- debriefing
- eye movement desensitisation
