Chapter 5 - Definitions

Question 1

Anxiety

Answer 1

Mood state characterised by marked negative affect and bodily symptoms of tension in which a person apprehensively anticipates future danger or misfortune. Anxiety may involve feelings, behaviours and physiological responses.

Question 2

Panic

Answer 2

Sudden, overwhelming fright or terror.

Question 3

Panic Attack

Answer 3

Abrupt experience of intense fear or discomfort accompanied by a number of physical symptoms, such as dizziness or heart palpitations.

Question 4

Behavioural Inhibition System (BIS)

Answer 4

Brain circuit in the limbic system that responds to threat signals by inhibiting activity and causing anxiety.

Question 5

Fight/Flight System

Answer 5

Brain circuit in animals that, when stimulated, causes an immediate alarm and escape response resembling human panic.

Question 6

Generalised Anxiety Disorder (GAD)

Answer 6

Anxiety disorder characterised by intense, uncontrollable, unfocused, chronic and continuous worry that is distressing and unproductive, accompanied by physical symptoms of tenseness, irritability and restlessness.

Question 7

Panic Disorder (PD)

Answer 7

Recurrent unexpected panic attacks accompanied by concern about future attacks and/or a lifestyle change to avoid future attacks.

Question 8

Agoraphobia

Answer 8

Anxiety disorder characterised by anxiety about being in places or situations from which escape might be difficult in the event of panic symptoms or other unpleasant physical symptoms (e.g., incontinence).

Question 9

Specific Phobia

Answer 9

Unreasonable fear of a specific object or situation that markedly interferes with daily life functioning.

Question 10

Blood-Injection-Injury Phobia

Answer 10

Unreasonable fear and avoidance of exposure to blood, injury or the possibility of an injection. Victims experience fainting and a drop in blood pressure.

Question 11

Situational Phobia

Answer 11

Anxiety involving enclosed places (for example, claustrophobia) or public transportation (for example, fear of flying).

Question 12

Natural Environment Phobia

Answer 12

Fear of situations or events in nature, especially heights, storms and water.

Question 13

Animal Phobia

Answer 13

Unreasonable, enduring fear of animals or insects that usually develops early in life.

Question 14

Separation Anxiety Disorder

Answer 14

Excessive, enduring fear in some individuals that harm will come to them or their loved ones when they are apart.

Question 15

Social Anxiety Disorder

Answer 15

(also called social phobia) Extreme, enduring, irrational fear and avoidance of social or performance situations.

Question 16

Selective Mutism

Answer 16

Developmental disorder characterised by the individual’s consistent failure to speak in specific social situations despite speaking in other situations.

Question 17

Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder

Answer 17

Enduring, distressing emotional disorder that follows exposure to severe helplessness or a fear-inducing threat. The victim relives the trauma, avoids stimuli associated with it and develops a numbing of responsiveness and an increased vigilance and arousal.

Question 18

Acute Stress Disorder

Answer 18

Severe reaction immediately following a terrifying event, often including amnesia about the event, emotional numbing, and derealisation. If symptoms persist beyond one month, victims are diagnosed with post-traumatic stress disorder.

Question 19

Reactive Attachment Disorder

Answer 19

Attachment disorder in which a child with disturbed behaviour neither seeks out a caregiver nor responds to offers of help from one; fearfulness and sadness are often evident.

Question 20

Disinhibited Social Engagement Disorder

Answer 20

Condition in which a child shows no inhibitions whatsoever in approaching adults.

Question 21

Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder (OCD)

Answer 21

Disorder involving unwanted, persistent, intrusive thoughts and impulses, as well as repetitive actions intended to suppress them.

Question 22

Obsessions

Answer 22

Recurrent intrusive thoughts or impulses the client seeks to suppress or neutralise while recognising they are not imposed by outside forces.

Question 23

Compulsions

Answer 23

Repetitive, ritualistic, time-consuming behaviours or mental acts a person feels driven to perform to suppress obsessions.

Question 24

Body Dysmorphic Disorder (BDD)

Answer 24

Disorder featuring a disruptive preoccupation with some imagined defect in appearance (‘imagined ugliness’). Now classified among obsessive-compulsive and related disorders; previously grouped with DSM-IV somato-form disorders.

Question 25

Trichotillomania

Answer 25

People’s urge to pull out their own hair from anywhere on the body, including the scalp, eyebrows and arm.

Question 26

Excoriation (Skin Picking) Disorder

Answer 26

Recurrent, diffifficult-to-control picking of one’s skin leading to significant impairment, distress and scarring.