GAD Flashcards
Name the three critical components that are risk factors that maintain GAD.
Intolerance of uncertainty (IU), cognitive control, and attentional control
Define IU (intolerance of uncertainty)
Client’s “dispositional incapacity to endure the aversive response triggered by the perceived absence of salient, key, or sufficient information, and sustained by the associated perception of uncertainty” (Carleton, 2016a, p. 31). Doubt is often the outcome of the anxieties surrounding the client’s interactions in the environment.
Doubt is a key core symptom for obsessive-compulsive disorder. Anxiety can be a source or the outcome of the doubt.
Define cognitive control
The processes involved in
regulating, coordinating, and sequencing thoughts and actions to accomplish a goal (Braver,
2012).
Define attentional control
The ability to regulate control in the face of distractions and to disengage, shift, and focus attention on current goals (Saulnier et al., 2021)
Most common morbidities of GAD
Major depressive disorder (MDD), bipolar disorder (BD), and substance use disorder (SUD)
What is the core symptom of GAD?
Worry
Why is worry considered an illusion for the client?
Worry is the core symptom for GAD and is often an illusion because there is a tendency to predict negative outcomes in the form of catastrophic conditions. The client’s illusions of uncertainty and unpredictability are often a client’s thoughts that become internal stressors. Thus, the function of worry is thought to decrease the perceived likelihood of negative events and to decrease a sense of uncertainty.
What are overt avoidance behaviors?
Procrastination, reassurance seeking, over preparation, and information seeking. These are used to gain a greater sense of certainty. Overt means action you can see it, record it on a video.
What are covert avoidances?
Cognitions involving schemas, beliefs, cognitive biases, and cognitive avoidance strategies.
What is attention training and what is it helpful for?
Attention training (ATT) is used to regulate the client’s attention in the face of distractions and inhibitions to develop the ability to disengage, shift, and focus attention based on the client’s current goals. Attention training is helpful for intrusive and negative thoughts. It reduces self-focused attention, increases flexibility and modifies performance on an emotional attention set-shifting task (Callinan, Johnson, & Wells, 2015; Ren et al., 2021; Saulnier et al., 2021).
How does a lack of self-compassion relate to GAD?
Clients experiencing GAD express negative evaluations of their internal experiences (thoughts, emotions, and psychological sensations) and use avoidance/escape for the distress. As a result, they lack self-compassion toward their internal experiences.
