midterm 1 study Flashcards
stress vs anxiety
Stress is a response to a threat in a situation
Stress comes from the pressures we feel in life
Anxiety is a reaction to stress
Anxiety may continue after that stressor is gone
Anxiety is a feeling of apprehension or fear
what is anxiety
an emotion without a specific object, subjectively experienced by the individual
A diffuse apprehension,
vague
uncertainty and helplessness
uneasiness and discomfort
A feeling of terror or dread
Occurs as a result of a threat to a person’s being, self-esteem or identity
normal anxiety responses
Normal response to anxiety consists of three parts:
- Physiologic arousal (fight or flight response – signal of a threat/stressor)
- Cognitive processes (identification of a threat and whether it should be approached or avoided)
- Coping strategies (strategies employed to resolve the threat)
Normal anxiety may be experienced in anticipation to a stressful event or as resulting from this event (mild anxiety)
abnormal anxiety levels
Mild Anxiety
- Associated with tensions of daily living
Moderate Anxiety
- Person focuses on immediate concerns, narrowing of perceptual field
- Person hears, sees, grasps less
Severe Anxiety
- Significant reduction in perceptual field (person focuses on specific detail and not anything else)
- All activity directed to relieving anxiety
- Focused on self, environment blocked out, sense of pending doom
panic
what happens
Associated with awe, dread, terror
- Person unable to do things even with direction
- loss of rational thought
- Distorted perception, emotionally paralyzed
- Unable to communicate and function
Anger vs rage
Anger: normal emotional response that can be released appropriately or inappropriately, suppressed over periods of time (bullying, cyberbullying, oppression), or controlled in its release.
Rage: Uncontrollable state of anger. Thinking is illogical and unclear. Behavioural interventions are useless.
Etiology – Expression of Anger
Biological
Brain tumors, dementia, severe behavioural disorders,
Neurotransmitters/hormones: Low serotonin, high level of dopamine, combination of high testosterone and low cortisol, etc.
Psychological
Reaction to a perceived threat to the self or environment
Locus of control (internal or external)
Cognition (how we view ourselves in relation to others)
Social
Anger = social learning (parents, video games, social media, etc.)
**Be careful with cultural differences in the way anger is expressed
Es of trauma
Event
Experience
Effect
ACE study findings
ACE Scores (0-10)
Score of 4 or more:
2x as likely to smoke
7 x as likely to have struggles with alcohol
10 x as likely to have injected illicit street drugs
12 x as likely to have attempted suicide
Found that for each additional adverse experience reported, the damage in later life increases
important concepts
ethnocentrism, acculturation, assimilation
Ethnocentrism:
Perception that our values and behaviours are superior to others
Acculturation:
Learning and adopting beliefs, values and practices of a cultural setting different from ours.
Assimilation:
Adoption of beliefs, values and practices of a new culture to the point where they become more natural than the ones from their culture of origin
agression and violence
Aggression: Emotion that results in a verbal or physical attack.
Violence: Aggression with the intent to harm. It includes psychological, emotional, damage to property, suicide and self-harm.
sexual assault (rape trauma syndrome) acute phase
Acute phase: immediately after rape and lasts 2-3 weeks
Disorganisation in the person’s life
Somatic symptoms are common
Shock, numbness & disbelief – dissociation
Impaired cognitive functions (memory, attention, decision making, etc.)
Possible hysteria,
sexual assault (rape trauma syndrome) long term phase
Long-term phase: 2 or more weeks after the rape
Intrusive thoughts of the sexual assault (visions, flashbacks, etc.)
Increased activity due to fear that perpetrator will return (trips, talking to friends, etc.)
(Lability) – anxiety, mood swings, crying, depression
Disruption of sex life
anxiety related disorder
Panic disorder
Panic Disorder (Panic Attacks)
Discrete episodes of intense anxiety that begin abruptly and reach a peak within minutes.
Intense feeling of impending doom, apprehension.
panic pharmacotherapies and psychotherapies
Psychotherapies
CBT = first-line treatment in panic disorder.
Systematic desensitization (Phobias)
Exposure therapy (Phobias)
Modelling (Phobias)
Pharmacotherapy
Benzodiazepine treatment (acute phase)
SSRI treatment (maintenance)
