16.2 Anxiety Disorders

1. 16.2 Anxiety Disorders • Anxiety: a vague, generalized apprehension or feeling that one is in danger. • -out of proportion to the situation • -most common mental illness: 40 million American annually. • Anxiety Disorders Include: • Generalized anxiety disorder, phobic disorder, panic disorder, obsessive-compulsive disorder, and post-traumatic stress disorder.

2. Panic attacks can include: Choking sensations, chest pain, dizziness, trembling, and hot flashes. Why? -some theorists stress the role of learning in producing anxiety. -some believe it is partly inherited. -environmental factors: such as traumatic experiences in childhood. -uncertainties of modern life. Phobia: an intense and irrational fear of a particular object or situation.

3. Specific phobias:can focus on almost anything including high places (acrophobia), or enclosed spaces (claustrophobia). • Social Phobias: fear that they will embarrass themselves in a public place or social setting. • Agoraphobia: fear of open spaces. • Panic Disorder: an extreme anxiety that manifests itself in the form of panic attacks.

4. -during a panic attack, a victim experiences sudden and unexplainable attacks of intense anxiety, leaving the individual to feel a sense of inevitable doom. • Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder: • Obsessions: a recurring thought or image that seems to be beyond control. • Compulsions: an apparently irresistible urge to repeat an act or engage in ritualistic behavior such as hand washing.

5. Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) disorder in which victims of traumatic events experience the original event in the form of dreams or flashbacks. • Common among: veterans, survivors of terrorism, natural disasters, or other catastrophes. • Symptoms: involuntary flashbacks or recurring nightmares. • *Social support may protect a victim of trauma from psychological aftereffects. • -18% of American soldiers who fought in Iraq will develop PTSD.