Understanding Anxiety Disorders: Causes, Symptoms, and Classification

1. Agenda – Day 2 No hall passes until after lecture material has been covered!  • To Get: • Guided notes • Your seat • To Do: • Opener • Anxiety Disorders • Viewing Examples • Application: personal anxiety Big Idea – Identifying, Symptoms, and Classifying Anxiety Disorders Guiding Question – How does anxiety differ from fear? I can… Understand caused and symptoms of ANXIETY disorders and the explanations for why they exist.

3. Opener:Explain these four factors of anxiety disorder in simple terms and give an example. Key Terms – genetic, childhood, learning, and cognitive

4. Anxiety Disorders Anxiety • General state of dread or uneasiness in response to vague or imagined danger • Characterized: • Nervousness • inability to relax • concern about losing control • Overactivity of the sympathetic branch of the ANS (autonomic nervous system) • Anxiety is NORMAL, at certain times and in certain amounts, and prepares a person mentally and physically for stressful life situations • (testing, sports, competition, job interview, getting the courage to talk to that gorgeous guy in your psych class, etc.) • Anxiety becomes a disorder when it affects daily life and causes emotional discomfort • Most common of ALL disorders in the U.S.

5. Types of Anxiety Disorders Phobic Disorder • Phobia – Greek for “fear” • Simple Phobia – most common, excessive/persistent irrational fear of particular object or situation • Creates avoidance behavior interferes with daily life • Ex. (why are these terms in Greek?) • Zoophobia: fear of animals • Claustrophobia: fear of enclosed spaces • Acrophobia: fear of heights • Arachnophobia: fear of spiders • Exposure to subject of fear causes people to be anxious and lead to avoidance behavior • Most people with simple phobias never seek treatment • Social Phobia – fear of social situations and fear of being embarrassed or humiliated causing avoidance behavior • Can include ALL social situations or only specific things like public speaking, eating, or dating Doc Martin – hematophobia clip 7:20-9:30 Season 1 Ep. 6

6. Types of Anxiety Disorders Panic Disorder and Agoraphobia • Experience recurring and unexpected panic attacks • Panic Attack – short period of intense fear or discomfort • Shortness of breath • Dizziness • Rapid heart rate • Trembling or shaking • Sweating • Choking • nausea • Can last a few minutes to several hours, causes increased anxiety of future attacks • Linked to agoraphobia – fear of being in places/situations without escape – crowded spaces, shopping malls, movie theaters, etc. (bus in Ireland) • Panic attacks occur when they cannot avoid the situations they fear • Can lead to avoid crowded spaces or, in extreme cases, never leaving home • Panic attack clip - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_qo4uPxhUzU

7. Types of Anxiety Disorders Generalized Anxiety Disorder (GAD) • Excessive worry about life circumstances that lasts for AT LEAST six months • Typically worry is about finances, work, interpersonal problems, accidents, or illness • Most common of all anxiety disorders • Usually people do not seek treatment as it is does not differ, except in intensity, from average everyday problems • Occurs in conjunction with other anxiety disorders

8. Types of Anxiety Disorders Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder (OCD) • Most well-known of anxiety disorders • Obsessions – unwanted thought, ideas, or mental images that are recurring • Can be senseless or repulsive • People try to repress or ignore, typically leads to compulsions to suppress obsessive thoughts • Compulsions – repetitive behaviors that often involve checking or cleaning something Ex. – obsessed with safety – can’t go to sleep until all doors and windows have been checked and rechecked several times Ex. - germs and cleanliness – fear of germs, in one case, caused a woman to wash her hands almost 500 times daily. • People with OCD are aware their worries are unjustified and this distinguishes their behavior form someone with delusions • Compulsions are time consuming and interfere with daily life OCD Clip - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KOami82xKec

9. Types of Anxiety Disorders Stress Disorders 2 types – similar symptoms but differ in how quickly they occur after a traumatic event and how long symptoms last • Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) • Intense, persistent anxiety from a traumatic experience • Ex. Rape, severe child abuse, assault, severe accident, airplane crash, natural disasters, war, and terror attacks • Common among those who’ve experienced extensive trauma (9/11) • Symptoms include flashbacks, nightmares, emotional numbness, avoidance of stimuli (loud noises, helicopters, funerals, etc.) and increased tension • Symptoms appear 6 months or more following event, can last for years/decades depending on severity of the trauma • Acute stress disorder • Short term but with symptoms similar to PTSD • Symptoms occur almost immediately or within a month of the traumatic event • May persist for a few days or weeks

10. PTSD Documentary • https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NkWwZ9ZtPEI – graphic 1. When confronted with nightmares and flashbacks, what did he do? 2. Describe his behavior when driving down the street. 3. What sort of sounds triggered flashbacks? 4. What sort of routines triggered flashbacks? 5. Describe the scene of him leaving his apartment – why was it so difficult? 6. What finally gave him some comfort? 7. Read some of the comments posted below the video – what sort of people found a commonality in his experience and/or comfort in his depiction of PTSD?

11. Explaining Anxiety Disorders Psychological Views • Psychoanalytic Theory (influential but mostly historical thinking today) • Result of repressed “forbidden” childhood urges (in subconscious) • As repressed urges surface they may present as obsessions that lead to compulsive behavior • Ex. “dirty” sexual thoughts may result in repetitive handwashing • Learning Theorists • Phobias are conditioned or learned in childhood • Being lost, frightened, or seeing phobic behavior in others • Copes by avoiding phobic situations; never develops ways to deal with phobia • Cognitive Theorist • Believe people MAKE THEMSELVES feel anxious by responding negatively to most situations • Helpless to control what happens to them

12. Explaining Anxiety Disorders Biological Views • Influence of hereditary factors • 45% chance of anxiety disorders showing up in identical twin studies • Present in twins reared apart and adopted child/biological parents • Belief that people are genetically inclined to fear things that threatened ancestors • Such as large animals, snakes, heights, and sharp objects • Aided in survival and later reproduction of a species (Darwin and Functional Anthropology) Think of your own example…

13. Explaining Anxiety Disorders Interaction of Factors • Combination of biological and psychological factors • Ex. Panic Disorder • Biologically based tendency to overreact psychologically to physical sensations • Initial symptoms of fear induce further panic – shortness of breath, increased heart rate lead to greater distress – panic due to simply being afraid • Like being irrationally jumpy after watching a scary movie • Predisposition to anxiety disorders can lead to a greater anxiety of future attacks (self-fulfilling – I have had panic attacks before therefore I make myself have a panic attack by being afraid of having a panic attack) • Most people with anxiety disorders respond well to treatment

14. Exit Slip – Write – Think - Discuss -Write clearly and in complete sentences so that others may read your writing! -Use detail! 1. What is something that causes you high levels of stress? 2. What is something that you have to prepare yourself for, mentally and physically, that causes you stress? What are some of the symptoms of this stress? 3. When you are stressed out about something, what is one way you calm yourself down so it does not affect the rest of your day?

15. On the back of your opener… • Which disorder is repetitive behavior? • Which disorder is based on irrational fear of an object or situation? • What is the most common of all anxiety disorders? • Everyone has anxiety at some point; what makes it a disorder?

16. Crash Course Review – OCD and Anxiety