Mental and Physical Health Chapter 5 Part 5

Module 5.4 Selection of Categories of Psychological Disorders What is an anxiety disorder? The anxiety disorders are marked by distressing, persistent anxiety or maladaptive behaviors that reduce anxiety. For example, social anxiety disorder is extreme fear and avoidance of social settings. Many patients fear something awful will happen to them, thus they are in a state of intense apprehension, uneasiness, uncertainty, or fear. Specific anxiety disorders include the following: ● ● ● ● ● Generalized Panic Phobia OCD PTSD Generalized Anxiety Disorder Generalized anxiety disorder (or GAD) is an anxiety disorder in which a person is continually tense, apprehensive, and in a state of autonomic nervous system arousal. The patient is constantly tense and worried, feels inadequate, is oversensitive, can’t concentrate and suffers from insomnia; all of this without any apparent reason. Panic Disorder Panic disorder is an anxiety disorder marked by unpredictable, minutes-long episodes of intense dread in which a person may experience terror and accompanying chest pain, choking, or other frightening sensations often followed by worry over a possible next attack. Some with panic disorder experience agoraphobia, or the fear and avoidance of situations, such as crowds or wide open places, where one has felt loss of control or panic. Phobias A phobia is a persistent, irrational fear and avoidance of a specific object, activity, or situation. We all have fears, but it is not classified as a phobia unless we have an extreme reaction to it. Fear of spiders, or arachnophobia, is relatively common. If you see a live spider, scream, and urge someone to kill it, that’s not a phobia. If you bolt from the room when someone draws a cartoon spider during Pictionary, it’s a phobia. Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder Obsessive-compulsive disorder, or OCD, is an anxiety disorder marked by unwanted repetitive thoughts (obsessions), actions (compulsions), or both. Can your foods touch? Do you have to check the locks a certain number of times before leaving the house? Is there a nighttime ritual that must be followed exactly or you can’t sleep? These behaviors are characteristic of those suffering from OCD. Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder Post-traumatic stress disorder (or PTSD) is characterized by haunting memories, nightmares, hypervigilance, social withdrawal, jumpy anxiety, numbness of feeling, and/or insomnia that lingers for four weeks or more after a traumatic experience. Let’s say you get into a serious car accident. Thankfully, you’re okay, but your car was destroyed and the paramedics tell you you’re lucky to be alive. For weeks after the accident, you refuse to drive a car, are ill with anxiety as a passenger, have nightmares reliving the accident, and start trembling at the sound of car horns. This would be an example of PTSD. Understanding Anxiety Disorders: Explanations from Different Perspectives Psychodynam ic/ Freudian: repressed impulses Classical conditioning: overgeneralizin g a conditioned response Observation al learning: worrying like mom Cognitive appraisals: uncertainty and the unknown equals danger Operant conditioning : rewarding avoidance Evolutionary : surviving by avoiding danger What is a mood disorder? A mood disorder is characterized by extreme or inappropriate emotions. ● Major Depressive Disorder ● Bipolar Disorder Depressive Disorders vs. Bipolar Disorders