Anxiety Disorders

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Anxiety Disorders

• Kimberley Clow
• kclow2_at_uwo.ca
• http//instruct.uwo.ca/psychology/155b

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Outline

• Finish Theory Methods Lecture
• Humanistic to End
• Anxiety Disorders
• Phobias
• Specific
• Social
• Agoraphobia
• Panic Disorder
• Agoraphobia connection
• Obsessive Compulsive Disorder
• Generalized Anxiety Disorder
• Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder

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Phobias

• Different phobias seem to emerge at different
  ages
• Related to experience?
• 3 Main Types
• Specific Phobias
• Social Phobias
• Agoraphobia

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Specific Phobias

• 4 Major Subtypes
• Animal
• Natural Environment
• Blood, Illness, Injections
• Situations

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Social Phobia

• Excessive fear of social situations in which a
  person might be evaluated and possibly
  embarrassed
• Public speaking
• Meeting strangers
• Using public washrooms
• Eating in public
• Eating while people are watching you

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Agoraphobia

• An intense fear of being in public places where
  escape or help may not be readily available
• Crowded places
• Driving on a bridge or tunnel
• Using the subway
• Enclosed spaces

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Causes?

• Psychoanalysis
• Phobias occur when unconscious sexual impulses
  threaten to emerge into consciousness
• Cognitive Behavioural Therapy (CBT)
• Phobias are acquired through classical
  conditioning and maintained through operant
  conditioning
• Biological Approach
• People are biologically prepared to develop
  certain fears

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Diatheses Stress Model
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Panic Disorder
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Causes?

• Biological Factors
• Genetics
• Suffocation False Alarm Theory
• Cognitive Factors
• Misperceive regular body sensations as
  potentially dangerous events
• Again, it is our interpretations that cause our
  emotions and behaviour

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Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder

• Have you ever tried NOT to think of something?
• Food when dieting?
• An ex after a break-up?
• Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder
• Involves recurrent obsessions or compulsions that
  are serious enough to adversely affect a person's
  life

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Most Common Obsessions

• Fear of contacting dirt, germs, or of touching
  infected people or objects
• Disgust over body waste or secretions
• Undue concern that a job has not been done
  adequately, even when the person knows that it
  was done well
• Fear of committing a crime or hurting someone
• Fear of shouting obscenities or insults
• Fear of thinking antireligious or sexual thoughts

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Causes?

• Biological Factors
• Genetics
• CBT
• Learned an inappropriate and now vicious
  reinforcement cycle that is difficult to break

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Generalized Anxiety Disorder (GAD)

• Excessive worry and anxiety
• What causes someone to be a Worry Wart?

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Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder
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Causes?

• Biological Factors
• Pysiological Hyperreactivity
• Family Systems
• Family instability
• Cognitive Factors
• Shattering Assumptions
• Other Factors
• Preexisting Distress
• Coping Style
• Social Support

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Frequency of Anxiety Disorders
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Treatment of Anxiety Disorders

• Cognitive Behavioural Therapy
• Exposure is key
• Baby steps
• Work through trauma for PTSD
• Pair with relaxation training
• Debate irrational thoughts
• That symptoms are catastrophic (Panic Disorder)
• That stimulus is harmful (Phobia)
• Drugs
• Medication without CBT has proven to be only
  temporarily helpful
• Many negative side-effects and some are addictive
• Relapse is common

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Treatment of OCD in Particular

• In addition to the therapy in the movie
• Medication
• SSRIs
• Helps up to 60 of patients High relapse
• CBT
• Exposure and Response Prevention (ERP)
• Psychosurgery
• Lesion to the cingulate bundle
• Succeeds in approximately 30 of cases