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Module 66 – Anxiety Disorders. Anxiety Disorders
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Module 66 – Anxiety Disorders Anxiety Disorders • Every person experiences the characteristics of anxiety: worrying, apprehension, and increases physical arousal. An anxious individual will have a hard time concentrating or relaxing as his mind is preoccupied with what is worrying him or her. In time, anxiety-causing stimuli disappear. The individual’s body will then return to a relaxed state, and he or she will likely be able to concentrate on other tasks once again. However, anxiety disorders involve more extreme symptoms and do not often just disappear. Anxiety disorders are characterized by extreme feelings of apprehension, which disrupt functioning, and are present for a long time. People show that they are not able to control their emotions or responses when confronted with anxiety-provoking stimuli. Even if a person understands that the stimuli cannot cause him or her harm, he or she may be unable to relax. Lastly, and sometimes most harmfully, anxiety disorders disrupt daily functioning. A person experiencing an anxiety disorder may not be able to think clearly, take care of himself or herself, maintain relationships, or function properly at work.
66.1 – Identify the different anxiety disorders. Anxiety Disorders 1. Generalized Anxiety Disorder: Mild anxiety not connected to any particular object or situation that tends to last for a long period of time. Includes fatigue, irritability, and the belief that something terrible is going to happen. (Also referred to as free-floating anxiety). Example - general anxiety all the time and in most situations. 2. Panic Disorder: Involves sudden occurrence of panic attacks: rapid heart rate, heavy breathing, dizziness, sweating, and fainting. Example – fear that a panic attack is going to happen, increasing the likelihood that one will occur, which can lead to agoraphobia, not leaving home. 3. Phobia: Irrational fear of an object or situation that doesn’t warrant such fear, resulting in avoidance of the object or situation. Example – Specific phobia: a phobia that involves a particular fear; avoidance of animals, fear of heights (acrophobia), for example. Social phobia: irrational fears related to social situations, fear of being criticized by others. Agoraphobia: irrational fear of open, public places, can lead to one’s staying at home all the time.
66.2 – Describe obsessive-compulsive disorder. 4. Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder (OCD): Involves repetitive thoughts (obsessions) that often lead to ritualistic and repetitive behaviors (compulsions). Example: an obsessive thought that one is contaminated with germs may lead to washing one’s hands repeatedly and ritualistically.
66.3 – Describe posttraumatic stress disorder. 5. Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD): Symptoms of anxiety in response to extreme physical or psychological trauma, causing the person to avoid any situations that resemble the trauma. Example: Some Vietnam War veterans developed PTSD associated with the trauma from the war and have frequent memory recurrences, avoid situations and stimuli that trigger memories of the war, and experience extreme physical arousal associated with those memories.
66.4 – Describe how the learning and biological perspectives explain anxiety disorders, OCD, and PTSD. Causes of Anxiety Disorders (Biological Perspective and Learning Perspective) • Biologically, most anxiety disorder run in families. People tend to be predisposed to an anxiety disorder if another family member has been diagnosed with one. Studies of twins have shown that if one identical twin develops an anxiety disorder, the other twin has an increased chance of developing one as well. Researchers have found that some people inherit predispositions that cause the autonomic nervous system to overreact to stressful stimuli.
66.4 – Describe how the learning and biological perspectives explain anxiety disorders, OCD, and PTSD. Causes of Anxiety Disorders (Biological Perspective and Learning Perspective) • Research has also shown that people with anxiety disorders have predispositions, which affect certain neurotransmitters in the brain (biological perspective). Norepinephrine, a neurotransmitter linked with arousal, tends to be overactive in people experiencing anxiety disorders. This overactivity could explain the onset of panic attacks. Serotonin, a neurotransmitter involved in the regulation of sleep and mood, shows a lack of functioning in people exhibiting anxiety disorders. Serotonin has been linked to obsessive-compulsive disorder and social phobias. GABA, an inhibitory neurotransmitter, has also been implicated in anxiety disorders. There appears to be a deficiency of this neurotransmitter in individuals diagnosed with anxiety disorder, which could account for the racing thoughts.
66.4 – Describe how the learning and biological perspectives explain anxiety disorders, OCD, and PTSD. Causes of Anxiety Disorders (Biological Perspective and Learning Perspective) • Psychological factors could also play a role in the onset of anxiety disorders. For example, some parents model the characteristics of anxiety disorders for their children (learning perspective). They may have trouble leaving the house and may be overly concerned about certain events and situations. Through observational learning, children, in turn, adopt this behavior. A lack of perceived control could lead to symptoms associated with anxiety disorders. People who don’t believe they have control over certain events and situations may develop habits associated with isolation or may learn to avoid certain stimuli.
66.4 – Describe how the learning and biological perspectives explain anxiety disorders, OCD, and PTSD. Causes of Anxiety Disorders (Biological Perspective and Learning Perspective) • Anxiety disorders could also be the result of conditioning. Watson and Rayner demonstrated with their experiment on “Little Albert” that fear could be conditioned. Albert was conditioned to be fearful of a rat, although he originally did not have this fear. The experiment involved associating a white rat with a stimulus, a loud sound that naturally causes fear. Albert eventually developed a fear of the white rat and any stimuli that resembled a rat. Certain people experiencing anxiety disorders, especially phobias, learned fear the way Little Albert did. These people developed fears of certain stimuli, which were just associated with, or occurred during, a traumatic experience. In other words, these associated fears were in fact conditioned or learned fears associated with something that naturally caused fear. For example, a person who was in a car accident and developed a resulting fear of driving might also associate the fear with any stimuli that coincided with the accident. This might include avoiding the same route, listening to the radio, or even wearing the same outfit worn on the day of the accident. People also tend to generalize their fears, in the way that Little Albert generalized his fear to any stimuli that resembles a white rat. In short, some people have a biological predisposition to certain anxiety disorders, but psychological factors, such as thinking and learning styles, affect the likelihood of an anxiety disorder actually developing.
