CHAPTER 8: Anxiety Disorders, OCD, and Trauma/ Stress

Acute Stress Disorder

An anxiety disorder that develops after a traumatic event, and lasts for up to 1 month with symptoms such as depersonalization, numbing, dissociative amnesia, intense anxiety, hypervigilance, and impairment of everyday functioning

Agoraphobia

Intense anxiety triggered by the real or anticipated exposure to situations in which individuals may be unable to get help should they become incapacitated

Anxiety

A future-oriented and global response, involving both cognitive and emotional components in which an individual is inordinately apprehensive, tense, and uneasy about the prospect of something terrible happening

Anxiety Disorders

Disorders characterized by excessive fear and anxiety and related disturbances in behaviour

Anxiety Sensitivity Theory

The belief that panic disorder is caused in part by the tendency to interpret cognitive and somatic manifestations of stress and anxiety in a catastrophic manner

Body Dysmorphic Disorder (BDD)

A disorder in which individuals are preoccupied with the idea that a part of their body is ugly or defective

Complex Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder

Diagnosis in ICD-11 used to apply to individuals who suffer prolonged exposure to severe stressors or multiple and repeated adverse events from which they cannot escape

Compulsion

A repetitive and seemingly purposeful behaviour performed in response to uncontrollable urges or according to a ritualistic or stereotyped set of rules

Conditioned Fear Reactions

Acquired associations between an internal or external cue and feelings of intense anxiety

Disinhibited Social Engagement Disorder

Diagnosis given to children who engage in culturally inappropriate, overly familiar behaviour with people who are relative strangers

Excoriation (Skin Picking) Disorder

Recurrent picking at one’s own skin

Fear

The emotional response to real or perceived imminent threat

Flooding

A behavioural technique in which the client is immersed in the sensation of anxiety by being exposed to the feared situation in its entirety

Generalized Anxiety Disorder

An anxiety disorder characterized by anxiety and worry that is not associated with a particular object, situation, or event but seems to be a constant feature of a person’s day-to-day existence

Graded In Vivo

A procedure in which clients gradually expose themselves to increasingly challenging anxiety-provoking situations

Hoarding Disorder

A disorder in which people have persistent difficulties discarding things, even if they have little value

Imaginal Flooding

A behavioural technique in which the client is immersed through imagination into the feared situation

In Vivo Flooding

A behavioural technique in which the client is immersed in the actual feared situation

Obsession

An unwanted thought, word, phrase, or image that persistently and repeatedly comes into a person’s mind and causes distress

Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder (OCD)

A disorder characterized by recurrent obsessions or compulsions that are inordinately time consuming or that cause significant distress or impairment

One Session Treatment (OST)

A treatment for specific phobias in which cognitive behavioural therapy is condensed into one three-hour session involving exposures and homework

Panic Attack

A period of intense fear and physical discomfort accompanied by the feeling that one is being overwhelmed and is about to lose control

Panic Disorder

An anxiety disorder in which an individual has panic attacks on a recurrent basis or has constant apprehensions and worry about the possibility of recurring attacks

Post-Traumatic Growth

The personal growth that can occur following exposure to a traumatic experience

Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD)

A disorder in which an individual exposed to a traumatic event continues to experience a range of distressing symptoms for more than a month that include reexperiencing the traumatic event, avoidance of reminders of the trauma, numbing of general responsiveness, and increased arousal

Reactive Attachment Disorder (RAD)

A diagnosis given to children involving a consistent pattern of inhibited, emotionally withdrawn behavior toward adult caregivers along with minimal responsiveness to others and limited positive affect

Relaxation Training

A behavioural technique used in the treatment of anxiety disorder that involves progressive and systematic patterns of muscle tensing and relaxing

Selective Mutism

A disorder originating in childhood in which the individual consciously refuses to talk

Specific Phobia

An irrational and unabating fear of a particular object, activity, or situation

Social Anxiety Disorder

An anxiety disorder characterized by marked, or intense, fear or anxiety in social situations in which the individual may be scrutinized by others

Separation Anxiety Disorder

A childhood disorder characterized by intense and inappropriate anxiety, lasting at least 4 weeks, concerning separation from home or caregivers

Trichotillomania

An impulse-control disorder involving the compulsive, persistent urge to pull out one’s own hair

Trauma

Response experienced by an individual to an event that is harmful or life-threatening that can have lasting adverse effects on the individual’s functioning and mental health

Trauma Informed Care

An approach to treatment that acknowledges the role that trauma can have in the mental health of individuals

Virtual Reality Exposure Therapy

A method of exposure therapy that uses virtual reality, in which clients become immersed in computer-generated environments that resemble the situations they fear