Major Categories of Mental Disorders: Anxiety Disorders

Psychology Final

PTSD

• an extreme stress reaction following a major trauma

• they relive the memories they can’t get out of their minds

• feel vulnerable

• feel guilty

• feel like they could have prevented the traumatic event somehow

  Treatment: talking therapy

Panic Disorder

• spontaneous panic attacks (as if it was not triggered by anything specific)

  Symptoms:

  1. Physical

  2. Cognitive

  Causes: childhood sexual abuse, nasty divorces

  Treatment: talking therapy, medication (depending on symptoms)

Generalized Anxiety Disorder

• “free-floating anxiety”— not specific anxiety

Go through life like they’re walking on eggshells,

Always worried about their family, health, work, school, etc.

Treatment: medication, cognitive behavior therapy

OCD

Obsessive = Thoughts

• haunting and difficult to control

  (dirt/germs, safety, sex, religion, checking)

Compulsive = Behaviors

• rituals that are done the same way; behaviors relieve anxiety

• routine gives safety and adaptability

  (tapping, rigidness, rituals/routine)

Causes:

Freud - anal stage fixation (being punished or made to feel guilty)

Medical Model - serotonin causes you to obsess about things

*a thorough or detailed person, “normal variation,” does NOT mean they are OCD*

*having an obsessive compulsive style is DIFFERENT from having a disorder*