Social Anxiety, Panic & Obsessive Compulsive Disorders Flashcards

A comprehensive set of vocabulary flashcards covering Social Anxiety Disorder, Panic Disorder, and Obsessive Compulsive Disorder based on DSM-5 criteria and academic lecture notes.

Anxiety Disorders

Internalizing disorders categorized by overcontrolled behaviour and emotion directed inward, where the avoidance of associated objects or situations is often more significant in creating impairment than the experience of anxiety itself.

Obsessive Compulsive Disorders

Disorders involving obsessional thinking and repetitive behaviours that create distress and disruption in functioning, often associated with anxiety symptoms.

Social Anxiety Disorder

Persistent, intense fear or anxiety about specific social situations driven by the belief that one may be judged, embarrassed, or humiliated.

Safety behaviors

Actions such as avoiding eye contact or sitting away from others used to cope with social anxiety.

4-7-8 technique

A specific deep breathing exercise used as a positive coping skill to manage anxious events.

5-4-3-2-1 sensory method

A grounding technique used to manage anxiety by focusing on the five senses.

Psychoeducation

The process of learning about anxiety or a disorder as part of the most effective procedure for treatment.

Panic Attacks

A sudden and overwhelming period of intense fear or discomfort accompanied by four or more physical and cognitive symptoms characteristic of the fight/flight response.

Unexpected (uncued) panic attacks

Panic attacks that occur spontaneously or “out of the blue” with no apparent situational trigger, characteristic of panic disorder.

Expected (cued) panic attacks

Panic attacks that occur on almost all occasions when a person is exposed to or anticipates a feared object or situation.

Paresthesias

Numbness or tingling sensations, which are one of the physical symptoms that can occur during a panic attack.

Derealization

A cognitive symptom of a panic attack involving a sense of unreality.

Depersonalization

A cognitive symptom of a panic attack characterized by feeling detached from oneself.

Panic Disorder (PD)

A disorder diagnosed when an individual experiences recurrent unexpected panic attacks followed by $1$ month or more of persistent concern about additional attacks or significant behavior changes.

Agoraphobia

A condition that is now unlinked from panic disorder in the DSM-5, recognizing that many individuals with this condition do not experience panic symptoms.

Graduated exposure

The process of exposing a young person slowly and methodically to more and more raw aspects of feared experiences to build distress tolerance.

Obsessions

Recurrent and persistent thoughts, urges, or impulses that are experienced as intrusive and unwanted, causing marked anxiety or distress.

Compulsions

Repetitive, purposeful, and intentional behaviors or mental acts performed in response to an obsession to prevent or reduce distress or a dreaded situation.

Scrupulosity

An OCD theme involving moral or religious preoccupations, such as the fear of being a bad person or upsetting God.

Basal Ganglia

A part of the brain including an excitatory direct pathway and an inhibitory indirect pathway; an overexcitable direct pathway is linked to the development of OCD.

Body Dysmorphic Disorder

An obsessive disorder involving intense concerns about perceived flaws or imperfections in one's physical appearance.

Hoarding Disorder

A disorder characterized by great difficulty throwing away unnecessary or unneeded possessions due to a perceived need to save items.

Trichotillomania

Compulsive hair pulling from the body resulting in hair loss followed by a sense of relief.

Excoriation Disorder

Compulsive and repeated picking of one's skin followed by a sense of relief.

Specifiers

Terms that further clarify a disorder and allow for a specific diagnosis from the DSM-V.