Anxiety - Disorders

Anxiety (in the context of an anxiety disorder): an emotion characterized by feelings of tension, worried thoughts, and physical changes (eg. increased blood pressure)

→ considered a future-oriented, long-acting response broadly focused on a diffuse threat

  • feeling: worry, nervousness, apprehension, or unease, typically about imminent event or something w/ an uncertain outcome

  • cognition: doubt-laden appraisal of one’s safety/skill — hypervigilant

  • biological: increase autonomic nervous system (ANS) arousal

Anxiety Disorders

Partial list of anxiety disorders in DSM-5-TR

Generalized Anxiety Disorder (GAD): excessive worry — worrying even when there’s no specific threat present or in a manner that is disproportionate to the actual risk

  • worry may be accompanied by reassurance-seeking from others

Social Anxiety Disorder: an extreme fear of being negatively evaluated by people in a social setting

  • social interactions are the heart of this disorder

  • Ex: Eating in public, meeting new ppl at a social gathering

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Tajin kyofusho: culture-bound anxiety disorder (Japan) in which people fear others are judging their bodies as undesirable, offensive, or unpleasant.

Specific Phobias: an irrational and excessive fear of an object or situation — in most cases, the phobia involves a sense of endangerment or a fear of harm

  • a specific, intense, and irrational fear of a stimulus

  • Ex: flying, heights, animals, receiving an injection, seeing blood

Agoraphobia: characterized by a fear of being in situations where escape/help might be difficult

  • Ex: fear of crowds, public transportation, open spaces

Panic Disorder: an anxiety disorder defined by recurrent, unexpected panic attacks — intense, sudden fear w/ physical symptoms like palpitations, dizziness, and chest pain — followed by at least 1 month of persistent concern about future attacks or significant behavioral changes

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Ataque de nervios (ADN): a cultural syndrome (common among Latinos/Hispanics), acting as an idiom of distress following acute stressors, such as family conflicts

  • symptoms include: uncontrollable screaming, crying, trembling heat in the chest, and aggression — often resembling panic attacks/dissociation

The Brain & Anxiety; OCD, PTSD

Anxiety & Neurotransmitters

  • serotonin & glutamate — heightens activity in alarm centers of brain