Diagnosis
Fill in the blanks:
Anxiety disorders can be very ______, making it a _______, rather than GAD (Generalized Anxiety Disorder).
specific ; phobia
What is the BIPI?
Blood-Injury Phobia Inventory; way of measuring haemophobia; 18 situations that involve blood and injections; patients explain what their reactions (cognitive, physiologica, behavioral) would be in the scenario
Describe the behavioral explanation
classical conditioning; people learn their phobias by being exposed to a traumatic situation/event while at the same time being around a neutral stimulus, which makes them associate that neutral stimulus with that negative event
What is systematic desensitization?
way of unlearning undesirable responses to scenarios; uses the idea of reciprocal inhibition (two strong, opposing emotions occurring simultaneously); by experiencing calmness at the same time as fear (provoked by the anxiety), the feelings would cancel each other out and remove the anxiety associated with the stimulus
What are the physical symptoms of anxiety? (At least 2)
fear of dying or losing control ; sensation of shortness of breath or choking ; nausea ; sweating ; lightheadedness ; accelerate heart rate
What is the GAD-7?
questionnaire; used for referral to a psychiatrist; 0-3 scale to score frequency of symptoms (0=not at all, 3=nearly every day); screening tool for generalized anxiety disorder
Describe the psychoanalytic explanation using Freud (1909)
Explanation: anxiety and fear are results of impulses of the id when it is being repressed, and the feared stimulus is the result of symbolic representation of something else distressing the patient in their life. Freud: Hans was a 3 year-old boy who wanted to be in a sexual relationship with his mother. He was denied access to sleeping with his parents and threatened with castration. Around this time, he saw a horse die. He came to develop a phobia of horses, which symbolized his relationship with his parents.
What is applied tension?
Anxiety associated with drops in blood pressure can be treated by increasing the tension applied to certain muscles to increase blood pressure. This would help treat phobias that cause symptoms, like fainting and other similar unpleasant responses.
Who was Kimya (female aged 39)'s anxiety disorder and why was it a problem?
Kimya was scared of birds. The sound of wings flapping was particularly upsetting. She couldn't go out into public places in fear of seeing a bird, which limited her social life.
What is suggested by the biomedical explanation?
The stimuli we fear are due to evolution; as certain things naturally pose threats to survival, people are born fearing these things. The fear is passed down through DNA. This can be applied to more extreme forms of fear (AKA anxiety)
What is the difference between systematic desensitization and CBT?
CBT: aims to change thought processes to alter the patient’s thoughts or beliefs about a particular stimulus; cognitive approach
SD: a form of exposure therapy used to reduce undesirable reactions towards a stimulus; behavioral approach
A common features of anxiety disorders is...
panic attacks, which can last minutes or even hours. They're very scary for the individual experiencing them as well as the people around them.
What is suggested by the cognitive explanation?
Anxiety is a result of thought processes. Ambiguity in stimuli will appear more threatening (ex: heights) to people with anxiety than other people. They might also have negative beliefs about oneself, like that they couldn’t handle being around a certain stimulus
How can anxiety manifest into an individual?
restlessness, muscle tension, feeling on-edge, difficulty concentrating (due to a preoccupation with their disproportionate fear), difficulty falling and staying asleep, irritability, tiredness, anxiety may be specific or general