What is anxiety?
- experienced by all humans - sensations of nervousness, concern, apprehension, and agitation associated largely with thoughts… of future events
- motivation to take action to avoid negative consequences
- Helps us avoid dangerous situations
What are anxiety disorders?
anxiety experienced to a degree that becomes unhelpful, excessive, or disproportionate
- category of mental illness involving fear, mostly ‘irrational’ and involves fear of potential future events
What are Specific Phobias?
- most common and most diverse class of anxiety disorders
- irrational fear of specific situations, objects/things, biological entities
- Often lead to avoidance behaviours
- people with it often aware that it is irrational but does not lessen their symptoms
- physical symptoms - short breath, sweating, nausea, irregular heartbeat
- physiological symptoms - panic, dread, fear, anxiety
- usually develop in childhood or inherited or associated with previous trauma
What is agoraphobia?
- non specific phobia
- fear of situations which one cannot escape
- symptoms - panic attacks, feelings of helplessness, embarrassment
- avoidance (some rarely leave home)
- fear of experiencing panic increases severity of phobia
What is Social Anxiety Disorder?
- fear of being judged negatively or rejected
- avoid situations that trigger fear
- symptoms - short breath, sweating, racing thoughts, palpitations
- may lead to substance use/alcohol to ‘help’ manage anxiety in social situations and limit symptoms -> negative repercussions
What is Panic Disorder?
- reoccurring panic attacks
- may be triggered by stressful situations and contexts but may be unexpected/spontaneous
- may experience fear, discomfort, dizziness, sweating, shortness of breath, feeling suffocated, feelings of losing control
- can lead to avoidance behaviours (relationships may suffer)
What is Generalized Anxiety Disorder?
- low level, nonspecific worry, no obvious reason
- may be about immediate or future situations
- psychological - tension, restlessness, problems focusing
- physical symptoms - muscle tension, global stress responses
What are two critiques of health science research on anxiety disorders?
- Conducted in healthcare settings, but many are undiagnosed/untreated and ‘invisible’ in research data
- Quantitative - doesn’t examine complexity/depth of lived experience
- understand non medical factors….move away from traditional hierarchy of evidence
What are encounter spaces?
relative to each person, immediate and longer term impacts on sufferers each with set of spatial practises
In what ways is anxiety not just mental?
- physical experience with both physical and psychological symptoms
- ‘mental disorder’ = incomplete description of experience
What is hierarchy of evidence
core principal of evidence based medicine - finding highest level of evidence to inform clinical practice
what are levels of evidenced based on
rigour, quality, strength
what is viewed as the gold standard of evidence
double blind randomized control trial
What is the social science approach
- examine broader social and historical contexts
- lived experiences
- interdisciplinary approach
