Popular strategies to fight anxiety
- exercise
- meditation
- journal
- challenge your thoughts
- distract yourself
- breathe
- listen to music
- etc!!
What are Anxiety Disorders? (Introduction)
- anxiety and its symptoms of nervousness and concern, is a normal human experience (fight or flight response)
Anxiety can be useful/adaptive:
- motivates us to take actions that avoid negative consequences
- helps us avoid dangerous situations
Anxiety can be experienced to a degree that becomes unhelpful, excessive or disproportionate
- can limit our ability to respond to challenges or lead to “avoidance”
When anxiety becomes dysfunctional, a person may be diagnosed with an anxiety disorder: defined by (irrational) fear of potential future events
- not always been a high priority among medical professionals and researchers (previously neglected to pay more attention to “serious mental illness”)
- now: greater recognition of impacts, high prevalence, and burden
Quick tips to reduce anxiety in the moment and afterwards
In the moment:
1. breathe
2. ground yourself in the present
3. remember that the feeling is temporary
4. redirect your mind to a positive thought or activity
5. move your body
When the moment passes:
1. reframe your thoughts
2. talk to someone
3. engage in leisure time and pleasurable activities
4. practice relaxation methods
5. cultivate healthy habits
Classification of Anxiety Disorders - Specific phobia (what is it?)
Specific phobias are the most diverse, most common, and most recognised forms of anxiety disorder - many subvareities
Can involve:
- fear of specific situations
- fear of objects
- fear of biological entities
Specific situational phobias
- acrophobia (fear of heights)
- claustrophobia (fear of small confined spaces)
- acrophobia (fear of flying)
- thanatophobia (fear of death)
- autophobia (fear of abandonment)
specific object-related phobias
- trypanophobia (fear of needles)
- aquaphobia (fear of water)
- trypophobia (fear of holes)
Biological entity related phobias
- arachnophobia (fear of spiders)
- mysophobia (fear of germs)
- gynophobia (fear of dogs)
Specific Phobia - prevalence & symptoms
- estimated 5-10% of the general population suffer from specific phobia
- twice as prevalent in women, and thought to be more acute in women
- usually developed/anchored in childhood or associated with previous trauma
- irrational nature of the specific fear is distinct feature, individuals usually have some awareness of limited possibility of feared outcome, but this does not lessen worry
Physical Symptoms: shortness of breath, rapid breathing, irregular heartbeat, sweating, nausea
Psychological Symptoms: panic, fear, dread, feeling scared or “anxiety”
What is avoidance in terms of phobias?
people with phobias often take steps to minimise their exposure to the feared situation, which can have social or health impacts
Agoraphobia (non-specific phobia)
- fear of situations from which one cannot escape - and/or a fear of entrapment
- can include fear of crowds, open spaces, leaving home, unfamiliar environments
Often results in panic attacks
- acute feelings of helplessness and embarrassment
- avoidance of triggering situations: (which can be almost anything) can be very problematic - and become more extreme and limiting some people may rarely leave home
- fear of experiencing the panic increases the severity of the phobia - feedback loop of avoidance and anxiety
Prevalence is approx 1%
Social Anxiety Disorder
Fear of being judged negatively or rejected by others
- also includes fear of this being recognised or being judged for having this worry or fear
People may avoid situations that trigger the fear
- public speaking, sports, team activities
- meeting new people
- anywhere they might be the focus of attention
Symptoms include those common to other anxiety disorders
- may lead to substance use (often alcohol), to “help” manage anxiety in social situations and limit symptoms (but this may have further negative repercussions and lead to risk/harm)
Prevalence: Approx 12% of American population
Panic Disorder
recurring panic attacks
- may be triggered by stressful situations and contexts, but may be unexpected/spontaneous too
People w panic disorders may experience range of physical and emotion reactions:
- fear/discomfort
- dizziness, sweating, shortness of breath
- feelings of suffocation
- feelings of losing control
Can lead to avoidance behaviours, particularly disabling because of the wide variety of situations that a person may feel they need to avoid - may also involve social and emotional distancing in order to avoid attacks (relationships may suffer)
Prevalence: approx 15% of Americans
General Anxiety Disorder
Defined as low-level, but non-specific worries of everyday events and situations, with few evident triggers or causes
- may be about potential situations and the future, often revolve around work, finances, relationships, health (what if BLANK happens?!)
- clinicians describe episodes of irrationality involving unrealistic views and assessments
Psychological Symptoms: tension, restlessness, problems focusing
Physical Symptoms: muscle tension, general stress response
Global Prevalence: about 4% worldwide
Health Science quantitative knowledge of research areas that are typically explored in the context of illness (5 approaches)
- Examination of features, origins, indicators of anxiety, and topics like affect, rumination, sensitivity, and trauma
- Comorbid or co-occurring conditions like depression, substance use, physical health problems (obesity, chronic physical conditions)
- societal and economic sots due to lost productivity, and expenditures related to treatment
- clinical assessments: rating tools and scales
- treatment: clinical trials and quantitative evaluations looking at therapeutic options: exposure and behavioural therapies, holistic approaches, medications (tranquillisers, ADMs, anxiolytics)
Anxiety and Critical Social Science
Partially to address limitations of quantitative research
1. outside of healthcare and clinical settings as most individuals living with significant anxiety remain undiagnosed and untreated (due to avoidance, lack of services, stigma, or deliberate choice)
2. Examining everyday lives and experiences and emotions… the human dimension that is not well captured in quantitative research about stats, trends, facts, outcomes
Critical social science (and qualitative methods) can examine and document what quantitative research cannot
Has highlighted how non-medical and wider socio-political context can influence levels of anxiety
Case Study 1: Acrophobia
Acrophobia: fear of heights
- In depth interviews with 10 people w this phobia
- Andrews wanted to understand the mathematical height at which anxiety was triggered for these people
- an “embodied experience” extreme and irrational fear, a logical risk assessment suggests the situation is not unsafe but dysfunctional spatial perception overrides rational thoughts thus bringing on symptoms
- Idea of “encounter spaces”: not mathematical height, but a highly variable and subjective context dependent reaction
- Results in avoidance, management strategies, and coping tactics
- May lead to social problems, misunderstandings, stigma, and missing out
- Popular belief that exposure can help or cure but this can lead to negative experiences
Understanding through the concept of encounter spaces emphasises: avoidance can result in loss - missing out, and focuses on 3 components (emotional, physiological, social impact)
Overall experience can negatively impact sufferer’s everyday lives and general well-being
What is encounter space?
social contexts where fears are encountered and anxiety is expressed and experienced
Case Study 2: Needle Phobia
Needle Phobia (trypanophobia): irrationally high fear of clinical procedures involving needles
- Affects 4-25% of population, w varying severity
- Evidence of genetic links to the disorder, as well as aspects of learned behaviour
- One potential cause is a sensible aversion to skin punctures, which may have been evolutionarily advantageous
- People with this disorder will often avoid healthcare, which is potentially harmful to personal health and public health (avoiding vaccinations)
Likelihood of receiving treatment is related to: severity of condition, health seeking behaviours, access to services
- most sufferers don’t receive treatment
Conclusion: this type of information is important in developing responses to needle phobia
Just Mental Disorder?
- anxiety like many illnesses, has both physical and psychological symptoms
- strong somatic component: mimicking heart trouble, sweating, shakes/tremors or freezing/fainting
- Mental disorder is an incomplete description of the experience
Dividing mental illnesses from physical illnesses is particularly problematic for anxiety disorders
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Chapter 1 (Lecture)35
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Chapter 2 (Lecture)35
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Chapter 1 (Textbook)6
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Chapter 3 (Lecture)22
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Chapter 4 (Lecture)45
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Chapter 5 (Lecture)25
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Chapter 6 (Lecture)19
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Midterm Review62
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Additional Midterm Questions26
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Chapter 7 (Lecture)44
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Chapter 8 (Lecture)54
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Chapter 9 (Lecture)42
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Chapter 10 (Lecture - ch 8 in textbook ED)27
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Chapter 11 (Lecture - Ch 9 in textbook)39
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Chapter 12 (Lecture - Ch 11 in Textbook)44
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Dr Nicole Catherine Presentation3
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Additional Final Questions55
