Hockenbury Discovering Psychology 5th txtbk

Anxiety Disorders537Anxiety DisordersIntense Apprehension and WorryKey Theme• The main symptom of anxiety disorders is intense anxiety that disruptsnormal functioning.Key Questions• How does pathological anxiety differ from normal anxiety?• What characterizes generalized anxiety disorder and panic disorder?• What are the phobias, and how have they been explained?Anxiety is a familiar emotion to all of us—that feeling of tension, apprehension, andworry that often hits during personal crises and everyday conflicts. Although it isunpleasant, anxiety is sometimes helpful. Think of anxiety as your personal, internalalarm system that tells you that something is not quite right. When it alerts you toa realistic threat, anxiety is adaptive and normal. For example, anxiety about yourgrades may motivate you to study harder.Anxiety has both physical and mental effects. As your internal alarm system, anxietyputs you on physical alert, preparing you to defensively “fight” or “flee” potentialdangers. Anxiety also puts you on mental alert, making you focus your attentionsquarely on the threatening situation. You become extremely vigilant, scanning theenvironment for potential threats. When the threat has passed, your alarm systemshuts off and you calm down. But even if the problem persists, you can normally putyour anxious thoughts aside temporarily and attend to other matters.In the anxiety disorders, however, the anxiety is maladaptive, disrupting everydayactivities, moods, and thought processes. It’s as if you’ve triggered a faulty caralarm that activates at the slightest touch and has a broken “off” switch.Three features distinguish normal anxiety from pathological anxiety. First, pathologicalanxiety is irrational. The anxiety is provoked by perceived threats that are exaggeratedor nonexistent, and the anxiety response is out of proportion to the actualimportance of the situation. Second, pathological anxiety is uncontrollable. The personcan’t shut off the alarm reaction, even when he or she knows it’s unrealistic.And third, pathological anxiety is disruptive. It interferes with relationships, jobor academic performance, or everyday activities. In short, pathological anxiety is unreasonablyintense, frequent, persistent, and disruptive (Beidel & Stipelman, 2007;Woo & Keatinge, 2008).Anxiety disorders are among the most common of all psychological disorders.According to some estimates, they will affect about 1 in 4 people in the UnitedStates during their lifetime (McGregor, 2009; Kessler & others, 2005b). Evidenceof disabling anxiety disorders has been found in virtually every culture studied, althoughsymptoms may vary from one cultural group to another (Chentsova-Dutton& Tsai, 2007; Good & Hinton, 2009). Most of the anxiety disorders are muchmore common in women than men (Barlow & others, 2007).As a symptom, anxiety occurs in many different psychological disorders. In theanxiety disorders, however, anxiety is the main symptom, although it is manifesteddifferently in each of the disorders.Generalized Anxiety DisorderWorrying About Anything and EverythingGlobal, persistent, chronic, and excessive apprehension is the main feature ofgeneralized anxiety disorder (GAD). People with this disorder are constantlytense and anxious, and their anxiety is pervasive. They feel anxious about a wideanxietyAn unpleasant emotional state characterizedby physical arousal and feelings of tension,apprehension, and worry.anxiety disordersA category of psychological disorders inwhich extreme anxiety is the main diagnosticfeature and causes significant disruptionsin the person’s cognitive, behavioral, or interpersonalfunctioning.generalized anxiety disorder (GAD)An anxiety disorder characterized by excessive,global, and persistent symptoms ofanxiety; also called free-floating anxiety.