ABNORMAL
PSYCH
Anxiety Disorders
Anxiety disorders characterized by an intense
irrational fear and heightened physiological arousal that is out
of all proportion to the danger
elicited
by the object. The intense fear makes the person go
to great lengths to avoid the feared object or endure
it with intense anxiety if it cannot be avoided.
- *specific
phobias:
- Unreasonable, marked, and
persistent fears triggered by
anticipation
of, or exposure to, a specific object or situation (flying,
heights,
spiders, needles/
blood): formerly called simple phobias.
- *social
phobias:
- Irrational, marked, and
continuous fear of performing in social
situations.
Affected indiviudals fear that they will humiliate or embarrass
themselves.
- *agoraphobia:
- An anxiety about being in places
or situations from which
escape might
be difficult or embarrassing if a panic attack or panic-like symptoms
(sudden
dizziness or onset of diarrhea) were to occur.
Etiology of Phobias
- (1) Behavioral
"All of us are born with a set of instinctive
fears--of falling, of the dark, of lobsters, of falling
on lobsters in the dark, or speaking before a
Rotary Club, and of the words "Some Assembly
Required."
----Dave Barry
Ch
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