Fear and Anxiety Disorders
Fear and anxiety both
produce similar responses to certain dangers. Fear pertains more to that which is known and anxiety more to the unknown.
DOOR of FEAR
Generalized anxiety disorder: is a common, long-lasting
anxiety disorder when a person has been excessively worried about an
everyday problem for six months or
more. A person can experience random relentless fear and worry and become
overly concerned with everyday matters. It is chronic excessive worry accompanied by
three or more of the following symptoms: restlessness, fatigue, concentration
problems, irritability, muscle tension, and sleep disturbance".
Trigger: is something that sets off a memory sending
the person back to the
event of her/his original trauma.
Separation anxiety disorder: is the feeling of excessive and unacceptable levels of anxiety
over being separated from a person or
place. Separation anxiety is a normal part of
development in babies or children, and it is
only when this feeling is excessive
or inappropriate that it can be considered a disorder.
Social
anxiety disorder: (aka social
phobia) describes an intense fear
and avoidance of negative public embarrassment, humiliation, or social
interaction. This fear can be specific to particular social situations
(such as public speaking) or, more typically, is experienced in most (or all)
social interactions. In severe cases can lead to complete social isolation.
Situational
anxiety: is caused by new situations or changing events. It can also be caused by various
events that make that particular individual uncomfortable. Its occurrence is
very common. Often, an individual will experience panic attacks or extreme
anxiety in specific situations. For example, some people become uneasy in
crowds or tight spaces, so standing in a tightly packed line, say at the bank
or a store register, may cause them to experience extreme anxiety, possibly a
panic attack. Others, however, may experience anxiety when major changes in
life occur, such as entering college, getting
married, having children, etc.
Panic attack: a person has brief attacks of intense terror
and apprehension, often marked by trembling, shaking, confusion, dizziness,
nausea, and/or difficulty breathing. These panic
attacks, defined by fear or
discomfort that abruptly arises and peaks in
less than ten minutes, can last for several hours. Attacks can
be triggered by stress, irrational
thoughts, general fear or fear of the unknown, or even exercise. However
sometimes the trigger is unclear and the attacks can arise without warning. To help prevent an attack one can avoid
the trigger. This being said not all attacks can be prevented.
Phobias:
A specific
obsessive fear of a certain object, situation, or activity. Phobias are
characterized by their specificity and their irrationality.
Agoraphobia: is the specific anxiety about being in a place
or situation where escape is difficult or
embarrassing or where help may be unavailable. It is strongly linked
with panic attacks and is often caused by the fear of having a panic attack. A common
manifestation involves needing to be in
constant view of a door or other escape route.
Chronophobia: it can be caused by a
traumatic experience in one's childhood, genetics,
in prison, or old age. Most traumatic experiences can lead to personal
withdrawals from one's surroundings such as dissociation. The stress of prison
makes inmates especially at risk. The elderly also exhibit more of a risk
because they feel that death is closer
than it had ever been before in their life. The threat of death can cause an overwhelming sensation of
chronophobia.
Post-traumatic stress disorder: PTSD can result from an extreme situation, such as combat, natural
disaster, rape, hostage situations, child abuse, bulling, or even a serious accident. It can also result from long-term
(chronic) exposure to a severe stressor, for example, soldiers who endure
individual battles but cannot cope with continuous combat. Common symptoms
include hypervigilance[1], flashbacks, avoidant
behaviors, anxiety, anger and depression. In addition, individuals may
experience sleep disturbances.
Dissociative disorders: Is
a condition that involves disruptions or breakdowns of memory, awareness, and identity. The
dissociation is used as a defense against trauma.
Dissociation: is an ability to escape ‘within oneself’ during a
traumatic event – saving the memories and emotions associated with those events
as if it had never occurred. It is similar to the minds ability to
simply ‘forget’; and to the ‘repression’ of memories - but is a much more
advanced form of this: “The memories are actively pushed out of the Childs
mind into a separate, hidden, split off unconscious mental space.” Dissociation can happen during
the trauma or later on when thinking about or being reminded of the trauma.
... Dissociation commonly goes along with traumatic events and PTSD.
Dissociating: The difference between
dissociation and dissociating:
When
people are dissociating they disconnect from their surroundings, which can stop the
trauma memories and lower fear, anxiety and shame. When you’re driving
down the road and you suddenly realize you missed your exit or maybe you’re not
quite sure where it is because you developed the “white line trance” you’re dissociating.
Amnesia: is a partial
or total loss of memory.
Dissociative
Amnesia: Dissociative amnesia has
been linked to overwhelming stress, which may be caused by traumatic events
such as war, abuse, accidents, or
disasters. The person may have suffered the trauma or just witnessed it.
Fugue: A loss of awareness of
one's identity, often coupled with flight from one's usual environment,
associated with certain forms of hysteria and epilepsy.
Dissociative
fugue: One or more episodes of amnesia in which the inability to recall some or all of one's past
and either the loss of one's identity or the formation of a new identity occur with sudden, unexpected,
purposeful travel away from home.
Psychosis: is an abnormal condition of the mind that results in difficulties
telling what is real and what is not. Loss
of reality. Symptoms may include false beliefs
and seeing or hearing things that others do not see or hear. Other
symptoms may include incoherent
speech and behavior that is inappropriate for the situation. There
may also be sleep problems, social
withdrawal, lack of motivation, and difficulties carrying out daily
activities.
Psychosis
has many different causes. These include mental
illness, such as schizophrenia or bipolar
disorder, sleep
deprivation, some medical conditions, certain medications,
and drugs such as alcohol or cannabis. One
type, known as postpartum psychosis, can occur after
childbirth.
Empathy: is the capacity to
understand or feel what another person is experiencing from within their frame
of reference, i.e., the capacity to place oneself in another's position. There
are many definitions for empathy that encompass a broad range of emotional
states.
Apathy: lack of interest,
enthusiasm, or concern.
[1] Hypervigilance
is an enhanced state of sensory sensitivity
accompanied by an exaggerated intensity of
behaviors whose purpose is to detect activity.