Anxiety Disorders
Anxiety is a human emotion that is experienced and may cause discomfort. Anxiety disorders are conditions in which fear, a “response to a real or perceived imminent threat” or anxiety, “anticipation of a future threat” is present and causes distress (American Psychiatric Association [APA], 2013; p. 189). They are among the most widely experienced mental health issues.
Adjustment Disorder with Anxiety – characterized by worry, nervousness, or anxiety in response to stressor(s) that may be continuous or due to a single event.
Adjustment Disorder with Mixed Anxiety and Depressed Mood – characterized by worry, nervousness, or anxiety and depression in response to stressor(s) that may be continuous or due to a single event.
Agoraphobia – characterized by fear and anxiety of leaving the home, being in open, enclosed, or public spaces including being in line or in a crowd.
Generalized Anxiety Disorder – characterized by persistent and excessive fear, anxiety, or worry across various domains.
Separation Anxiety Disorder – characterized by fear or anxiety about harm to or separation from an attachment figure that could lead to difficulty detaching, nightmares and other mental and physical signs of distress.
Social Anxiety Disorder – characterized by fear or anxiety about social situations related to meeting new people, and/or being observed in a variety of contexts including performance-related interactions.
Specific Phobias – characterized by anxiety that is triggered by a feared situation that is out of proportion to the risk associated with the object or event.
Substance-Medication-Induced Anxiety Disorder – characterized by fear and anxiety due to intoxication or withdrawal from substances or other medication use.
Trauma and Stressor-Related Disorders
Trauma and Stressor-Related Disorders are conditions that capture the varied expressions of distress that individuals experience following exposure to catastrophic or aversive events. While some people exhibit an anxiety-based response, others experience anhedonia or dysphoria, anger or aggression, or dissociative symptoms.
Acute Stress Disorder – characterized by symptoms that may include negative mood, arousal, dissociation, avoidance, and/or intrusion symptoms within one month of exposure to actual or threatened death, serious injury, or sexual violation.
Posttraumatic Stress Disorder - characterized by symptoms that may include negative mood, arousal, dissociation, avoidance, and/or intrusion symptoms beyond one month following exposure to actual or threatened death, serious injury, or sexual violation.
Diagnostic Considerations:
Clinicians treat people who describe their experiences with anxiety disorders and trauma and stressor-related disorders. They appear in the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM-5) in chapters denoted for each (APA, 2013).
Anxiety disorders and trauma and stressor-related disorders are included in the international Classification of Diseases, 11th Revision (ICD-11; World Health Organization, 2018) with Complex Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder recently added to reflect prolonged, repeated trauma.
Treatment:
Treatment for anxiety disorders and trauma and stressor-related disorders vary dependent on factors including co-occurring disorders. Common psychotherapeutic approaches support conscious awareness of feelings, emotion regulation enhancement, coping and calming strategies, communication and other skills that increase social support and relationships, supported exposure to feared situations, appropriate responses to physical and psychological cues such as triggers of anxiety or other trauma-related symptoms, and collaboration with medical prescribers.
References:
American Psychiatric Association. (2013). Diagnostic and statistical manual of mental disorders (5th ed.). Author.
World Health Organization. (2019). International statistical classification of diseases and related health problems (11th ed.). https://icd.who.int/