Anxiety Disorder
We all have our fears. When we are children we may have been fearful of dogs or strangers. As adults we may be fearful when we are about to give a speech or when we are walking alone at night in a narrow deserted street. People with anxiety disorders live with fears that are not mild short-term or reasonable. The fears are severe chronic and frequent enough to lower the quality of their lives and interfere with their functioning. Anxiety disorder affects 20% of the population which is 1 in 5 adults. Most anxiety disorders respond very well to Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT) and Rational Emotive Behavioral Therapy (REBT). Earlier treatment results in improved outcomes and better quality of life for the person.
Panic Disorder
Panic disorder is characterized by sudden bursts of anxiety symptoms, a sense of loss of control or unreality and the sense that one is dying
Cognitive behavioral therapy has proven as useful as anti-anxiety drugs in reducing panic symptoms and more useful in preventing relapse in panic disorder. Treatment of panic disorder tends to be short-term and very effective
Phobias
People with agoraphobia fear a wide variety of situation in which they might have an emergency but not able to escape or get help. Many people with agoraphobia also suffer from panic disorder
Specific phobias include animal type phobias, natural environment type phobias, situational type phobias and blood injection type phobia
People with social phobia fear social situations in which they might be embarrassed or judged by others
Behavioral treatment for phobias include systematic desensitization, modeling and flooding
Cognitive therapy are used to help clients identify and challenge negative catastrophizing thoughts they have when anxious
Generalized anxiety disorder
People with generalized anxiety disorder are anxious all the time in almost all situations. People with GAD worry about many things in their lives. They have difficulty in controlling worry and show excessive anxiety. They may worry about their performance on the job about how their relationships are going and about their own health. In addition physical symptoms may result such as muscle tension an inability to relax, nausea, dizziness, fatigue or insomnia
Cognitive behavioral treatments for people with GAD focus on helping them confront their negative thinking.
Obsessive compulsive disorder (OCD)
Obsessions are thoughts, images, ideas or impulses that are persistent, are intrusive and cause distress and they commonly focus on contamination, sex, violence and repeated doubts. Compulsions are repetitive behaviors or mental acts that the individual feels he or she must perform to somehow erase his or her obsessions.
Cognitive-behavioral therapies have proven helpful for OCD. These therapies expose OCD clients to the content of their obsessions while preventing compulsive behavior; the anxiety over the obsessions and the compulsions to do the behaviors are extinguished. Cognitive behavioral therapies also help in preventing relapse.
