What are the anxiety disorders, and what causes them?
● Generalized anxiety disorder is marked by disruptive levels of persistent, unexplained feelings of apprehension and tenseness.
● Panic disorder is marked by sudden bouts of intense, unexplained panic.
● Phobia is marked by disruptive, irrational fears of objects, activities, or situations.
● Obsessive-compulsive disorder is marked by unwanted, repetitive thoughts and actions. Obsessions are repetitive thoughts. Compulsions are repetitive actions.
● Post-traumatic stress disorder is characterized by reliving a severely upsetting event in unwanted, recurring memories and dreams.
● Several biological factors may contribute to anxiety disorders, including heredity and brain function as well as evolution and natural selection.
● People may learn maladaptive responses that can blossom into anxiety disorders. These include associating fear with certain places or things (conditioning), learning fear or anxiety responses by watching others experience them (observational learning), and learning to associate emotions with actions and the results that follow those actions (reinforcement or punishment).
