What is anxiety and what is an anxiety disorder?

• Anxiety:: a state of physiological arousal associated with feelings of apprehension, worry or uneasiness that something is wrong or that something unpleasant is about to happen

• Anxiety Disorder:: used to describe a group of disorders that are characterised by chronic feelings of anxiety, distress, nervousness and apprehension or fear about the future, with a negative effect

What is a phobia and how does it differ from ordinary fear?

• A phobia is an excessive or unreasonable fear directed towards a particular object, situation or event that causes significant distress or interferes with everyday functioning.

• Fear and Phobias different in the individual’s ability to function in normal, day-to-day life

Specific Phobias

• A disorder characterised by significant anxiety provoked by exposure to a specific feared object or situation, often leading to avoidance behaviour

Psychodynamic and behavioural models

• According to Freud, a specific phobia, which he called anxiety hysteria, develops as a consequence of an unresolved Oedipal complex.

Cognitive models and biases

• focuses on how the individual processes information about the phobic stimulus and related events.

• A cognitive bias is a tendency to think in a way that involves errors of judgement and faulty decision-making. Essentially. A cognitive bias involves a ‘mistake in thinking’, which is why it is also sometimes referred to as a cognitive distortion

• Cognitive behavioural therapy, commonly referred to as CBT, combines cognitive and behavioural therapies to help people manage mental health problems and disorders