Nine Anxiety-Related Disorders
9 Anxiety-Related Disorders
Individuals with this disorder experience fear using public transportation, being in open spaces, being in enclosed spaces, standing in lines, being in a crowd, and/or being outside of the home alone. They fear these situations because escape from them might be difficult in the event they develop panic or other embarrassing symptoms. They actively avoid the situations, endure it with a lot of distress, or will only go with another person.
Body Focused Repetitive Behaviours
Body-Focused Repetitive Behaviours, or BFRBs, are a cluster of habitual behaviours that include hair pulling (called Trichotillomania), skin picking (called Skin Excoriation), nail biting, nose picking, and lip or cheek biting. In both Trichotillomania and Skin Excoriation, the individual experiences ongoing and repetitive engagement in either pulling out of one’s hair or skin picking (dependent on the disorder), resulting in noticeable hair loss, or skin abrasions or lesions. This occurs despite extensive efforts to stop these behaviours. In both disorders there is significant impairment or disruption in routine life functioning for the individual.
Individuals with this disorder worry excessively and uncontrollably about daily life events. These worries include potential negative events in the future, minor matters, a loved one becoming ill or dying, work issues, and world events, such as natural disasters.
Individuals with this disorder experience ongoing and significant difficulty getting rid of possessions regardless of their value; and strong urges to save and/or acquire, often non-essential, items, that if prevented leads to extreme distress. As a result, living space becomes severely compromised with extreme clutter. In addition, the individual experiences significant impairment in social, occupational, and other important areas of functioning.
Individuals with this disorder have obsessions, or unwanted ugly thoughts that make them anxious, and/or they engage in compulsions (repetitive behaviors or mental acts) in an attempt to reduce a feeling of anxiety. Some compulsions may include repeated hand-washing, checking, tapping, or mental routines (such as counting backwards from 100). An example of an intrusive thought is "I might get sick and die from touching a bathroom door".
Individuals with this disorder experience unexpected and repeated panic attacks, followed by at least 1 month of worry about having additional attacks. They may also fear of something bad happening as a result of the panic attack, such as going crazy, losing control or dying.
Individuals with this disorder have directly experienced, witnessed or heard about a frightening traumatic event. Not everyone who has these experiences develops the disorder. Those who have the disorder also experience symptoms that may include upsetting vivid memories, nightmares, and/or flashbacks of the trauma, avoidance of reminders of the trauma, negative impact on their thoughts and mood (e.g. depression, fear of life being cut short), and changes in their reactivity (e.g. more easily startled).
Individuals with this disorder have an intense fear of social and/or performance situations and excessive concern about social embarrassment or humiliation. They may avoid social activities like going to parties, performing, speaking in front of others, or dating.
Individuals with this disorder experience persistent and excessive fears of an object or situation, which significantly interferes with life and is beyond voluntary control. Some common phobias include fear of spiders, rodents, snakes, flying, heights, and injections.
