What are anxiety attacks? (otherwise known as panic attacks) According to the American Psychiatric Association (1994), a panic attack is a period of intense fear or discomfort and consists of 4 or more of the symptoms listed below. Panic attacks have an abrupt onset and the symptoms peak within 10 minutes. What are the symptoms of a …
OCD is characterised by recurrent obsessions or compulsions that are time consuming or cause significant distress or impairment. Obsessions are persistent ideas, thoughts, images or impulses which are experienced by the sufferer as anxiety provoking or distressing. The sufferer has difficulty switching his train of thought onto another topic. It’s like when one plays a scratched …
Worrying too much? It is normal to worry a little but if you are troubled by constant worries it is possible that you may have generalized anxiety disorder. The difference between “normal” worriers and people who are are considered to have an anxiety disorder, is that GAD sufferers worry about worrying. Worry definition Worrying has been …
According to the American Psychiatric Association (1994), post traumatic stress disorder develops after someone is exposed to an extremely traumatic event and they reacted to the event with intense fear, horror or helplessness. Such traumatic events include: war torture rape child sexual or physical assault physical assault being kidnapped terrorism a natural disaster (e.g. a bushfire, …
A specific phobia is an intense fear of a particular thing like a dog, or a situation like flying in an aeroplane. People’s fear of the object or situation is so severe that they may experience physical symptoms of anxiety, and even have panic attacks, when confronted with it, or even anticipating having to deal with …