A phobia is an anxiety disorder,defined by a persistent and excessive fear of an object or situation. Phobias typically result in a rapid onset of fear and are usually present for more than six months. Those affected go to great lengths to avoid the situation or object,to a degree greater than the actual danger posed. If the object or situation cannot be avoided,they experience significant distress. Other symptoms can include fainting,which may occur in blood or injury phobia,and panic attacks,often found in agoraphobia and emetophobia. Around 75% of those with phobias have multiple phobias.
Anxiety disorders are a cluster of mental disorders characterized by significant and uncontrollable feelings of anxiety and fear such that a person's social,occupational,and personal functions are significantly impaired. Anxiety may cause physical and cognitive symptoms,such as restlessness,irritability,easy fatigue,difficulty concentrating,increased heart rate,chest pain,abdominal pain,and a variety of other symptoms that may vary based on the individual.
Psychology is an academic and applied discipline involving the scientific study of human mental functions and behavior. Occasionally,in addition or opposition to employing the scientific method,it also relies on symbolic interpretation and critical analysis,although these traditions have tended to be less pronounced than in other social sciences,such as sociology. Psychologists study phenomena such as perception,cognition,emotion,personality,behavior,and interpersonal relationships. Some,especially depth psychologists,also study the unconscious mind.
Emetophobia is a phobia that causes overwhelming,intense anxiety pertaining to vomit. This specific phobia can also include subcategories of what causes the anxiety,including a fear of vomiting or seeing others vomit. Emetephobes might also avoid the mentions of "barfing",vomiting,"throwing up",or "puking."
Cognitive restructuring (CR) is a psychotherapeutic process of learning to identify and dispute irrational or maladaptive thoughts known as cognitive distortions,such as all-or-nothing thinking (splitting),magical thinking,overgeneralization,magnification,and emotional reasoning,which are commonly associated with many mental health disorders. CR employs many strategies,such as Socratic questioning,thought recording,and guided imagery,and is used in many types of therapies,including cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT) and rational emotive behaviour therapy (REBT). A number of studies demonstrate considerable efficacy in using CR-based therapies.
Behaviour therapy or behavioural psychotherapy is a broad term referring to clinical psychotherapy that uses techniques derived from behaviourism and/or cognitive psychology. It looks at specific,learned behaviours and how the environment,or other people's mental states,influences those behaviours,and consists of techniques based on behaviorism's theory of learning:respondent or operant conditioning. Behaviourists who practice these techniques are either behaviour analysts or cognitive-behavioural therapists. They tend to look for treatment outcomes that are objectively measurable. Behaviour therapy does not involve one specific method,but it has a wide range of techniques that can be used to treat a person's psychological problems.
The Liebowitz Social Anxiety Scale (LSAS) is a short questionnaire developed in 1987 by Michael Liebowitz,a psychiatrist and researcher at Columbia University and the New York State Psychiatric Institute. Its purpose is to assess the range of social interaction and performance situations feared by a patient in order to assist in the diagnosis of social anxiety disorder. It is commonly used to study outcomes in clinical trials and,more recently,to evaluate the effectiveness of cognitive-behavioral treatments. The scale features 24 items,which are divided into two subscales. 13 questions relate to performance anxiety and 11 concern social situations. The LSAS was originally conceptualized as a clinician-administered rating scale,but has since been validated as a self-report scale.
Richard Heimberg is a researcher,psychotherapist,and current professor at Temple University.
Social anxiety is the anxiety and fear specifically linked to being in social settings. Some categories of disorders associated with social anxiety include anxiety disorders,mood disorders,autism spectrum disorders,eating disorders,and substance use disorders. Individuals with higher levels of social anxiety often avert their gazes,show fewer facial expressions,and show difficulty with initiating and maintaining a conversation. Social anxiety commonly manifests itself in the teenage years and can be persistent throughout life;however,people who experience problems in their daily functioning for an extended period of time can develop social anxiety disorder. Trait social anxiety,the stable tendency to experience this anxiety,can be distinguished from state anxiety,the momentary response to a particular social stimulus. Half of the individuals with any social fears meet the criteria for social anxiety disorder. Age,culture,and gender impact the severity of this disorder. The function of social anxiety is to increase arousal and attention to social interactions,inhibit unwanted social behavior,and motivate preparation for future social situations.
Interoceptive exposure is a cognitive behavioral therapy technique used in the treatment of panic disorder. It refers to carrying out exercises that bring about the physical sensations of a panic attack,such as hyperventilation and high muscle tension,and in the process removing the patient's conditioned response that the physical sensations will cause an attack to happen.
Social anxiety disorder (SAD),also known as social phobia,is an anxiety disorder characterized by sentiments of fear and anxiety in social situations,causing considerable distress and impairing ability to function in at least some aspects of daily life. These fears can be triggered by perceived or actual scrutiny from others. Individuals with social anxiety disorder fear negative evaluations from other people.
Guided imagery is a mind-body intervention by which a trained practitioner or teacher helps a participant or patient to evoke and generate mental images that simulate or recreate the sensory perception of sights,sounds,tastes,smells,movements,and images associated with touch,such as texture,temperature,and pressure,as well as imaginative or mental content that the participant or patient experiences as defying conventional sensory categories,and that may precipitate strong emotions or feelings in the absence of the stimuli to which correlating sensory receptors are receptive.
Richard McNally is an American psychologist and director of clinical training at Harvard University's department of psychology. As a clinical psychologist and experimental psycho-pathologist,McNally studies anxiety disorders and related syndromes,such as post-traumatic stress disorder,obsessive–compulsive disorder,and complicated grief.
Fear of negative evaluation (FNE) or fear of failure,also known as atychiphobia,is a psychological construct reflecting "apprehension about others' evaluations,distress over negative evaluations by others,and the expectation that others would evaluate one negatively". The construct and a psychological test to measure it were defined by David Watson and Ronald Friend in 1969. FNE is related to specific personality dimensions,such as anxiousness,submissiveness,and social avoidance. People who score high on the FNE scale are highly concerned with seeking social approval or avoiding disapproval by others and may tend to avoid situations where they have to undergo evaluations. High FNE subjects are also more responsive to situational factors. This has been associated with conformity,pro-social behavior,and social anxiety.
Separation anxiety disorder (SAD) is an anxiety disorder in which an individual experiences excessive anxiety regarding separation from home and/or from people to whom the individual has a strong emotional attachment. Separation anxiety is a natural part of the developmental process. It is most common in infants and little children,typically between the ages of six to seven months to three years,although it may pathologically manifest itself in older children,adolescents and adults. Unlike SAD,normal separation anxiety indicates healthy advancements in a child's cognitive maturation and should not be considered a developing behavioral problem.
Safety behaviors are coping behaviors used to reduce anxiety and fear when the user feels threatened. An example of a safety behavior in social anxiety is to think of excuses to escape a potentially uncomfortable situation. These safety behaviors,although useful for reducing anxiety in the short term,might become maladaptive over the long term by prolonging anxiety and fear of nonthreatening situations. This problem is commonly experienced in anxiety disorders. Treatments such as exposure and response prevention focus on eliminating safety behaviors due to the detrimental role safety behaviors have in mental disorders. There is a disputed claim that safety behaviors can be beneficial to use during the early stages of treatment.
The Social Interaction Anxiety Scale (SIAS) is a self-report scale that measures distress when meeting and talking with others that is widely used in clinical settings and among social anxiety researchers. The measure assesses social anxiety disorder,which is fear or anxiety about one or more social situations where the individual is subject to possible scrutiny.
Thomas Hubert Ollendick is an American psychologist known for his work in clinical child and adolescent psychology and cognitive behavior therapy with children. From 1999 to the present,he has been a University Distinguished Professor of psychology at Virginia Tech,and the Director of their Child Study Center.
Michelle G. Craske is an Australian academic who is currently serving as Professor of Psychology,Psychiatry,and Behavioral Sciences,Miller Endowed Chair,Director of the Anxiety and Depression Research Center,and Associate Director of the Staglin Family Music Center for Behavioral and Brain Health at the University of California,Los Angeles. She is known for her research on anxiety disorders,including phobia and panic disorder,and the use of fear extinction through exposure therapy as treatment. Other research focuses on anxiety and depression in childhood and adolescence and the use of cognitive behavioral therapy as treatment. Craske has served as President of the Association for Behavioral and Cognitive Therapy. She was a member of the DSM-IV work group on Anxiety Disorders and the DSM-5 work group on Anxiety,Obsessive Compulsive Spectrum,Posttraumatic,and Dissociative Disorders,while chairing the sub-work group on Anxiety Disorders. She is the Editor-in-chief of Behaviour Research and Therapy.
Anne Marie Albano is a clinical psychologist known for her clinical work and research on psychosocial treatments for anxiety and mood disorders,and the impact of these disorders on the developing youth. She is the CUCARD professor of medical psychology in psychiatry at Columbia University,the founding director of the Columbia University Clinic for Anxiety and Related Disorders (CUCARD),and the clinical site director at CUCARD of the New York Presbyterian Hospital's Youth Anxiety Center.
