12.2 Anxiety and Dissociative Disorders: Fearing the World Around Us

Question 1

anxiety

Answer 1

• the nervousness or agitation that we sometimes experience, often about something that is going to happen

Question 2

anxiety disorders

Answer 2

• psychological disturbances marked by irrational fears, often of everyday objects and situations

Question 3

generalized anxiety disorder (GAD)

Answer 3

• a psychological disorder diagnosed in situations in which a person has been excessively worrying about money, health, work, family life, or relationships for at least 6 months, even though he or she knows that the concerns are exaggerated, and when the anxiety causes significant distress and dysfunction

Question 4

panic disorder

Answer 4

• a psychological disorder characterized by sudden attacks of anxiety and terror that have led to significant behavioral changes in the person’s life

Question 5

phobia

Answer 5

• a specific fear of a certain object, situation, or activity

Question 6

social phobia

Answer 6

• extreme shyness around people or discomfort in social situations

Question 7

agoraphobia

Answer 7

• anxiety about being in places or situations from which escape might be difficult or embarrassing, or in which help may not be available

Question 8

Obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD)

Answer 8

• a psychological disorder that is diagnosed when an individual continuously experiences distressing or frightening thoughts, and engages in obsessions (repetitive thoughts) orcompulsions (repetitive behaviors) in an attempt to calm these thoughts

Question 9

dissociative disorder

Answer 9

• a condition that involves disruptions or breakdowns of memory, awareness, and identity

Question 10

Dissociative amnesia

Answer 10

• a psychological disorder that involves extensive, but selective, memory loss, but in which there is no physiological explanation for the forgetting

Question 11

dissociative fugue

Answer 11

• a psychological disorder in which an individual loses complete memory of his or her identity and may even assume a new one, often far from home

Question 12

Dissociative identity disorder

Answer 12

• a psychological disorder in which two or more distinct and individual personalities exist in the same person, and there is an extreme memory disruption regarding personal information about the other personalities