Anxiety disorders are generally divided into psychologically induced anxiety disorders, organic anxiety disorders, and substance-induced anxiety disorders. While organic anxiety disorders are triggered by a physical condition such as hyperthyroidism, substance-induced anxiety disorders are triggered by the use of certain medications or drugs.
Psychologically induced anxiety disorders can be further divided into phobias, panic disorders, and generalized anxiety disorders.
Phobias
Phobias are defined as pronounced, pathological fears of a situation that is not threatening in real terms or is hardly threatening at all. If one bases the initial definition of fear on “targeted fear,” one can also speak of pathologically exaggerated fear. However, the term phobia is not completely clear – there are also some phobias that are not necessarily pathological (for example, phagophobia).
In the common classifications, three groups of phobias are distinguished:
- Agoraphobia: originally the fear of wide places. Meanwhile, the term includes all situations in which there is already a “fear of expectation” before they occur (which is why this situation is avoided). Agoraphobia often occurs together with panic attacks. It usually begins in the second decade of life and affects mostly women.
- Social phobias: fear of triggering an embarrassing situation through awkward behavior. Social phobia usually begins during adolescence and is often accompanied by severe self-doubt and a tendency to abuse substances. Different forms of social phobia include blush phobia, gynecophobia (fear of the feminine), speech phobia and fear of failure.
- Specific phobias: persistent fear of a specific object (for example, an animal) or a specific situation (for example, thunderstorm, doctor’s visit). In the specific phobia, anxiety symptoms are already produced by the imagination of the trigger. Most often, this form of phobia begins in childhood.
Types of specific phobias
Specific phobias include:
- Fear of the dark (not necessarily pathological).
- Fear of flying (not necessarily pathological)
- Xenophobia (xenophobia; disease value controversial).
- Fear of heights (acrophobia; not necessarily pathological).
- Claustrophobia (fear of confined or enclosed spaces, often colloquially referred to as claustrophobia).
- Performance anxiety
- Examination anxiety (not necessarily pathological)
- Swallowing fear (phagophobia; not necessarily pathological).
- School phobia, school anxiety
- Syringe fear or fear of visiting a doctor
- Zoophobia (fear of animals, for example spiders = arachnophobia or dogs = kynophobia).
Typical of phobias is that they are predictable, that is, always occur in certain situations and in such a way that the fear is far stronger than the trigger “deserves”.
Panic Disorders
Panic disorders are characterized by repeated severe anxiety attacks that are either linked to specific situations or triggers (panic disorder with agoraphobia) or occur unpredictably and suddenly (panic disorder without agoraphobia). They are accompanied by a strong fruit of dying or losing control and pronounced physical symptoms. Frequently, sufferers are admitted to the outpatient clinic as an emergency with the suspicion of a physical ailment such as a heart attack.
Panic disorders include:
- Fear of death (not necessarily pathological).
- Separation anxiety (not necessarily pathological)
- Anticipatory anxiety (fear of fear or the unknown, occurs in both panic disorder and phobias).
Generalized anxiety disorders
In this anxiety disorder, it is typical that various everyday situations are coupled with internal tension, worry and apprehension; in addition, there are also physical complaints such as palpitations, sweating and feelings of anxiety, as well as psychological symptoms such as jumpiness, restlessness, concentration and sleep problems.
For the diagnosis to be justified, the symptoms must be present for at least six months.
