Page 20 - Vision Manual

Other Disorders that Involve Anxiety
Recently, there has been a shift in some of the rules and ways in which some disorders are classified. The disorders identified below are no longer considered anxiety disorders, but are still important to know about as they relate directly to anxiety or fear.
Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder- A person with this diagnosis struggles with repetitive, obsessive thoughts and/or the compulsion to engage in behavior that serves no direct function and disrupts day to day activity. An obsession might include recurrent and persistent thoughts, urges and images that are intrusive and unwanted. Attempts to ignore these thoughts are often difficult and require intensive practice and distraction. A compulsion includes repetitive behaviors that the individual feels driven to perform in response to an obsession or according to rules that must be applied rigidly. Compulsions include things like hand washing, checking, praying, counting, or silently repeating words. In order to qualify to be an obsession or compulsion, these activities must be time-consuming or cause distress and impairment. Individuals with this disorder will oftentimes believe that if they do not follow through with the obsession or compulsion then terrible things might happen.
Posttraumatic Stress Disorder- Trauma affects everyone differently, and some individuals develop a strong response to trauma that they have gone through. To be diagnosed with PTSD, a person must have directly experienced or witnessed a traumatic event in which death, violence, or injury had occurred or might have occurred. The response to this trauma can include vivid unwanted memories, distressing dreams, flashbacks, disassociation (feeling as if one isn’t in one’s body), avoidance of places similar to the trauma, avoidance of reminders of the trauma, difficulty remembering details of trauma, and worry about the trauma re-occurring that is excessive. Other symptoms include things similar to depression like sleep disturbances, anhedonia, and feeling disconnected from others.
Managing Anxiety Disorder Symptoms
Anxiety disorder symptoms respond most to skills and strategies that directly address the areas that the anxiety is affecting (behavior, thoughts, physical well-being). Coping strategies will be discussed in depth later, but below are a few techniques.
 Deep breathing using your abdomen to slow heart rate and focus the mind on breathing and body processes.
 Pleasant imagery to redirect thoughts and focus on the positive.
 Thought stopping to directly confront cyclical, repetitive thinking with a firm
command to stop. Thought stopping needs to be followed with distraction or
another method to help reduce and redirect the cycle of thought.
 Self soothe to make use of one’s senses to soothe and create a sense of serenity.
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