Anxiety disorder is a general term that refers to different forms of abnormal and pathological fear and anxiety. A form of mental illness, anxiety disorders come in two forms or symptoms; continuous and episodic.This type of illness affect about 18% of the US population (around 40 million) yearly.
People experience mild anxiety in stressful situations but those last briefly. A first date, a job interview or the first day in school are examples of these. The feeling of anxiety usually disappears after.
With an anxiety disorder, the feeling of fear and uncertainty can last from 6 months up. This also can trigger other mental or physical illness including alcohol or substance abuse, which may mask anxiety symptoms or make them worse.
Some forms of anxiety disorders are:
- Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder (OCD)
- Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD)
- Social Phobia (Social Anxiety Disorder)
- Phobias (specific)
- Generalized Anxiety Disorder (GAD)
Freud's theory of unconscious conflict linked to anxiety symptoms in new U-M brain research
An experiment that Sigmund Freud could never have imagined 100 years ago may help lend scientific support for one of his key theories, and help connect it with current neuroscience.
Today at the 101st Annual Meeting of the American Psychoanalytic Association, a University of Michigan professor who has spent decades applying scientific methods to the study of psychoanalysis will present new data supporting a causal link between the psychoanalytic concept known as unconscious conflict, and the conscious symptoms experienced by people with anxiety disorders such as phobias.
Howard Shevrin, Ph.D., emeritus professor of psychology in the U-M Medical School's Department of Psychiatry, will present data from experiments performed in U-M's Ormond and Hazel Hunt Laboratory.
