Types of Anxiety Disorders

This video provides an overview of different types of anxiety disorders, including Generalized Anxiety Disorder, Phobias, Social Anxiety Disorder, Separation Anxiety Disorder, and Panic Disorder. It explains the characteristics of each disorder, how they manifest, and their potential impacts on daily life.

There are a number of different types of anxiety disorders. Common ones include Generalized Anxiety Disorder (GAD), Phobias, Social Anxiety Disorder, Separation Anxiety Disorder, and Panic Disorder. Let's start with Generalized Anxiety Disorder. GAD is characterized by ongoing, persistent, and excessive worry that interferes with daily life. People with GAD experience thoughts of worry for hours each day. This worry causes a great deal of distress and prevents them from being able to focus on tasks. Next, we have Phobias. A phobia is a deep fear response to a triggering object, event, or situation. Phobias can arise in response to trauma, can be learned behavior - for instance, if a parent has a phobia, their child may develop the same phobia - or phobias can come about for no reason at all. A person with a phobia often avoids the trigger at all costs and experiences severe symptoms of anxiety, often panic, when presented with the trigger. Phobias often build off of one another. For instance, if a person has a phobia towards balloons, it may be extended to a phobia of parties as well. Next, we have Social Anxiety Disorder, or fear of social interaction. Social anxiety surpasses shyness. The thought or experience of social interaction causes a person with social anxiety to experience severe symptoms of anxiety, or even panic attacks. People with social anxiety often avoid social events. They may even avoid attending school or social activities they enjoy. Next, we have Separation Anxiety Disorder, or the fear of detaching from a person, object, or situation. Separation anxiety is common among children in relation to their parents. A person with separation anxiety experiences extreme symptoms of anxiety or panic when they separate from, or even think about separating from, their attachment. For example, a child with separation anxiety may experience panic when their parent drops them off at school. Lastly, we have Panic Disorder, or the sudden feeling of panic or terror, repeatedly and without warning. These episodes of panic are often referred to as panic attacks. In some cases, a person with panic disorder may experience panic attacks with little to no reason or trigger. Although panic disorder is characterized by the experience of panic attacks, a person does not need to have panic attacks to be diagnosed with this disorder.