SOWK 2035 Chapter Notes - Chapter 9: Generalized Anxiety Disorder, Anxiety Disorder, Specific Phobia

• School: York University
• Department: Social Work
• Course: SOWK 2035
• Professor: Susan Gallagher

Document Summary

Characterized by 2 components: 1) a diffuse, unpleasant and vague experience of apprehension and 2) physical symptoms such as headache, restlessness and difficulty sleeping. Anxiety can have an adaptive function, warning the person of impending risk and allowing the person to take remedial action. The symptoms of anxiety only become problematic when a patterns builds that impedes someone"s ability to live their life. Anxiety may not be tied to specific events and may instead be a more general sense of unease, discomfort and foreboding, making it difficult for a person to be able to take actions that will reduce distress. Most common of all mental health problems. United states lifetime prevalence is 28. 8 percent, most often involving social phobias (12. 5 percent) Age of onset lower than any other disorder, with median age of 11 years. Median age of onset for mood disorders is 30. 50 percent of 1600 university of alberta students identified feeling overwhelming anxiety in the past year.