Anxiety Disorders as Presented in Treatments that Work: A Textbook for Counselors

The topic of disorders addressed in the current textbook chapters are classified, in their varying forms, as anxiety-based disorders. More specifically, these are Generalized Anxiety Disorder, Panic Disorder and Phobias, including Social Phobia. Unlike the literature on Attention-Deficit Disorder, the diagnoses presented here are effectively treated with both psychosocial and pharmacological treatment modalities. Each, in the appropriate form, can provide significant effect in amelioration of symptoms. The following pages discuss this class of disorder in greater detail, as well as present an evaluation of treatment efficacies, concerning both the pharmacological and non-pharmacological categories.

While all anxiety disorders maintain a commonality in symptomology via the presence of the anxiety component, itself, they each possess a designated set of criteria that make each diagnosis individually distinct from the others. Panic disorder, the first diagnosis addressed in the text, is appropriately marked by panic attacks that consist of certain physical symptoms, such as "racing heart, shortness of breath, dizziness and trembling" (p.302).

In addition, the fear of a recurrent attack is so intense that it interrupts functioning, resulting in extreme worry, avoidance of places or situations, and severe negative cognitions surrounding a reoccurrence. In its most severe form, an individual may attempt to avoid situations to such an extent that they simply can no longer bring themselves to leave the house. Known as agoraphobia, this is more of a resulting side-effect of the panic disorder, rather than an independent diagnosis, in and of itself.