The characteristics of phobias, depression and OCD

• Phobias are extreme irrational fears of certain objects or situations. Example include arachnophobia (fear of spiders) and claustrophobia (a fear of enclosed spaces).
• Three key behavioural characteristics of phobias are avoidance, panic and failure to function.
• Two key emotional characteristics are anxiety and fear
• Three key behavioural characteristics of phobias are avoidance (behavioural adaptations made to prevent encountering the phobic object or situation), panic (an uncontrollable physical response such as screaming, escaping, or hyperventilating), and failure to function (inability to conduct normal necessary behaviours due to excessive thoughts of the phobia and/or avoidance).
• Two key emotional characteristics are anxiety (an uncomfortable high arousal state that inhibits relaxation and pleasurable emotions. Thought is focused on a future encounter with the phobic object or situation) and fear (an intense emotional state of panic linked to physiological fight or flight response when presented with the phobic object or situation).
• Two key cognitive characteristics of phobias are irrational beliefs (sufferers overstate the potential danger of the phobic object or importance of the social situation) and reduced cognitive capacity (sufferers focus their attention on the phobic object to the extent that it interferes with other tasks).
• The three subtypes of phobias are simple/specific phobias (fears of objects), social phobias (fear of social interactions that could cause rejection or embarrassment) and agoraphobia (fear of leaving a safe environment).
• Obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD) is an anxiety disorder defined by obsessions and compulsions
• Obsessions are reoccuring thoughts that cause anxiety
• Compulsions are repetitive behaivours to the obsessions in order to prevent or reduce anxiety
• Three key behavioural traits of OCD are compulsions: compulsions are repetitive (behaviours performed repeatedly as sufferers feel compelled to repeat behaviours), compulsions reduce anxiety (for most sufferers, the compulsions reduce the anxiety produced by obsessions) and avoidance (sufferers avoid behaviour to avoid being in the presence of objects/situations that trigger obsessions)
• Two key emotional traits of OCD are extreme anxiety (caused by the constant presence of the persistent obsessive thoughts and the fear associated with them. Also attempting to resist the urge to carry out compulsions can cause anxiety) and distress/depression (low mood due to not being able to engage in enjoyable activities and a feeling of not being in control of own behaviour).
• Two key cognitive traits of OCD are recurrent thoughts (intrusive unpleasant thoughts that are anxiety-producing. Often of the worst case scenario or something else that distresses the person) and understanding the irrationality (sufferers know that the worst case scenarios imagined by their catastrophic thinking are unlikely, but are still unable to control them).
• Depression is a mood disorder, where the suffer experiences low mood and low energy levels.
• Three behavioural characteristics of depression are a reduction in activity levels (includes lethargy, and lacking the energy to perform everyday activities. Anhedonia is the lack of pleasure usually felt doing enjoyable activities, leading to a reduction in social behaviour), change in eating behaviour (either results in significant weight gain or weight loss) and an increase in aggression( can be towards other people but aggressive acts can also take form of self-harm).