anxiety disorder

• Separation Anxiety Disorder


  • Concerns with real or imagined separating from attachment figures
  • Separation may lead to extreme anxiety and panic attacks
  • Not entirely responsible for school absences or school avoidance
  • Do not attend school so they won't be separated with their attachment figure
  • Fear of possible separation is the central thought
  • Concerned about the proximity and safety of key attachment figures
  • At least 4 weeks (children) or 6 months or more (adults)
• Selective Mutism


  • Rare childhood disorder
  • Characterized by a lack of speech in one or more setting in which speaking is socially expected
  • Restricted to a specific social situation
  • A child could speak in one setting but cannot/do not in another setting
  • Not better explained by communication disorder
  • Only diagnosed when a child has established a capacity to speak in some social situations
  • Learn to perform avoidance and safety behaviors to avoid disasters
  • At least 1 month
• Specific Phobia


  • Irrational fear of a specific object or situation that markedly interferes with an individual's ability to function
  • Acquired through direct experience, experiencing in false alarm, and observation
  • It only fears one setting, unlike Agoraphobia (which requires 3 settings), then Specific Phobia-Situational can be diagnosed
  • 6 months or more
• Social Anxiety Disorder


  • Fear or anxiety about possible embarrassment or scrutiny
  • Can have panic attacks but it is cued by social situations
  • Typically have adequate age-appropriate social relationships and social communication capacity
  • 6 months or more
• Panic Disorder


  • Cannot be diagnosed unless full symptom panic attacks were experienced
  • Norepinephrine activities are irregular
  • Abrupt surge of intense fear or discomfort out of nowhere, with no triggers
  • Followed by persistent concerns about more attacks or the consequences of it or maladaptive change in behavior related to the attacks
• Agoraphobia


  • Developed after a person has unexpected panic attacks
  • Fear in two or more situations (public transpo, open spaces, enclosed spaces, standing in line, being outside of the home alone) due to thoughts that escape might be difficult or no one will help them in case panic-like symptoms would manifest
  • 6 months or more
• Generalized Anxiety Disorder


  • Difficulty to control worry
  • Excessive anxiety and worry occurring more days than not for at least 6 months, about a number of events or activities
  • "The world is a dangerous place"
  • Intense cognitive processing in the frontal lobes, particularly in the left hemisphere
  • Intense worrying may act as avoidance
  • Worry whether or not they are judged/evaluated
  • Fear circuit is excessively active