According to the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, the main characteristic of Specific Phobia is marked fear or anxiety towards a specific object or situation (eg, flying, heights, animals, receiving an injection, seeing blood). In children, fear or anxiety can be expressed by crying, outbursts of anger, immobilization or clinging.
Such a situation or object almost always causes immediate fear or anxiety and is actively avoided, or endured with intense fear or anxiety.
Fear or anxiety occurs disproportionately to the real danger represented by the object or situation.
This symptomatology is persistent, lasts for at least 6 months causing significant discomfort or impairment of functioning in social, occupational or other important areas and is not due to another mental disorder.
Panic Disorder
Secondo il Manuale Diagnostico e Statistico dei Disturbi Mentali, il Disturbo di Panico è rappresentato dalla manifestazione di Attacchi di Panico caratterizzati da paura e disagio intensi, durante il quale almeno quattro dei seguenti sintomi si sono presentati in maniera improvvisa ed in pochi minuti:
• Palpitazioni, cardiopalmo o tachicardia
• Sudorazione
• Tremori fini o a grandi scosse
• Dispnea o sensazione di soffocamento.
• Sensazione di asfissia.
• Dolore o fastidio al petto.
• Nausea o disturbi addominali.
• Sensazioni di vertigine, di instabilità, di “testa leggera” o di svenimento.
• Brividi o vampate di calore.
• Parestesie (sensazioni di torpore o di formicolio).
• Derealizzazione (sensazione di irrealtà) o depersonalizzazione (essere distaccati da se stessi).
• Paura di perdere il controllo o di “impazzire”.
• Paura di morire.
Generalized Anxiety Disorder
According to the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, Generalized Anxiety Disorder is characterized by excessive anxiety and worry on most days for at least 6 months that the individual has difficulty controlling and that are associated with at least three of the six following symptoms:
• Restlessness, or feeling tense, “with nerves on the edge of the skin”.
• Easy fatigue.
• Difficulty concentrating or memory lapses.
• Irritability.
• Muscle tension.
• Sleep disturbances (difficulty falling or staying asleep, or restless and unsatisfactory sleep).
This symptomalogy causes significant distress and / or impairment in social, occupational, or other important areas of functioning and is not determined by the effects of a substance (for example, a drug, a drug) or another medical condition (for example, a drug). hyperthyroidism or another menal disorder).
Post-traumatic Stress Disorder
According to the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, PTSD is characterized by intense fear, feelings of helplessness or horror (agitation in children) that develop following exposure to a traumatic event in which the person has experienced, witnessed or been confronted with events involving death, or the threat of death, or serious injury, or a threat to one’s own or others’ physical integrity.
Obsessive Compulsive Disorder
According to the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, Obsessive Compulsive Disorder is characterized by obsessions or compulsions.
Obsessions are recurring and persistent thoughts, impulses or images, experienced as intrusive or inappropriate, cause marked anxiety or discomfort, they are not simply excessive preoccupation with real-life problems and the person attempts to ignore or suppress or neutralize them with other thoughts or actions recognizing that they are a product of one’s own mind (and not imposed from the outside as in the insertion of thought).
Summary
Compulsions are repetitive behaviors (e.g., washing hands, tidying up, checking) or mental actions (e.g., praying, counting, repeating words mentally) that the person feels compelled to perform in response to an obsession o according to rules that must be strictly applied and are aimed at preventing or reducing discomfort or preventing some feared events or situations; however, these behaviors or mental actions are not realistically connected with what they are designed to neutralize or prevent, or are clearly excessive.