unpleasant feeling of fear and apprehension

autonomic arousal and uncontrollability

diffuse, future oriented mood state

alarm reaction to immediate threat

autonomic nervous system surge

specific

cognitive

somatic (psy)

emotional

behavioral

most basic anxiety disorder

central feature is chronic worry

lifetime prevalence - 5.7%

2x as often in women

onset in childhood and adolescence

genetic component

familial aggregation

muscle tension

interpret ambiguous as threatening

believe higher likelihood of threatening events

threatening stimuli grab attention more easily

more EEG activity in frontal lobe where language is located

attention devoted to worry, no attention for mental images

think more in words

right lobe is for understanding

psychological

• behaviorally - treat source of worry like phobia (exposure)
• relaxation techniques
• cognitive approaches to re-appraise
• help identify how they think
• identify inaccurate/unhealthy thoughts

pharmacological

• benzodiazepines
• buspirone