Anxiety disorders
Also known as: anxiety disorder
Anxiety disorders are psychological disorders marked by excessive fear or worry that is out of proportion to the actual threat and interferes with daily functioning. The category includes generalized anxiety disorder, panic disorder, specific phobia, social anxiety disorder, and agoraphobia.
Anxiety itself is a normal response that prepares a person to deal with anticipated threat. It becomes a disorder when the fear or worry is disproportionate, persists well beyond the triggering circumstance, and produces significant distress or impairment. Diagnostic criteria for several of these conditions require symptoms lasting six months or more, which separates a disorder from a transient reaction to stress.
The DSM-5 anxiety disorders chapter includes several distinct presentations. Generalized anxiety disorder involves persistent, difficult-to-control worry across many domains, with restlessness, fatigue, difficulty concentrating, irritability, muscle tension, or sleep disturbance. Panic disorder involves recurrent unexpected panic attacks — abrupt surges of intense fear with palpitations, shortness of breath, dizziness, and a sense of impending doom — plus persistent worry about further attacks. Specific phobia is marked fear of a particular object, social anxiety disorder centers on fear of scrutiny by others, and agoraphobia is fear of situations where escape might be difficult. Notably, DSM-5 moved obsessive-compulsive disorder and post-traumatic stress disorder into their own categories — worth remembering, since older sources group them with anxiety.
Explanations are typically framed biopsychosocially. Biological accounts point to heritability, GABA and serotonin signaling, and heightened amygdala reactivity with reduced prefrontal regulation. Learning accounts explain phobias through classical conditioning of a fear response, maintained operantly because avoidance is negatively reinforced by the relief it produces. Cognitive accounts emphasize catastrophic misinterpretation of bodily sensations and attentional bias toward threat. Treatment reflects those models: cognitive behavioral therapy with graded exposure is the first-line psychological intervention, and SSRIs and SNRIs are the standard medications, with benzodiazepines reserved for short-term use given tolerance and dependence risk.
This material is tested across several exams. AP Psychology covers anxiety disorders within mental and physical health, alongside how disorders are classified. The MCAT approaches them through individual influences on behavior and emotion, and USMLE Step 1 tests behavioral science criteria and the split between anxiety disorders and the separately classified stress and trauma-related disorders.
Key takeaways
- Anxiety disorders involve fear or worry disproportionate to the actual threat that impairs daily functioning.
- The DSM-5 category includes generalized anxiety disorder, panic disorder, specific phobia, social anxiety disorder, agoraphobia, separation anxiety disorder, and selective mutism.
- DSM-5 reclassified OCD and PTSD into separate chapters, outside the anxiety disorders category.
- Avoidance maintains anxiety because the relief it produces is negatively reinforcing.
- Cognitive behavioral therapy with exposure and SSRI or SNRI medication are the standard treatments.