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Lecture Notes

In the next few slides we'll describe both anxiety and depression, and we'll talk briefly about what we know about the relationship between physical activity and these diseases, and we'll start with anxiety. Anxiety is a normal feeling from time to time when we're faced with either real or imagined situations in our environment that cause us fear, but anxiety disorders are not normal, and these really come from a heightened arousal or fear over a sustained period of time. And it's really important to note that there are many different types of anxiety disorders, so it's not just that you have anxiety. There are different types; anxiety is kind of an umbrella term, and there are different types of anxiety disorders underneath that umbrella term of anxiety, and some of the most common are listed here on the slide—social anxiety, panic disorder, generalized anxiety disorder, etc. -and they're also described very well in your textbook. So we're not going to spend a ton of time here on this PowerPoint describing each one of these, but you should know that these disorders can have different symptoms, and they occur under different situations. So, for example, social anxiety disorder is a chronic fear of being watched or judged by others, and may result in, among other things, trembling or nausea when presented with certain social situations. So, for example, someone might have situations at work or school that give them these symptoms. Another anxiety disorder in comparison, post-traumatic stress disorder, involves frightening memories of a previous traumatic experience. We're hearing about this a lot now with veterans that have come back from the war that have those frightening memories still on their mind as they come home. And this disorder may cause a person to have trouble sleeping or be easily startled. And so you can see these two disorders are very different, although they're both categorized under anxiety disorders, and so I'd encourage you to read about all of these disorders and their symptoms in your textbook.