ing, stiffness, or headaches. Worrying thoughts in the anxiety-stricken individuals often relate to imagined psychological or physiological harm. These three components--behavioral factors, physical symptoms, and worrying thoughts--usually occur in combination and will vary in the degree of their intensity (Kennerly, 1990, pp. 12-13).
Problem anxiety often persists because the individual allows it to develop into a self-sustaining cycle. For example, a woman who experiences an anxiety trauma episode in a darkened theater might subsequently avoid all dark places and all theaters. Refusal to confront a situation makes it increasingly more difficult to face. As the anxiety symptoms exacerbate, the problem anxiety cycle builds until the anticipation of an event or situation is enough, in itself, to produce anxiety.
The Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM-IV) places anxiety in a class by itself when it becomes the main symptom of a disorder that requires the intervention of mental health professionals. DSM-IV describes both the anxiety "building blocks" and the codable anxiety disorders. The anxiety "building blocks," agoraphobia and panic attacks, occur in the context of several disorders and are not codable disorders in and of themselves. Agoraphobia is described as the fear of being in places or situations where there may be difficulty in obtaining help or being able to escape if a severe onset of anxiety occurred. A panic attack is a sudden, brief episode of intense alarm that is often accompanied by dread and various symptoms such as shortness of breath, heart palpitations, and the fear of "going crazy." The following are the codable anxiety disorders:
Panic Disorder: characterized by repeated panic attacks and worry about the occurrence and nature of future attacks. (Panic Disorder is diagnosed as With Agoraphobia or Without Agoraphobia.)
Agoraphobia Without History of Panic Disorder:...