Over the years, the DSM has naturally changed. Homosexuality is no longer a disorder, for example. The number of described disorders has greatly increased, from 130 disorders in the original manual to 237 disorders in the current manual. Categories of diagnoses have also been changed over time. The downside of the DSM-5 is that it turns human conditions into pathologies so that many people will have some type of pathology according to the manual. The International Classification of Diseases or the ICD is another classification manual developed by the World Health Organization or WHO. It was developed after World War II and has been revised. There are similarities and differences between the manual and the DSM-5. The current goal is to somehow coordinate the two manuals. The ICD is used more for clinical diagnosis, while the DSM is used more for research purposes.
ANXIETY DISORDERS Anxiety is not the same thing as fear. Anxiety does not necessarily have an imminent threat, while fear has some time of obvious and imminent threat. Fear is an instant reaction, while anxiety tends to be pervasive. Both involve avoidance, apprehension, and cautiousness. Anxiety does not have to be a bad thing; it can be motivating and can precipitate changes in behavior. The person with an anxiety disorder has an experience that is disruptive to them, is persistent, and is out of proportion to the real threat. Anxiety disorders are common and are frequently comorbid with each other. A type of anxiety disorder is specific phobia. This is the distressing and persistent fear of a certain thing, such as flying, the dentist, or certain animals. The person knows it is an irrational fear but they cannot help it. There is a great desire to avoid the source of the fear. In order to be a specific phobia, the symptoms need to disrupt the person s life. Certain types of therapy can be used to decrease the impact of the symptoms on the person s life. Agoraphobia is a separately listed phobia, which involves having a fear of places where the person cannot find a way to escape. Panic disorder is also a different disorder. Phobias in general come out of learning theories, such as vicarious learning, classical
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