- Who We Serve - Our Approach - About Us Mood Disorders
including Depression These are disturbances in emotions that
inhibit an individual from functioning well be it from
depression or mania. It includes major depression as well as
bipolar disorder. Anxiety disorder is a blanket term covering
several different forms of abnormal, pathological anxieties,
fears and phobias. Clinical usage, "fear", "anxiety" and
"phobia" have distinct meanings, though the words are often used
interchangeably in casual discourse to describe ubiquitous
emotions. Clinically, a phobia is defined in the Diagnostic and
Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, 4th edition (DSM IV) as
a "persistent or irrational fear." Clinically, fear is defined
as an emotional and physiological response to a recognized
external threat. Anxiety is an unpleasant emotional state, the
sources of which are less readily identified. Distinguishing
among different anxiety disorders is important, since accurate
diagnosis is more likely to result in effective tr