Intrusive imagery in anxiety disorders in adolescents

Background: mental imagery plays an important role in models of anxiety disorders in adults. This understanding rests on qualitative and quantitative studies. Qualitative studies of imagery in anxious adolescents have not been reported in the literature.

Aims: to address this gap, we aimed to explore adolescents’ experiences of spontaneous imagery in the context of anxiety disorders.

Method: we conducted one-to-one semi-structured interviews, with 13 adolescents aged 13-17 years with a DSM-5 anxiety disorder, regarding their experiences of spontaneous imagery. We analysed participants’ responses using thematic analysis.

Results: we identified five super-ordinate themes relating to adolescents’ influences on images, distractions from images, controllability of images, emotional responses to imagery and contextual influences on imagery.

Conclusions: our findings suggest spontaneous images are an important phenomenon in anxiety disorders in adolescents, associated with negative emotions during and after their occurrence. Contextual factors and adolescents’ own cognitive styles appear to influence adolescents’ experiences of images in anxiety disorders.

Adolescent, Adult, Anxiety, Anxiety Disorders, Emotions, Humans, Imagery, Psychotherapy, Imagination

10.31234/osf.io/yqka6

1352-4658

556-568

Ghita, Ana

4ca9fd53-9f42-4204-b7d6-b33d38086d14

Tooley, Emma

4bc4bf39-2584-435f-9116-1f6e5e975fad

Lawrence, Peter J.

0d45e107-38ef-4932-aec1-504573de01ef

1 September 2021

Ghita, Ana

4ca9fd53-9f42-4204-b7d6-b33d38086d14

Tooley, Emma

4bc4bf39-2584-435f-9116-1f6e5e975fad

Lawrence, Peter J.

0d45e107-38ef-4932-aec1-504573de01ef

Ghita, Ana, Tooley, Emma and Lawrence, Peter J. (2021) Intrusive imagery in anxiety disorders in adolescents. Behavioural and Cognitive Psychotherapy, 49 (5), 556-568. (doi:10.31234/osf.io/yqka6).

Record type: Article

Abstract

Text

BCP ms_R1_clean - Accepted Manuscript

Available under License Creative Commons Attribution.

Download (81kB)

Text

ms_R1_clean

Available under License Creative Commons Attribution Non-commercial No Derivatives.

Download (82kB)

More information

Accepted/In Press date: 4 November 2000

e-pub ahead of print date: 29 December 2020

Published date: 1 September 2021

Additional Information: Funding Information: Funding. P.L. was supported by an NIHR Research Professorship to Professor Cathy Creswell (NIHR-RP 2014-04-018) while conducting this study. The views expressed are those of the authors and not necessarily those of the NHS, the NIHR, or the Department of Health. The NIHR had no involvement in any aspect of this paper. A.G. and E.T. were self-funding MSc students at the University of Reading, UK. Publisher Copyright: © 2021 The Author(s). Published by Cambridge University Press. Copyright: Copyright 2021 Elsevier B.V., All rights reserved.

Keywords: Adolescent, Adult, Anxiety, Anxiety Disorders, Emotions, Humans, Imagery, Psychotherapy, Imagination