ABSTRACT
We start with four brief examples of complex anxiety, in particular lifecontexts:
In October 1998, 400 young people were enjoying a discotheque in an old warehouse in GoÈteborg, Sweden. At midnight a ®re erupted and swept through the building, leaving 63 dead. Two hundred and thirteen teenagers were physically injured. The majority of survivors had witnessed terrifying scenes. At 18-month follow-up, 25 per cent of the survivors were experiencing diagnosable levels of post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) ± ¯ashbacks, nightmares, intense distress at memories or reminders of the event, efforts to avoid thoughts and activities that might remind one of the event, hypervigilance, and dif®culties in concentration. Schoolwork had been badly affected, with a high rate of school drop-out, and for those attending, dif®culties in concentration, and lower grades (Broberg et al., 2005).
