Generalized Anxiety Disorder : Symptoms And Treatments

Generalized anxiety disorder (GAD) is an anxiety disorder that is characterized by excessive, uncontrollable and often irrational worry about everyday things that is disproportionate to the actual source of worry. This excessive worry often interferes with daily functioning, as individuals suffering GAD typically anticipate disaster, and are overly concerned about everyday matters such as health issues, money, death, family problems, friend problems, relationship problems or work difficulties.[1] They often exhibit a variety of physical symptoms, including fatigue, fidgeting, headaches, nausea, numbness in hands and feet, muscle tension, muscle aches, difficulty swallowing, bouts of difficulty breathing, trembling, twitching, irritability,

Anxiety disorders are the most common psychiatric disorder in the United States. Between 15 - 19% of the population suffers from this disorder, which impairs the quality of life and functioning (Stuart 218). What is anxiety? Abnormal Psychology describes anxiety as “an adaptive emotion that helps us plan and prepare for a possible theat.” The text book further states, “worrying about many different aspects of life becomes chronic, excessive, and unreasonable.” This is also known as generalized anxiety disorder or GAD (Butcher 201). DSM IV-TR specifies that GAD is a worry that occurs more days then not for at least 6 months, and that it must be experienced as difficult to control (Butcher 201). 25% of those that suffer from this

Generalized anxiety disorder (GAD) is characterized by persistent, excessive, and unrealistic worry about everyday things. People with the disorder often experience exaggerated fear and expect the worst, even when there is no apparent reason for concern. They anticipate disaster and are overly concerned about money, health, family, work, or other issues. This disorder affects 6.8 million adults, or 3.1% of the U.S. population, in any given year (Van der Heiden, 2011). GAD comes on gradually and can endure across the life cycle, though the risk is highest between childhood and middle age. Women are twice as likely to be affected.

One of the most common disorders in our society today is generalized anxiety disorder. I am going to dive in to the methods of treatment and thoroughly discuss the various ways this disorder is handled. I experience anxiety when it comes to being in large bodies of water and also when I see spiders. Treatment options for anxiety disorders range from herbal remedies to prescribed medication. There are so many treatment options that I had no idea were even a possibility. The treatments I am going to talk about and describe in depth are ones that I researched and were shown to have the highest success rate. This could be

Although GAD in itself can be a difficulty there is certainly typically a correlation between Generalized Anxiety Problems and other psychiatric issues. Depression phobic problems and panic issues can be seen with Generalized Anxiousness Condition.

During the Enlightenment, philosophers were starting to drift away from religion, and many new truths were beginning to be discovered. When these new ideas, or truths, started to make more sense then the certainty of religion, a state of anxiety began to grow within the human mind. As this state of anxiety grew, many anxiety disorders began to sprout and show themselves within humans. These disorders, such as certain phobias, Generalized Anxiety Disorder (GAD), Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD), and Obsessive Compulsive Disorder (OCD) began to take over many people’s lives. For many years, doctors have tried using harmful drugs to change the chemicals within the brain, to help relieve anxiety. As truth continues to be discovered, and anxiety continues to rise, therapeutic interventions will be proven to be more efficient in treating anxiety than its counterpart, the dangerous drugs that humans become dependent on.

Generalized anxiety disorder is characterized by a continuous state of excessive, uncontrollable, and pointless worry and apprehension. People with generalized anxiety disorder often worry about routine, everyday things, even though their concerns are unjustified.

Generalized anxiety disorder (GAD) is a DSM-V anxiety disorder characterized by excessive worry and apprehensiveness about a variety of present and future activities and events. 48

Many times the source that contributes to the symptoms, that triggers the onset of the anxiety attack can be hard to identify. Some causing factors can be excessive

Generalized anxiety disorder (GAD) is described as disproportionate worry or anxiety associated with life circumstances that are difficult to handle (Edmunds & Mayhew, 2014). GAD, often a chronic condition in nature, can impair a patient’s ability to function. Therefore, it is essential to

Generalized Anxiety Disorder is a disorder that I struggle with personally. It is when a person has a tense feeling of stress, and anxiety for long periods of time without any real cause of it. Even though everyone has fears, and has stress from time to time it isn’t harmful unless the anxiety and stress is keeping someone from living their life, and relaxing. Generalized Anxiety Disorder is different from other anxiety disorders because panic attacks rarely occur, and instead an overpowering sense of dread is long lasting.

Patients with generalized anxiety disorder experience worry or anxiety and a number of physical and psychological symptoms. There really

Generalized Anxiety Disorder (GAD) is characterized as a persistent anxiety that cannot be attributed to a phobic object, situation or activity.

The basis and length of Ms. Hendricks symptoms of worry, and feeling overwhelmed is closely related to Generalized Anxiety Disorder. Generalized anxiety disorder (GAD) is a highly prevalent disorder characterized by excessive worry or anxiety about everyday events, whether they are internal or external or originating in the past, present, and/or future (American Psychiatric Association, 2000). The symptoms of Generalized Anxiety Disorder result from increase, typical, inflexible interactions of cognitive, imaginal, and physiological responses that constantly perceived to be a threat (Barlow, 1988; Borkovec & Inz, 1990). The lifetime prevalence rate of Generalized Anxiety Disorder in the United States is estimated to be approximately 4–7% with current prevalence rates ranging from 1.5–3% (Blazer et al. 1991). These rates could be as high as 5–8%, if the International Classification of Diseases and Health Related Problems (ICD-10) are used as the basis for diagnosis (Ustun and Sartorius ,1995).

According to the Mayo Clinic, genetics may play a role as well as other factors, but is not fully known. Some of the risk factors for GAD is personality, genetics, and sex. With personality, a person who is shy, have negative thoughts, or who avoids dangerous situations may be more prone to generalized anxiety disorder than others are. GAD may run in the family, thus being a genetic factor. Also, women are more prone to have GAD than men. The common two treatments for GAD include medication and psychotherapy. Psychotherapy