What is Generalized Anxiety Disorder?.
Are you suffering from GAD?
If you are prone to worry about every day events, you could be suffering from a condition called Generalized Anxiety Disorder or GAD as it is more commonly known. People suffering from this kind of disorder always feel that something disastrous is going to happen, and they cannot stop themselves from worrying about money, health, work, family, college or friends. This worry is unrealistic, making the life a constant state of fear, dread and worry. The anxiety starts dominating the person’s perception, and starts interfering with the daily functioning such as studies, work, relationships or social activities. Click here for more information on Anxiety.
What Are The Symptoms of GAD?
Anxiety can affect the logical thought process of a person leading to a variety of sysmptoms which can manifest themselves physically from any or all of the following: irritability, nausea, headaches, sweating, restlessness, tiredness, frequent urination, insominia and being easily alarmed.
What causes anxiety is not yet fully understood but it is believed there are various factors involved that contribute to its development, including genetics, brain chemistry and stress in the sufferers’ environment. If you have a family history of anxiety or depression you may be more likely to suffer from it and GAD has been linked to abnormal levels of neurotransmitters in the brain. These are the chemical messengers passing the information between nerve cells, and when they get out of balance, the brain does not receive messages properly. This alters the brain’s reaction to certain situations, causing anxiety.
Certain unpleasant events, like trauma, divorce, death of a loved one, or job stress may cause anxiety, and it becomes worse if there is high level of stress. Click here for more information on Anxiety Therapy.
What Treaments are Available?
Anxiety is treated by psychologist, psychiatrist, or a mental health professionals. They are specially trained to recognize and diagnose these kind of illnesses. The treatments for anxiety may include cognitive-behavioral therapy and the use of drugs. If GAD has started to interfere with everyday functioning, medications can be very useful. These may include tranquillizers to relax and calm the patient.
By recognizing the features that cause anxious behavior, cognitive-behaviour therapy can bring about a change in thought patterns and allow sufferes to deal with them. The therapy helps by having a realistic approach towards worries, and limiting the distorted thinking.
GAD cannot be prevented, but there are some things that can be done to lessen or control the symptoms. This would include cutting back on the consumption of coffee, tea, cocoa and cola. Talk to your pharmacist or doctor before taking any over the counter herbal remedies or medicines, as they may contain the chemicals that increase the anxiety symptoms. As ever, it is important to exercise and eat a healthy balanced diet regularly. If you have suffered a traumatic experience you may need to seek the support of a counelor.
For more information visit our Anxiety Disorders Homepage.