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Understanding General Anxiety Disorder |
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Written by Kathy Moran
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General Anxiety Disorder or GAD, is an often debilitating disease that can happen anytime in a person’s life. Interestingly enough, GAD is most prevalent between the childhood years and middle age. In other words teenagers and young adults are the most susceptible to anxiety disorders. GAD is very much related to stress and an inability to deal with that stress.
What Causes Anxiety?
We all experience anxiety to some degree. We can have feelings of anxiety over money, relationships, job or school changes, divorce, or death of a loved one. The difference between ordinary anxiety feelings and anxiety disorder is the amount of time and energy put into the worry and anxious feelings.
Usually a person will get beyond the worst of the worries and anxiety within a few days to a few weeks depending on the situation. With an anxiety disorder the person can’t seem to let it go. The worries and anxiety feelings take over the person’s life to an unrealistic degree. They can’t seem to get beyond the worries.
For teenagers the stress may come from school itself. They may be worried about exams and passing or failing. This worry can sometimes take over a child’s life. It can also be a family situation-a divorce or a dysfunctional family situation that creates so much stress that it takes all their energy and concern to deal with it. Relationships of any kind-friends, first loves, and immediate family, or even teachers or neighbors, can cause anxiety with all the variations and situations possible.
Recognizing And Dealing With GADSometimes just the thought of actually getting through the day will seem overwhelming and cause feelings of great anxiety. GAD comes on gradually, so it’s hard to recognize in the early stages. Worries and anxiety may seem ‘normal’ at first, then seemingly ordinary worries or concerns will become more earth shaking and traumatic. Soon the person may be spending hours or whole days worrying and upset about some worry that seems ordinary to others.
Most people that develop GAD will need medication and therapy to get back to a regular type of life. Some will never shake it completely even with medications.
But most will be able to resume a functional way of life with the medication and therapy help. Some people choose to treat the disorder in their own way, staying away from medications. Some can be treated to a certain degree with only therapy help and the patient’s own vigilance.
However, the person will probably not be as capable of functioning to their full capacity without medications, but will do alright if their life isn’t too stressful. They may not be capable of going back to a job they had held before the anxiety disorder hit, but could possibly do something much less stressful. That would all depend on the type and severity of their disorder. Anxiety disorders of any kind are life changing. The disorder can even calm down for a time then flare up suddenly again over another slightly stressful situation.
It will most likely be with the person throughout their life and will require therapy and/or medications if not continuously, then in the intervals during the flare-ups. So if you are a friend or a family member of a person with any of the anxiety disorders, watch carefully for signs or symptoms of anxiety, so necessary treatments can be started at the beginning of the anxiety out breaks.
Other Anxiety DisordersThere are other stress related disorders that tie into or are in the same family of anxiety disorders. A few of these are obsessive-compulsive disorder and panic disorder, post traumatic stress disorder and social anxiety disorder.
Each disorder offers some variations on the symptoms or root causes of a General Anxiety Disorder, but they are all generally treated in the same way with some of the same medications.
SummarySome anxiety is normal. However when the person spends a good part of their day obsessing over problems and unable to deal with their normal activities, anxiety becomes a medical disorder. At this point the person with increased anxiety should see their doctor and talk to them about their symptoms and severity of the problem.
There is treatment available. Usually these treatments include learning relaxation techniques, talking to a therapist and even medication. General Anxiety Disorder is most prevalent in teenagers and middle aged adults. |
