Generalized Anxiety Disorder (GAD)

Most people know what it is like to be afraid – when their hearts start beating faster, and their breathing becomes quicker, and more pronounced. This usually occurs when we face danger, or some other situation that causes us to feel scared that we may come to harm, or others close to us are being threatened. However, if you have generalized anxiety disorder doesn’t need to actually be any danger – the sense of fear is just there, for no specific reason.

A person is said to have generalized anxiety disorder if they are suffering chronic and repetitive incidents of anxiety that last days, weeks or months, stretched out over 6 months or more. A person suffering from GAD will worry incessantly about everyday events, and sometimes global ones that results in them fearing something appalling is going to happen to them or their loved ones. Some people with GAD are aware of their continuously anxious state, but often it’s not until a family member or friend points it out that they notice what is happening to them.

Signs that someone has generalized anxiety disorder include – trembling; twitching; shakiness; muscle tension, aches, or soreness; restlessness; easy fatigue; breathlessness, and smothering sensations; hyperventilation; palpitations, or rapid heart rate; chest pain; sweating or cold clammy hands; dry mouth; dizziness or lightheadedness; headache; nausea, diarrhea, or other abdominal distress; flushes, or chills; frequent urination; feeling on edge; irritability; difficulty concentrating; disturbed sleep; and of course, fear.

According to the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, a person has GAD if they have three or more of the symptoms of restlessness, easy fatigue, poor concentration, irritability, muscle tension, and sleep disturbance. “I worry all the time,” is a frequent cry from those who in fact have GAD.

Research has indicated that those most affected are women, single persons, minorities, and those with low socio-economic status. Generalized anxiety disorder affects daily relationships with family, and friends, as well as interactions and performance with colleagues at work or school. But what differentiates GAD from other anxiety disorders is the fact that people with generalized anxiety disorder have no specific focus for their distress. It can be general, and random, hence the term.

Another sign that all is not well with someone and that they are suffering from GAD is the fact that those afflicted will be frequent users of health care facilities, and resources, and usually have just one continual health complaint which they describe in some way that indicates their main problem is anxiety rather than an actual physical ailment.

A simple way to determine whether someone has generalized anxiety disorder is to ask them two questions:

1. Have they during the previous four weeks been bothered by feeling worried, tense or anxious most of the time?
2. Are they frequently tense, irritable and having trouble sleeping?

If the answer is “yes” to either of those two questions, then further investigation is warranted and it is highly likely that underlying causes of their worry will be forthcoming, and links will be discovered as to their stresses and fears which might relate to anxiety in their teenage years, family concerns, reliance on alcohol and drugs, issues to do with diet. The cause might be something as serious a deep-rooted experience of sexual or physical abuse in the past…or simply be a matter of taking in too much caffeine.

The key is to listen for urgency for generalized anxiety disorder can be caused by one of many triggers.

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