Generalized Anxiety Disorder (GAD)
Generalized Anxiety Disorder (GAD) is the most common form of anxiety disorder and affects roughly 6.8 million adults in the U.S. every year. Women are twice as likely to be affected as men.
People affected with GAD worry excessively about several different things; life in general, health, career, safety and security of their family, and so on. This feeling of worry is persistent (lasts for 6 months or more) and has no apparent trigger or stressor as its cause.
Causes
There’s no knowing how and why it starts but it could be for any one or more of the following:
- Subjected to stressful experiences multiple times
- Having a temperament prone to negative thoughts and overthinking
- Family background
- Biological factors
How do you know if you have it?
If you have 3 or more of the following symptoms, it’s probably time to introspect and work on a cure or get in touch with a qualified practitioner.
Symptoms
- Feeling nervous and irritable
- Feel a sense of danger or impending doom
- Have trouble sleeping
- Have difficulty concentrating
- Experiencing Gastrointestinal issues
I know because until a few months ago, I was suffering from GAD. What’s worse, I had all the symptoms.
The problem developed over a period of time and it was primarily due to the pressures I faced while running my startup.
Treatment
CBT has proven to be highly effective in the treatment of GAD. It involves Imaginal and Cognitive techniques.
Imaginal exposure is in the form of self-guided therapy where patients repeatedly recount their worries to reduce the intensity of the worry.
Cognitive techniques reduce excessive worrying in patients and teach patients to change thinking patterns that lead to anxiety, overestimate risk and lead to catastrophic thinking.
What’s important is to move away from a feeling of powerlessness to a mindset where you accept the ownership of your thoughts and resulting actions and take responsibility for the areas of your life that have a lack.
And you don’t need to do it all at once. Even one step forward in the right direction leads to a chain reaction and can change your life for good.
I hope you found this useful.
As always, feedback of any kind is welcomed, so comment below or write to me at rlemos@mindwizzards.com.
Sincerely,
Ryan Lemos
References:
https://adaa.org/understanding-anxiety/generalized-anxiety-disorder-gad
