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Anxiety Disorder starts here

Generalised Anxiety Disorder (GAD) is a common and pervasive mental health condition characterised by persistent, excessive, and uncontrollable worry about everyday things.
It affects millions of people worldwide, impacting their daily lives and overall well-being. Read on for more info on various facets of GAD, from its symptoms and causes to its diagnosis and treatment options.
People with GAD often experience a persistent sense of fear or worry. This can manifest as physical pain, particularly muscle tension or headaches. The fear is often disproportionate to the situation and can be difficult to control.
Individuals with GAD may perceive situations and events as threatening, even when they aren’t. They may have a general sense that something bad is about to happen, causing intense worry.
Trouble sleeping is a common symptom of GAD. This could include difficulty falling asleep, staying asleep, or experiencing restless and unsatisfying sleep.
This can manifest as restlessness, feeling keyed up or on edge. It’s a response to the body’s fight-or-flight mechanism being activated.
These symptoms can be a result of the body’s physical response to stress and anxiety.
Anxiety can cause changes in breathing patterns, leading to feelings of shortness of breath. This is part of the body’s fight-or-flight response to perceived threats.
This is rapid or deep breathing that can occur during periods of anxiety. It can lead to an imbalance of oxygen and carbon dioxide in the body, causing dizziness, light-headedness, weakness, or confusion.
Anxiety can cause the heart to beat faster, leading to palpitations. These can feel like the heart is racing, fluttering, pounding, or skipping beats.
Anxiety can cause changes in salivation, leading to a dry mouth. This is due to the body’s response to the fight-or-flight mechanism.
This can be a physical symptom of anxiety, possibly due to the body’s response to stress and the release of adrenaline.
Muscle tension or aches are common physical symptoms of GAD. This is a physical manifestation of the body’s response to stress and anxiety.
This can be a result of hyperventilation or changes in blood pressure due to the body’s response to anxiety.
People with GAD often engage in persistent worrying or overthinking about various issues. This can include overthinking plans and solutions to all possible worst-case outcomes.
Difficulty concentrating or feeling like the mind goes blank is a common symptom of GAD. This can be a result of the mind being preoccupied with worries and fears.
People with GAD may start to avoid situations or places that trigger their anxiety. This is a coping mechanism to try to reduce their symptoms.
Generalised Anxiety Disorder (GAD) is a complex condition that is influenced by a variety of factors, among which are:
GAD has a strong genetic component. Recent genetic studies suggest that approximately 33% of the risk of developing GAD is hereditary. Certain genes have been connected to the development of the disorder. A person can have a genetic vulnerability to developing GAD if certain genetic markers have been passed onto them.
The limbic system, a collection of brain structures involved in the regulation of many of our basic emotional reactions, plays a role in GAD. The amygdala, in particular, is involved in the automatic fear response, as well as in the integration of memory and emotion. Imaging studies of people diagnosed with GAD show elevated amygdala activity during the processing of negative emotions.
A variety of environmental factors can increase the likelihood of anxiety. For example, a person’s family composition, their cultural and religious upbringing, and many other childhood experiences can influence anxiety levels. Traumatic experiences, such as abuse, divorce, bullying, or violence in childhood or adolescence are also associated with the onset of the disorder.
Stressful life events, like natural disasters, can trigger GAD. Ongoing stressors, such as abusive relationships or toxic work environments, can also increase the risk.
Certain factors may increase the risk of developing GAD. These include being female (GAD is twice as common in women than in men), having a comorbid anxiety disorder, and having a family history of anxiety disorders, depression, or other psychiatric disorders. Personality traits such as being sensitive, emotional, or having an inability to tolerate frustration can also increase the risk.
Prolonged use of certain substances, such as benzodiazepines and alcohol, can trigger GAD.
It’s important to note that these factors can interact in complex ways, and not everyone with these risk factors will develop GAD.
This myth may stem from a misunderstanding of the nature of GAD, as people may perceive the worries of someone with GAD as being overblown or unnecessary.
For someone experiencing GAD, the worry is difficult or impossible to control. It’s not about being dramatic; it’s a symptom of the disorder. For someone experiencing this condition, the worry is difficult or impossible to control.
The term “generalised” might lead people to believe that the disorder is mild or less severe than other anxiety disorders.
GAD can be quite severe and can negatively impact a person’s life. Diagnosis of the disorder requires the presence of physical symptoms, such as fatigue, restlessness, difficulty concentrating, muscle tension, sleep issues.
This myth likely arises from a lack of understanding about the nature of panic attacks and the stigma associated with mental health disorders.
Panic attacks are very real and can be incredibly distressing for the person experiencing them. While panic disorder and GAD are different conditions, they are not mutually exclusive, and people with panic disorder are not faking these attacks for attention.
Mental health disorders are often underreported due to stigma, leading to a perception that they are less common than they actually are.
GAD is relatively common.
Early warning signs of Generalised Anxiety Disorder (GAD) can often be subtle and may overlap with normal worry and stress. However, they tend to be more persistent and can interfere with daily life. Here are some early warning signs:
Negative symptoms of Generalised Anxiety Disorder (GAD) refer to the absence or reduction of normal behaviours, like in the following examples:
Generalised Anxiety Disorder (GAD) is diagnosed by medical professionals such as doctors and psychiatrists through these steps:
6. Evaluation of Symptoms as anxiety and worry should be accompanied by at least three of the following physical or cognitive symptoms: edginess or restlessness, tiring easily, impaired concentration, irritability, increased muscle aches or soreness, difficulty sleeping.