Living With Generalized Anxiety Disorder

Feeling anxious from time to time is normal experience, especially if you are living a stressful life. 

However, feeling anxious without apparent reason, having a general sense that something bad is about to happens or having too much concerns about own and family’s safety indicate possibility of underlaying mental health condition. 

When anxiety is excessive and interferes with your daily activities of living, it may be a sign of generalized anxiety disorder (GAD).

Generalized anxiety disorder

Generalized anxiety disorder is a mental health condition that produces fear, worry and constant feeling of being overwhelmed. GAD is characterized by excessive, unrealistic and persistent worry about common occurrences or situations even when there is no reason to do it. 

This worry is about many things such as family, health, work, finance, and the future. Areas of anxiety could change within a short span of time and manifest into seemingly unsolvable problems. 

If not properly addressed, GAD lead to significant impairment in relationship, occupation, social functioning and health-related quality of life.

Identifying GAD

Generalized anxiety disorder is present in the form of both psychological and physical symptoms. 

Psychological symptoms often exhibited as excessive and inappropriate worry for at least six months. Worry could be multi-focal and out of proportional to the actual impact of situations or activities. Over-analyzing the situation or event and perceiving them as more threatening is commonly noticed. 

Expecting worst-case scenarios and planning solutions for them, difficulty to control or letting goes of worries, feeling restless or irritable, inability to relax, feeling keyed up or on an edge, difficulty in concentrating or mind going blank, fear of uncertainty, fear of making wrong decision, nervousness, overthinking and being easily startled are commonly experienced by affected person.

Physical symptoms of GAD includes being easily fatigued and exhausted, muscle aches and pains, palpitations or pounding heart, or accelerated heart rate, sweating, trembling or shaking, dry mouth, difficulty breathing, numbness and tingling, nausea or abdominal distress and sleep disturbances.

What Causes GAD

Generalized anxiety disorder runs in families. First degree relatives of a patient are at high risk for development of generalized anxiety disorder.

Your personality trait can make you prone for GAD. Person whose temperament is timid or negative or who avoid anything dangerous is more susceptible to generalized anxiety disorder.

Moreover, person who experienced traumatic life events or significant life changes may be more prone to generalized anxiety disorder. Childhood abuse and bullying is also responsible for GAD.

Now-a-day stressful life is making you more prone for GAD. Prolong exposure to psychological stress such as workplace issues, family conflict, illness, or major accident contribute significantly to development of GAD.

Sometimes, GAD may occur as a component of other mental health disorders such as phobia, panic disorder, post-traumatic stress disorder, obsessive-compulsive disorder, depression or substance abuse. And sometimes, GAD may occur as a part of physical illnesses such as thyroid problems or heart arrhythmias.

According to research studies, generalized anxiety disorder is more common in women compared to men.

Impact of GAD on quality of life

GAD reduces person’s productivity. Inability to focus and perform a task quickly reduces efficiency of a person with GAD. This results in significant distress at a workplace. This negatively impact person’s quality of life and disrupt important activities of daily living.

Person with GAD starts to avoid potentially anxious provoking situations. This leads to impairment in social life and isolation.

GAD lead to or worsen other physical conditions such as digestive problems, headaches, chronic pain, sleep problems and heart issues.

Person with GAD often uses alcohol or recreational drugs to deal with anxiety provoking situations. This enhances habit of substance abuse which in turn lead to excessive anxiety.

Seeking professional help for GAD

Living with generalized anxiety disorder is challenging. Anxiety, unrealistic worry and physical symptoms cause significant distress in various areas of life. GAD share common characteristics with other anxiety disorders. In many cases, GAD is associated with other anxiety disorders or mood disorders. Therefore, it is immensely necessary to seek professional help from mental health experts to rule out an exact cause for anxiety. Further, professional therapies help to manage anxiety and improve quality of life.

Psychotherapy, medications or, combinations of both are effective treatment strategies to improve the symptoms of GAD. 

Psychotherapies involve anxiety management therapy and cognitive behavior therapy (CBT). 

Anxiety management therapy is a structured therapy that mainly focuses on education, relaxation training and exposure. Patients education about anxiety, it’s triggers and compliance to treatment protocol is vital in management of GAD. Avoiding anxiety triggers such as caffeine, alcohol, stress and practicing sleep hygiene are important. Relaxation entails practicing techniques that lead to bodily relaxation. Exposure therapy involves subjecting a patient to anxiety provoking situations through visualization or image or stimulus over a period of time. This gradual exposure helps a person to gain new perspective about the event and make an informed decision. 

Excessive worry is the central feature of generalized anxiety disorder. Therefore, the goal of CBT is to change the pattern of thinking and behavior of a person. It involves learning to recognize and understand the errors in thinking pattern and assumptions followed by implementing better coping strategies to reduce anxiety levels. Thus, change in irrational and negative thought pattern along with learning coping behavior brings a great relief to a patient. Scientifically, CBT significantly improves anxiety symptoms over a period of four to 12 weeks.

Medical management mainly consists of anti-anxiety and anti-depressant medications. They are effective to reduce physical symptoms such as muscle tension and abdominal cramping. Compliance to medication is the key to improve treatment outcome.

Lifestyle modification for GAD

Lifestyle modifications can be helpful to minimize the symptoms of GAD to great extent.

Regular physical exercise helps to produce more serotonin and endorphin. Both are feel-good hormone and help to elevate mood naturally.

A good nutritious diet enriched with protein, complex carbohydrate and water are needed for various bodily functions that has a positive impact on brain.

Practicing relaxation techniques such as yoga and meditation reduce  a stress level, which in turn help to regulate emotions. Avoiding stimulants such as caffeine beverages help to better manage an anxiety level. Getting a good night sleep can improve your mental well-being and help to calm anxiety.

Disclaimer : The purpose of this blog is to create emotional health awareness. This information is not a replacement for medical treatment or counseling therapy.