Getting to the Heart of Generalized Anxiety Disorder

Your day contains a litany of worries. What if I die? What if someone breaks into my house? What if I lose my job? What would happen if I got divorced? Just worries that mess with your ability to function (e.g. you might stay home from a get-together with friends because your worried you will get mugged). You might have generalized anxiety disorder.

Generalized anxiety disorder (GAD) is characterized by persistent and exaggerated feelings of worry about money, family, or other life circumstances, even when there is no real cause for concern. GAD sufferers often experience signs of motor tension such as trembling, shakiness, and restlessness. These symptoms can be accompanied by palpitations, the sensation of being smothered, as well as sweating or clamminess. Poor concentration and sleep are often present.

The societal cost of anxiety disorders is $48.72 billion per year. This can be attributed to increased health care costs but also poor productivity and increased absenteeism in the workplace.

GAD tends to skew towards women. Factors that may explain the higher rate include biological differences such as hormones, cultural pressures for women to meet everyone else’s needs at the expense of their own, and more openness by women in reporting anxiety to physicians.

GAD affects a sufferer’s quality of life in many ways. Anxiety is frequently connected to sleep problems. Excess worry and fear make it harder to fall asleep and stay asleep throughout the night.

GAD seems to run in families. So do all anxiety and mood disorders, but experts have been unable to pinpoint if it is genetic- or environment-based. Most likely it is a combination. In addition, some GAD sufferers may be diagnosed with other mental conditions such as major depression.

People with GAD may:

·       Worry very much about everyday things

·       Have trouble controlling their worries or feelings of nervousness

·       Know that they worry much more than they should

·       Feel restless and have trouble relaxing

·       Have a hard time concentrating

·       Be easily startled

·       Feel easily tired or tired all the time

·       Have headaches, stomachaches, muscle aches or unexplained pains

·       Tremble or twitch

·       Be irritable or feel “on edge”

·       Have to go to the bathroom a lot

One prominent trait among GAD patients is that they have perfectionistic traits that drive the worry. They aren’t satisfied enough with things. Or they are control-issue types of people, “I can make it better, I can control it.” Because of the absence of dramatic symptoms, people with GAD tend to be go undiagnosed.  

For many people, GAD is usually begins in late childhood or adolescence, but remains undiagnosed until much later, if at all. Often, women will go to the doctor’s office for symptoms like headaches or stomachaches but not necessarily for symptoms of worry. In order to be diagnosed with GAD, you have to have excessive and uncontrollable worry for at least six months.

Two treatments that seem to work with GAD are medication and cognitive behavioral therapy. Cognitive behavioral therapy teaches people with GAD various coping skills including relaxation skills, problem-solving skills, and skills for managing their worrisome thoughts.

Medication is the most common treatment for GAD, including antidepressants like Paxil and azapirones, which are a class of anti-anxiety drugs like BuSpar.

The medications used to treat anxiety disorders all have side effects. Some of these are more severe than others and must be used under a physician’s supervision.