Question:
Discuss about the Generalized Anxiety Disorder. What are the Symptoms and Causes of GAD?
The paper introduces us about generalized anxiety disorder (GAD). GAD is a common anxiety disorder that affects quite a number of people around the world. The difference between GAD and natural anxiety is that the people suffering from it go through exaggerated and chronic worrying phase on a day-to-day basis. The paper also discusses about the symptoms and causes of GAD. Through data, there is an explanation about the frequency of the disease and its diagnosis. The paper also gives us an idea on treatment of GAD and if there is any side effects of the treatment. Here the paper also discusses about what other people think of people with GAD and the measures and control taken for preventing the disorder.
Generalized anxiety disorder (GAD) is a kind of disorder that arises from anxiety related to nervousness, tension and chronic worrying. In contrast to phobia where fear is a response to a particular thing or situation, GAD has a diffused state meaning that it involves a general feeling of dread that becomes a part of everyday life (Lader and Malcolm). Though less intense in nature, but the disorder has longer effects thereby making life difficult and relaxation an impossible notion. Thus, what makes a person with GAD different is the fact that he gives his worries a different level rather than keeping it normal. For instance, a colleague’s casual comment about the economic status enhances the fear of termination of one’s job. Similarly, an unattended call from a friend might instigate the fear of any trouble in the relationship. Sometime, a simple thought about proceeding through day creates anxiety for a person with GAD where activities filled with unnecessary tension even without any reason. This is a situation where people consider their anxiety more intense than actually needed for a situation and at the same time have the belief that worrying protects them in some way or the other. Therefore, they never turn off their unnecessary thoughts and they continue to make their rounds with endless repetition.
GAD has a direct impact on a person’s thought process. There are various symptoms to understand that a person is suffering from GAD. Recognizing the symptoms is important because not all people with GAD have the same symptoms. Therefore, in most cases people experience a combination of physical, behavioral and emotional symptoms that most often fluctuates and become worse at stressful times (Hölzel et al).
Symptoms That Are Physical
Therefore, the physical symptoms of GAD are as follows:
Symptoms That Are Behavioral
Therefore, the physical symptoms of GAD are as follows:
Symptoms That Are Emotional
Therefore, the emotional symptoms of GAD are as follows:
The exact causes of GAD are still unknown. However, the factors that lead to its growth mentioned below:
There have been several research studies on the causes of GAD that have found that genetics/ family history plays a decisive role in determining the tendency to develop GAD. Therefore, GAD may be a family inheritance (Watkins et al.).
GAD may also develop due to inefficient functioning of some nerve cell pathways that connect regions of brain associated with emotion and thinking. This may lead to problems associated with anxiety and mood thereby resulting in cases of GAD (Shalev et al.).
GAD may also happen in case of stressful events and cases of trauma like death of loved person, sudden change of schools or job and divorce. The withdrawal from addiction like alcohol, caffeine or nicotine can also be a reason for this chronic anxiety disorder (Marganska et al.).
Statistics have found that about 3 to 4% of the population is a victim of GAD and it is a more common phenomenon amongst women compared to men. GAD can be a part of a person life from his either childhood or adolescence or can play a role in his adulthood. However, this is the most common illness found in US affecting some 40 million adult populations (Paxling et al.). Therefore, as per ‘The Economic Burden of Anxiety Disorders’, cases of anxiety disorders cost more than $42 billion which is one-third of country’s total mental health bill of about $148.
Treatment of GAD:
The symptoms of GAD often treated through a combination of medication and cognitive behavioral therapy. The medication includes anxiety drugs also called benzodiazepines prescribed to the people as per his/her requirement mostly on a short-term basis as they can become addictive and interfere with memory and attention (Cuijpers et al.). The medicines also referred to as minor tranquilizers as they are responsible for taking care of acute anxiety. The cognitive theory therapy however, is a kind of therapy especially designed for people with GAD to ensure recognition and change of thoughts and behavior that leads to anxiety. The therapy also gives a realistic look to the worries and moulds distorted thinking positively (Enright et al.).
Measures to Control GAD:
However, there is not much to worry about this chronic illness of anxiety disorder, as there are proper measures to control it. Thus in order to diffuse anxiety, social interaction with someone who cares is most important (Andersson et al.). In this context, it is important that the concerned person must sit for a face-to-face interaction with the one of his liking on a regular basis. The chosen person can be some to whom can be spoken to for hours with any interruption and at the same time who would not be judgmental and avoid all sort of distraction while interaction(Ball et al.). However, the person chosen can be anyone from the family or can be someone from closed group who cares.
Conclusion:
The paper here concludes in the light that though generalized anxiety disorder (GAD) is chronic but controlled with proper care, medication and therapy. However, medicines recommended on a short-term basis taking into care that they do not become an addiction. The paper also discusses about the various symptoms and causes that leads to GAD. There is also a brief about how GAD is different from normal anxiety disorder. The anxiety disorder can be a part of someone’s life from his/het very childhood to adulthood. Therefore, one must take care to avoid tensions, worries and situations that can lead to anxiety disorder. US have been a victim of GAD for a long time. Thus, proper measures can not only enhance the population but also enable lesser cases of chronic anxiety disorders.
References:
Andersson, Gerhard, et al. “Internet-based psychodynamic versus cognitive behavioral guided self-help for generalized anxiety disorder: a randomized controlled trial.” Psychotherapy and psychosomatics 81.6 (2012): 344-355.
Ball, T. Manber, et al. “Prefrontal dysfunction during emotion regulation in generalized anxiety and panic disorders.” Psychological medicine 43.7 (2013): 1475-1486.
Cuijpers, Pim, et al. “Psychological treatment of generalized anxiety disorder: a meta-analysis.” Clinical Psychology Review 34.2 (2014): 130-140.
Enright, Robert D., and Richard P. Fitzgibbons. Forgiveness therapy in anxiety disorders. American Psychological Association, 2015.
Hölzel, Britta K., et al. “Neural mechanisms of symptom improvements in generalized anxiety disorder following mindfulness training.” NeuroImage: Clinical 2 (2013): 448-458.
Lader, Malcolm. “Generalized anxiety disorder.” Encyclopedia of Psychopharmacology. Springer Berlin Heidelberg, 2015. 699-702.
Marganska, Anna, Michelle Gallagher, and Regina Miranda. “Adult attachment, emotion dysregulation, and symptoms of depression and generalized anxiety disorder.” American Journal of Orthopsychiatry 83.1 (2013): 131.
Paxling, Björn, et al. “Therapist behaviours in internet-delivered cognitive behaviour therapy: analyses of e-mail correspondence in the treatment of generalized anxiety disorder.” Behavioural and cognitive psychotherapy 41.3 (2013): 280-289.
Shalev, Idan, et al. “Internalizing disorders and leukocyte telomere erosion: a prospective study of depression, generalized anxiety disorder and post-traumatic stress disorder.” Molecular psychiatry 19.11 (2014): 1163.
Watkins, Lana L., et al. “Association of anxiety and depression with all-cause mortality in individuals with coronary heart disease.” Journal of the American Heart Association 2.2 (2013): e000068.
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