Are You Suffering From Generalized Anxiety Disorder?

Generalized anxiety disorder is one of the most common anxiety disorders people experience. The anxiety disorder is an umbrella term for several different types of abnormal, alleviating anxiety, fear, phobia and nervousness which can occur in an instant or progressively, within a course of several years and may hinder or avert the effective performance for normal day-to-day routines.

The chief characteristic of generalized anxiety disorder (GAD) is excessive and irrepressible concern regarding daily matters. This constant concern can cause a negative impact on daily functioning and result to physical symptoms. GAD is usually difficult to diagnose since it lacks some of the dramatic symptoms, like spontaneous panic attacks that happen along with other anxiety disorders. To clearly diagnose generalized anxiety disorder, the symptoms must occur often for a minimum of six months.

Some common generalized anxiety disorder symptoms are:

- Extreme anxiety and concern, often occurring within a course of six months on several events and activities. Those suffering from GAD can find it hard to control the anxiety and worry.

- The anxiety and worry are associated with symptoms such as restlessness or feeling tense or on the edge, easily fatigued, difficulty concentrating or mind going blank, irritability, muscle tension and muscle aches, difficulty falling or staying asleep, or restless, unsatisfying sleep, difficulty swallowing, trembling, sweating, nausea, light-headedness, feeling out of breath

- The center of anxiety and worry does not occur, and not limited to, having panic attacks, public embarrassment, being contaminated, weight gain, having many physical ailments, or having a serious illness, and the anxiety and worry doesn’t happen mainly for post traumatic disorder.

- The person suffers clinically indicative distress or impairment in social, occupational, or other significant areas of daily activities due to the anxiety, worry and physical symptoms.

- Certain physiological causes like substance and drug abuse, along with medical conditions, are not the direct reason for the anxiety, and does not occur exclusively during a mood disorder, a psychotic disorder, or a prevalent developmental disorder.

For people with mild levels of generalized anxiety disorder, keeping a job and performing daily and routine tasks are possible. On the other hand, those with severe levels can find it difficult to perform even the simplest daily activity, although they don’t avoid certain situations because of their disorder.

Common treatments used against generalized anxiety disorder include prescribed medications and cognitive-behavioral therapy. Among the many prescription drugs used to treat anxiety disorders are benzodiazepines and antidepressants, and Quetiapine.