Psychology

Everyone at point or another will experience some form of anxiety. It is a normal reaction to threatening, uncertain, or important situations. It happens in everyday life to most people. But people with Generalized Anxiety Disorder it happens much more frequently it becomes chronic.

People with G.A.D. will experience pathological anxiety and becomes excessive and can interfere with persons' ability to carry on with everyday life. Generalized anxiety disorder or otherwise known as "free floating anxiety" affects many people throughout the United States. Generalized Anxiety Disorder affects roughly 4,000,000 to 5,000,000 people here in the United States. Given the stressful conditions we Americans live in today the members of our society are given an 8% to 9% chance of developing G.A.D. during the course of their lifetime. Also more than 10% of patients surveyed in anxiety treatment clinics are diagnosed with Generalized Anxiety Disorder. This type of anxiety affects 60% of women in contrast to men which is only 40%.

G.A.D. can highlight worries with the workplace, finances, health, and family issues. Some of the symptoms are inability to concentrate, muscle tension, sweating, nausea, cold clammy hands, difficulty swallowing, jumpiness, and diarrhea. The people who suffer from G.A.D. often complain of being on edge, being irritable, and have extreme difficulty sleeping and therefore are easily tired throughout most of the day. G.A.D. can be linked and occur with other depressive disorders and often drug abuse. G.A.D. can be somewhat tricky to diagnose due to the fact that it does not have the dramatic symptoms such as panic attacks that come with other anxiety disorders. For a diagnosis to be given for G.A.D. a worry about any issue must be present more often than not over the course of 6 months that the doctor can get a better picture and understanding that the patient is indeed hindered by G.A.D. and from there will take the proper course of action.

G.A.D. is connected with irregular amounts of neurotransmitters in the brain. A neurotransmitter is a chemical substance released by transmitting neurons at the synapse and that allows the activity of a receiving neuron. In other words neurotransmitters carry messages to the nerve endings. Neurotransmitters that seem to involve anxiety norepinephrine , gamma amino-butyric acid otherwise known as G.A.B.A., and serotonin.

Although Generalized Anxiety Disorder can exist on it's own it has been discovered that 90% of people who have G.A.D. may have preexisting conditions as well. Some of these conditions range from depression, panic attacks, social anxiety disorder, alcohol abuse and lastly drug abuse.

When it comes to treating G.A.D. there are a number of things that one should do in order to alleviate the disorder. One should receive counseling from a psychiatrist or social worker. Attending support group meetings some through the internet. And lastly with the combination of medication and counseling.

Anxiety