Generalised Anxiety Disorder
If you have found yourself feeling very anxious most of the time for at least six months, over worries that most others regard as excessive or exaggerated, you may be suffering from Generalized Anxiety Disorder (GAD).
GAD sufferers experience at least three of the following symptoms associated with their worrying:
- Restlessness or feeling keyed up or on edge.
This symptom is characterised by a sense of internal tension and discomfor. You may find it diffcult to sit still and enhoy the simple things in life such as ‘smellign the roses’ or even sitting down for a minute to cuddle your kinks.This symptom is characterised by a sense of internal tension and discomfort. You may find it difficult to sit still and enjoy the simple things in life such as ‘smelling the roses’ or even sitting down for a minute to cuddle your kids.
- Being easily fatigued.
Ironically, despite all of your nervous energy, you feel constantly tired and devoid of energy. You may be feeling as though you have run a marathon without having ever moved.
- Difficulty concentrating or mind going blank.
Your mind may be racing from one thought to another, you may feel disorganised and unable to focus. Alternatively, you may experience thoughts and important information slipping from your mind. You may find yourself unable to rely on your memory and having to write down reminders for even relatively trivial or mundane tasks.
- Irritability
You get easily frustrated or angry. Your patience feels thin and dealing with kids or life’s minor frustrations triggers overreactions such as yelling, withdrawing, brooding, etc.
- Muscle tension
You experience neck pain, back pain, headaches, etc. You feel like a spring tightly wound.
- Sleep disturbance.
Your worries keep you awake. After a while you worry about not falling asleep which makes your anxiety worse and leads to more trouble sleeping. Your sleep is light and you wake at every noise and worry about the noise, or you worry that you are awake and will not fall asleep again, or about how you are going to feel the next day, or about something else that you have been preoccupied with, or all of the above!
Sufferers of GAD are perceived by their families and friends as chronic worriers or ‘worry warts’. Sufferers may live with the condition for many years, tolerating distressing symptoms, seeing them as necessary and unavoidable pain of dealing with the demands of life. The constant and unrelenting worries and feelings of anxiety can often lead to feeling depleted, hopeless and depressed.
Depression can in turn accentuate pessimistic appraisals creating a vicious cycle. Generalised Anxiety Disorder can also co-occur with other anxiety disorders such as Panic Disorder, Specific Phobias, OCD, etc.
