Patients with Generalized anxiety disorder(GAD) experience high levels of stress in daily life due to constant worrying.
Often the person with GAD spends most of his/her days and nights in a continual state of worry. It is very difficult for such a person to relax or to take a day off from worrying. Worrying invades their life and consumes all of their energy.
Sometimes people with GAD find it very difficult or almost impossible to sleep and they lie awake in bed at night making mental lists of everything that must be done or thinking of everything they haven’t done well enough.
GAD affects the way a person thinks, but the anxiety can also lead to physical. Anxiety is the body’s natural response to danger, an automatic alarm goes in our body whenever we feel threatened. There are over 100 symptoms of anxiety and they can look very different from person to person. Some people experience only one or two symptoms, while others experience many more.
The Generalized anxiety disorder symptoms include many of the following:
- A feeling of restlessness, feeling tense, keyed up, or edgy
- Easy fatigability (Becoming tired or worn out very easily)
- Chills, tremors, sweating, hot flashes
- Trouble concentrating or recalling even simple, daily things
- Feeling Irritable or moody
- Tense or sore muscles or body aches, seen more commonly in the back and neck
- Trouble falling asleep or staying asleep, or a feeling of not being rested
- Chest pains, heart palpitations, rapid pulse, a choking or suffocating sensation
- Digestion problems, abdominal pains or indigestion, nausea, diarrhea, constipation
- Abnormal or irregular menstrual bleeding
- Decreased sexual desire and sexual dysfunction
If you are suffering from Panic/Anxiety attacks, Agorophobia or OCD, Watch this video
A patient with GAD always anticipates disaster, often worrying excessively about health, money, family. Sometimes, the source of the worry maybe hard to pinpoint, but even in the absence of a significant problem, the person continues worrying to such an extent that the thought of getting through the day provokes anxiety. The patients with GAD usually realize that their anxiety is more intense than the situation warrants but they are unable to let go of their concerns and worries.
Unlike other severe forms of anxiety like panic disorder and Agoraphobic, the impairment associated with GAD is often mild and people with the GAD don’t feel too restricted in social settings or in the work environment. Now that you have understood the symptoms of GAD, you should now be aware of the various treatment techniques available for this GAD here.
Patients with GAD generally don’t try to avoid certain situations as a result of their disorder, but in severe cases the generalized anxiety disorder symptoms may cause the patient to withdraw from social contact in order to avoid feelings of worry and fear. In severe cases, the patient may also find it difficult and stressful going to work and may take time off sick. These actions can in-turn make the patient worry over the lack of productivity.
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