What is generalized anxiety disorder (GAD)?
Generalized anxiety disorder, or GAD, is a common mental disorder that presents with a constant and irrational fear of unknown origin.
Patients with GAD express constant worry about every aspect of their lives, including money, health, family, and work. The worst part about GAD is anticipating fear all the time, which constantly puts patients on their toes.
Perhaps the best analogy to understand what GAD patients go through is by picturing yourself on a roller coaster. Once the train reaches the peak of the track, the vehicle starts to slow down, which makes you experience anticipatory fear –a fear of what’s coming–.
In short, that’s how GAD patients feel; only in their cases, the fear is almost constantly present.
Symptoms of GAD
Symptoms of GAD include:
- Extreme, persistent, and generalized fear of everything, including people, animals, and objects
- Trembling while crying
- Social isolation
- Objectively realizing that the fear is irrational
- Decreased self-esteem, self-confidence, and feeling useless
- Rapid heart-beat
- Fast breathing (hyperventilation)
- Profuse sweating
- Nausea
- Vomiting
- Palpitations
- Dizziness
- Loss of consciousness
Patients with GAD might require hospitalization, especially if they start isolating themselves from society or become a danger to themselves.
Note that the frequency and severity of these symptoms vary greatly from one patient to another.
Causes of GAD
The exact reason that some people can handle a lot of pressure and don’t develop any mental issues while others do is still unclear, and more research is being conducted.
Nevertheless, scientists have successfully identified a list of risk factors, which include:
A family history
In the world of psychiatry, mental disorders tend to run in families. This suggests the involvement of a genetic component; however, we are unable to pinpoint it.
This is true for all other mental diseases.
Being constantly in stressful situations
Prolonged psychological stress can be a trigger of GAD. Whether it’s at home, work, or community, chronic stress is an important risk factor of GAD.
In particular, the workplace is one of the most toxic environments that increases your risk to develop many psychiatric disorders, including depression, GAD, and panic disorder.
Excessive use of stimulants
Researchers found that the chronic consumption of stimulants, such as coffee and energy drinks, is associated with a higher risk of developing GAD.
Childhood abuse
This is a common risk factor for several psychiatric disorders.
The abuse of a child creates a state of constant alertness and terror. At first, this fear is perfectly understandable; however, and as you grow, it starts to cover more aspects of your life and might lead to GAD.
Conclusion
Generalized anxiety disorder is a common condition that’s becoming more prevalent with our new stressful lifestyle.
Patients with GAD should not be left untreated, as seeing a professional can reduce their symptoms in a short period of time.
We, at KOAP, offer online videoconferencing appointments for all adult patients with mental health issues to ease up their suffering, especially with the current outbreak of COVID-19.
Check out our services and schedule an appointment by clicking on this link.