What is Generalized anxiety disorder (GAD)?

You’ve certainly heard the word “anxiety” a lot, but what does it mean to genuinely feel it? Being constantly worried or showing excessive dread are examples of mental health issues known as anxiety. Everyone occasionally worries about things, but having anxiety implies that your worries significantly interfere with your everyday life.
The World Health Organization estimates that 1 in 13 persons worldwide suffers from an anxiety condition, making them the most prevalent mental health issue in the world.

Doubts, anxieties, and worries are common human emotions. It’s common to feel apprehensive before an exam or concerned about your money after receiving an unexpected bill. Generalized anxiety disorder (GAD) and “normal” worrying vary in that GAD worrying are excessive, intrusive, persistent, and disruptive.

Read our previous blog: Different types of anxiety disorders and their coping mechanism

Symptoms of GAD

Symptoms of generalized anxiety disorder may have an impact on your emotions, behavior, and physical health.

Generalized anxiety disorder emotional signs may include:

• excessive concern about regular, daily happenings, duties, and events
• finding it challenging to restrain feelings of trepidation, concern, and worry
• worrying, persistent intrusive thoughts that are difficult to ignore
• persistent, pervasive anxiety and trepidation thoughts
• having a need to be aware of what is happening now and in the future
• dealing with unpredictability and ambiguity with difficulty

The following are behavioral signs of generalized anxiety disorder:

• finding it challenging to unwind
• extensive preparation for certain circumstances
• having trouble focusing on some activities
• Having trouble making judgments,
• avoiding particular circumstances as a result of fear and worry
• postponing or avoiding specific duties

Generalized anxiety disorder physical signs include:

• Fatigue or a persistent generalized lack of energy
• sensations of dizziness
• Having trouble falling or staying asleep
• Other inexplicable pains and headaches
• I’m trembling, twitching, and overall uneasy.
• Irritable bowel syndrome, diarrhea, and motion sickness
• more frequent toilet visits than usual
• muscle tension and discomfort
• Having trouble swallowing

Generalized anxiety symptoms in younger individuals might include exaggerated worry about relationships, their success in sports, school or college, or other aspects. Young people can have a lot of worries when something awful happens.

My Experience of dealing with GAD

Having Generalised anxiety disorder (GAD) is hard in itself. Dealing with GAD just feels like a completely different level of struggle. 

Let me share my experience with you. I worry excessively because of my anxiety, often over things that most people wouldn’t even think are important. I still beat myself up and worry over a little chat I had on my first day of work at my present position. Many individuals are unaware of the full range of impacts that anxiety may have on an individual. There will always be normal tension and anxieties, but there is also catastrophizing. But because it keeps repeating itself every day, normal day-to-day anxiety might be the most draining for me. What other people think of me and how they see me are two of my “favorite” sources of anxiety. In my brain, while I speak to others, I am always battling my anxiousness and the truth of the circumstance. I like to say that anxiety is like having the devil on your shoulder because I think it helps others who don’t experience anxiety to imagine what it would be like. Similar to the tiny devil on my shoulder, but inside of my brain and more difficult to ignore.

Well, when I learned that one of the most prevalent mental diseases is a generalized anxiety disorder, I was not at all shocked. Anxiety disorders impact up to 20% of individuals annually. It causes anxiety, terror, and a persistent sense of being overpowered. The hallmarks of generalized anxiety disorder are persistent, excessive, and irrational concern over routine events. This anxiety may have several focuses, including money, family, health, and the future. It is excessive, challenging to manage, and frequently accompanied by a wide range of vague psychological and physical symptoms. The hallmark of generalized anxiety disorder is an excessive concern. Without a medical reason, anxiety results in severe suffering or impairment in social and professional spheres.

But, let me tell you that if you are dealing with GAD, you are not alone! There are people like you, like me, who struggle with anxiety and are working hard to break up with this demon at the earliest.

Video: Check our video to understand different types of anxious thoughts

Stop the vicious cycle of anxiety, worry, and stress with these simple tips

Doubts, anxieties, and worries are common human emotions. It’s common to feel apprehensive before an exam or concerned about your money after receiving an unexpected bill. Generalized anxiety disorder (GAD) and “normal” worrying vary in that GAD worrying are excessive, intrusive, persistent, and disruptive. The outcome is the same whether you know that your concern is stronger than the circumstance warrants it or you think that your worrying somehow shields you. Your nervous thoughts won’t stop. They keep playing over and over in your brain. Despite how overwhelming things may feel right now, you can learn to stop worrying constantly, relax your nervous mind, and rediscover hope.

Though anxiety is prevalent, it is possible to overcome it. One of the most powerful things you can do for yourself is to discover more about Generalized anxiety disorder. It’s time to stop stigmatizing self-help and anxiety and start taking care of ourselves without hesitation.

There are several anxiety self-help solutions. And if you’re reading this, you’ve already made an important step toward self-care. Let me share with you a few helpful tactics for coping with GAD that you may employ in the comfort of your own home.

Some Strategies to help you deal with GAD are:

• Decide what triggers you: Find out what makes you anxious or stressed out, and avoid such circumstances or behaviors.
• Sort out your concerns and topics of worry: Sorting out your concerns Worries can be divided into two categories:
  • Fears related to present issues (such as “what if I don’t have enough money to pay the bills?” or “what if I don’t finish my report on time?” or “what if my quarrel with my buddy means we never talk again?
  • Imaginary concerns (such as, “What if the airplane I’m flying next month crashes? “; “What if I get a terrible illness as I get older?
• Learn to relax your body’s muscles to reduce your anxiety: Learning to relax your body is another useful tactic. This entails tensing and then releasing a variety of muscles. This involves tensing various muscles and then relaxing them. Your total stress and tension levels, which can heighten feelings of anxiety, can be reduced with the use of this method.
• Keep a diary: Monitoring your personal life can help you and your mental health professional figure out what stresses you out and what makes you feel better.
• Engage your senses: When you’re anxious, you feel everything. To help you regulate, try engaging your senses. For example, you can make some tea and sip it slowly, smell the aroma of freshly brewed tea, feel the warmth of the cup, listen to the sound of you sipping the tea, and name what you’re tasting. Hints of ginger maybe?
• Control your sleep: Sleep is essential for your mental health. If your sleep routine isn’t regular, no matter what self-help strategies you use throughout the day, you may find yourself feeling worried.
• Find peer help: Peer support brings people who have had similar experiences together to support one another. Many people find that sharing ideas on how to keep healthy, connect with others, and feel less alone helps them.
• Eat balanced meals: Since food serves as our bodies’ actual sustenance, it may have a significant influence on how we feel emotionally. Take a nutrition course to discover how food might help you feel better mentally.
• Avoid coffee, narcotics, and alcohol: It could be worthwhile to give up one of these things because they can all have detrimental consequences on your health and wellness. Even while it may not seem unpleasant, caffeine can make someone with anxiety feel restless and uneasy.
• Take a course on anxiety online: We have several excellent anxiety courses that you may attempt or even recommend to a friend or family member who has anxiety if you want to understand anxiety on a deeper level.

Video: Watch our video to know about self as a context technique to overcome anxiety.

Read our previous blog on GAD: What is General Anxiety Disorder & How to manage it?

Enroll in our course: To help you take it further, We came up with comprehensive and informative courses designed and delivered by professionals to guide you toward relief. Check out our course on anxiety disorders and excessive worry:

• How to overcome excessive worry
• Psychotherapy for social anxiety

Also, don’t hesitate in downloading our free worksheet to help you take initial steps toward recovery and healing.