Generalized Anxiety Disorder
What is general anxiety disorder (GAD)?
Generalized Anxiety Disorder (GAD) is when worry feels like it’s taken over. You might find yourself constantly anxious or tense about multiple areas of life — work, finances, relationships, your health — and the worrying feels hard to control. When these feelings persist for at least six months, it may be GAD.
How is GAD different from normal worry?
GAD is more than worry. Most people worry about things from time to time. People with GAD find that their worrying significantly affects their everyday lives. They may try to control their worry by doing things like visiting doctors frequently, asking others for reassurance, over-preparing for potential challenges, reminding others continuously about things, avoiding doing new things, or taking on new challenges or opportunities to avoid worrying about something else.
What are the symptoms of GAD?
- A person with GAD persistently finds it difficult to relax and control their worry about several different events. The difficulties occur on most days and last for many months. The symptoms experienced may include fatigue, difficulty sleeping, restlessness, difficulty concentrating, muscle tension, and irritability.
- A person with GAD may not always recognize that their worries or tension levels are excessive or that their level of anxiety is disproportionate to the actual likelihood of the worrisome/feared event occurring. For example, a person with GAD may worry each day that their car will break down, despite the fact that their car is well maintained and has not broken down in the past.
- For a person with GAD, worries are typically related to various fears and concerns about what might happen in the future. For example, a person with GAD may worry about their ability to cope with a future illness or their fear of performing in front of colleagues at an upcoming meeting. Their worries are not confined to a specific situation (e.g., social settings), are not about the anticipation of a panic attack, and are not obsessions (e.g., intrusive thoughts, images, or impulses).
- The worry and/or physical symptoms experienced by a person with GAD cause significant distress or impairment in ability to function in social, occupational, or other important areas.
- A person with GAD commonly experiences symptoms of other anxiety disorders, depression, or alcohol/substance abuse.
Who gets GAD?
- GAD typically develops in childhood or adolescence but can also begin in adulthood.
- GAD often develops following a stressful life event, but not everyone who experiences stressful events will develop GAD. Many people who are eventually diagnosed with GAD report a history of being described as ‘worriers’ who were overly concerned about how things would turn out and how they would cope.
- In addition to personality factors and stress, biological (e.g., genes) and environmental (e.g., parenting style) factors can also contribute to the development of GAD.