Generalized Anxiety Disorder Easily Explained
What is generalized anxiety disorder or GAD and how do you treat it? To begin with an anxiety disorder is an ongoing issue that affects you in a variety of ways, lowering your quality of life and impacting your personal as well as your professional life. You may be diagnosed with an anxiety disorder as a child or you may not develop any anxiety symptoms of this condition until much later in life. There are many different types of anxiety disorders currently diagnosed, including obsessive-compulsive disorder, panic disorders and social anxiety and phobias.
Generalized Anxiety Disorder Symptoms
Generalized anxiety disorder is characterized by constant worry about many issues. People with this condition might feel on edge regularly, and may have trouble sleeping because of their worries. Worries can also lead to other physical symptoms, including stomach disorders like nausea and diarrhea. People with generalized anxiety disorder may also experience regular muscle tension that can lead to back and neck pain and frequent headaches. Stress symptoms are also a big part of the disorder, as stress and worry go hand in hand.
General Anxiety Disorder Causes
At this time, there is no known cause for generalized anxiety disorder. With many patients seeking medications for treatment of generalized anxiety disorder, most medical professionals believe that brain chemicals like serotonin and dopamine may play a role in its onset. Because the disorder tends to run in families, experts are considering genetics and some environmental factors as contributors to generalized anxiety disorder. Some people that endure particularly stressful events in life may also go on to develop generalized anxiety disorder.
While the cause is still uncertain, there are now treatment options that can effectively control the symptoms so patients can enjoy a higher quality of life. Most doctors will begin by prescribing a medication that is similar to the ones used to effectively treat other psychological disorders like depression. These medications include selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors (SSRIs) like Prozac and Paxil, which are effectively used for this purpose. However, if SSRIs do not do the trick for some patients, doctors have a number of other medications they can try as well.
Natural Treatment
There is also an all natural anxiety and panic attack treatment, to help with the cortisol, dompamine and seratonin levels, called Provanax. There are no side effects compared to some prescription medications. (Read my Provanax review, for ingredients, no side-effects and where to buy.)
Many anxiety patients find that the medications work best when they are combined with regular psychotherapy sessions. Psychotherapy helps patients learn to control the thought processes that lead to anxiety and fear to reduce anxiety symptoms. Psychotherapy is usually guided by a professional like a psychotherapist or psychiatrist who is experienced in treating anxiety disorders. When counseling sessions are combined with the right medications, the results are usually positive and satisfactory for the patient.
Do You Suffer With General Anxiety Disorder?
General anxiety disorder is probably one of the most difficult types of anxiety disorders to treat, because the person suffering with this condition feels anxious over virtually everything all at one time. While it’s normal to feel some kind of anxiety at some point over some situations, when you feel nervousness which you cannot control or deal with, it becomes a disorder which could require treatment.
There are many times when anxiety is actually good, as it stimulates your adrenaline and can improve your thinking and response time, but when you suffer from constant anxiety, it can trigger panic attacks. These are a physical reaction to having too much adrenaline running through your veins all the time. General anxiety disorder often is the result of having too many stressors and not being able to adequately deal with the problems which arise in every day life.
General anxiety disorder doesn’t really have a known cause, but there are things that can trigger reactions in people, such as the chemistry of people’s brains, environmental stressors and whether or not you are genetically predisposed to feel anxiety. For instance, environmental stressors would include stressful days in your life which you have no solution to such as financial problems and family problems. Your brain chemistry can also affect how well you deal with anxiety because some times, people’s brains don’t make enough of the essential hormones which can help to regulate how happy you feel.
In addition to these triggers, you might find that your family history has a lot to do with whether or not you eventually suffer from anxiety. If your mother suffers from general anxiety disorder, then it’s likely that you will, too. Some people deal with stress much better than others, while people who suffer from general anxiety disorder tend to hold their anxiety in and can’t release it as well as others.
If you find that you suffer from generalized anxiety disorder, you probably are looking for ways to treat your condition so that you can get on with your life and be happy and carefree again. You should know that if you choose to take prescription medications for this condition, it can take up to 12 weeks in some cases for you to get full relief from your symptoms. You might choose to seek therapy for your condition, or you may decide to look into natural forms of treatment for your condition which have been found to be very helpful for many people.
No matter how you choose to deal with your general anxiety disorder, you should know that you don’t have to suffer with this condition forever because your anxiety is manageable and you can learn not only to keep it under control, but you can keep yourself from suffering with anxiety at every turn in your life. Isn’t it time that you got your life back?
