Worry is a common feature of life these days for most of us in the modern world. There’s so much we are attending to each day that it’s hard to imagine how any of us can not struggle with a mind that wanders into the past or future more than we would like.
Past this common experience of worry that most people acknowledge, there is a group of people that struggle with often being extremely worried about a whole range of concerns more days than not. The worry often appears even when the person knows logically that the level of worry is not appropriate for the situation and that it’s only making things worse.
Yet, unfortunately that knowledge doesn’t seem to help them from worrying excessively about a range of concerns like money, relationships, and work. The everyday hassles that we all encounter can make the sufferer of GAD highly stressed and often overwhelmed. Further, it is often the case that this level of stress and anxiety impairs their ability to function well at work, at home or both.
GAD tends to develop slowly over time and, unlike some of the other diagnoses, can often begin at an earlier age. It is common for people to report feeling like they are “just an anxious person” or that their family has noted that they “have always been a worrier”.
This is the most common of the anxiety diagnoses and women are twice as likely to be affected as men. This can also co-occur with a depressive disorder.
Symptom Checklist
- Overthinking a situation or dwelling on what will go wrong (as an attempt to reduce anxiety)
- Inability to stop worrying even if it doesn’t seem to solve anything
- feeling tense, nervous, restless, or on edge
- Muscles that ache and are sore from excessive tension
- Tiring easily
- difficulty concentrating or having a mind that goes blank
- overly irritable with others
- Trouble sleeping
People that struggle with the symptoms above often have a persistent sense that they have little control over the stressful parts of their lives and so they are left with what they can control – worrying about the future. This addiction to worry works like other addictions – short term relief with long term consequences even if the person “knows better”. The more one worries the more one gets caught in the loop of feeling as though they need to worry.