Generalized Anxiety Disorders: A Case Study

Generalized anxiety disorder (GAD) is an anxiety disorder that is characterized by excessive, uncontrollable and often irrational worry about everyday things that is disproportionate to the actual source of worry. This excessive worry often interferes with daily functioning, as individuals suffering GAD typically anticipate disaster, and are overly concerned about everyday matters such as health issues, money, death, family problems, friend problems, relationship problems or work difficulties.[1] They often exhibit a variety of physical symptoms, including fatigue, fidgeting, headaches, nausea, numbness in hands and feet, muscle tension, muscle aches, difficulty swallowing, bouts of difficulty breathing, trembling, twitching, irritability,

Anxiety disorders can take over one’s life, and are very difficult to overcome and live with. The truth of the unknown and wanting to know what is unknown can cause these anxious feelings and thoughts. People with Generalized Anxiety Disorder, live life with persistent and constant levels of anxiety. Unlike

The anxiety disorders consist of panic disorder (with and without a history of agoraphobia), agoraphobia (with and without a history of panic disorder), generalized anxiety disorder, specific phobia, social phobia, obsessive-compulsive disorder,

Generalized Anxiety Disorder (GAD) is an ailment that affects relatively 5% of the general population (Neurobiology and Genetics, 2011). GAD is a mental illness that can be difficult to understand or to describe. It is also very hard to diagnose because most people who are experiencing it believe that it is normal to worry about issues at that level. People with Generalized Anxiety Disorder have extreme fear and concern about even the littlest issues in their lives. They believe that something will always go wrong (NIH). There are times when these fears can keep these people from completing every day activities. There are also many symptoms that come along with this disorder. For instance, people with Generalized Anxiety Disorder have problems sleeping, headaches, fatigue, trembling, lightheadedness, and many other problems (NIH). GAD can make a big impact on a person’s life so it is important for them to get all the information they can about it in order to improve their quality

About three percent of men and women in the U.S. suffer from Generalized anxiety disorder (APAA). It is one of the most common forms of anxiety and seems to be the most left untreated because people don’t know that it can be treated. GAD, although it affects many, is a disorder that can be detrimental to the quality of life of an individual. With the regard to the quality of life, the level of severity that a person experiences is a great factor in determining more information. The accumulated information is a defining feature in figuring the dissimilarity of the normal fight or flight response and the diagnoses of GAD. The disorder itself is that of excessive worry (AnxietyBC) about everyday things like, financial situations, school, family, or health (APAA). Having three or more symptoms such as nausea, shaking, sweating, hot flashes, headaches, and many others, is what contributes to the diagnosis (Patel).

18.1% of American adults have some sort of anxiety disorder. That percentage may seem low, but when calculated person for person it adds up to approximately 42 million people. Anxiety symptoms include feeling powerless, nervous, or helpless, even over mundane tasks; having a sense of impending doom or increased heart rate; sweating and shaking; restricted breathing or hyperventilating; and trouble thinking about or concentrating on anything other than the present worry. Anxiety disorders can have specific focuses, like phobias, or just be about everyday trivial tasks, known as generalized anxiety.

When a person feels as if their world is crashing down, and the person has worries that are uncontrollable that lead to impairing social functioning ( Oltmanns & Emery, 2008). This disorder is called generalized anxiety disorder. The extreme worry and anxiety are symptoms of generalized anxiety disorder. In a popular news article in the Washington Post a girl named Ashely wrote about her experience living with generalized anxiety disorder, and how the disorder affect her throughout different life stages. The article talked about how hard it is to live with generalized anxiety disorder. Ashely who wrote the article for the Washington Post has a long of different options for treating her disorder that include psychotherapy, cognitive behavior therapy or medications.

This disorder is one of the most arguably common faced encounters clinicians deal with today. Because of this I choose to focus much of my emphasis on the difficulties one face, that’s diagnosed with GAD and the hard ship of building and maintain a good client relationship. Generalized anxiety disorder begins at the onset of a worry and or tension that carries on into more severe and debilitating symptom (American Psychological Association, 1997). These symptoms are triggered by a multitude of reactions or situation that leads the individual to face uncontrollable panic like attacks. Even when a person feels the onset of an Anxiety attack it is difficult for them to control it because of the inability and impairment state it leaves them in.

Generalised anxiety disorder can be defined as excessive and uncontrollable worry, about a number of life events, accompanied by bodily symptoms of physical tension and heightened vigilance (Craske, 2003). Linden (2012) further explains that patients with generalised anxiety disorder may not exhibit the full anxiety syndromes all the time, but can be in a constant state of worry and heightened arousal.

This relates to what we have studied in class, we have directly studied Generalized Anxiety and panic attacks. We have also discussed types of treatments for anxiety. If someone wanted to take medication, they could take Zoloft, which is a popular type of antianxiety drug. For treatment without prescribed medicine, one could go to therapies. A popular type of therapy we have studied that could be beneficial could be Client-Centered therapy. The therapist would display active listening, where they listen and ask questions to the client to gain understanding. They would also demonstrate unconditional positive regard. The therapist would be completing accepting and caring for the client. This way, the patient could talk about their concerns in

Previously, we mentioned anxiety develops from the perceived gap between one's estimated ability to cope with a challenge, and the estimated difficulty of the task itself. From the example of the two children described above, you can imagine how the son might grow up to become a man who has confidence in his skills when faced with a challenging task. Thus, when estimating the perceived gap between his abilities and a challenging task, he will be less likely to experience anxiety. In contrast, the daughter may grow up to be a woman who lacks this self-confidence. When she is faced with a challenging task, she is more likely to experience anxiety.

brought up with consistency and routine will have the ability to develop what is classed as normal

The patient, a thirty-three year old female singer, is having difficulty sleeping, simple activities like getting groceries tire the patient easy, complains of neck pain, and cannot concentrate. The patient experiences worry and anxiety. However, when asked about what specifically, many things were brought up but none were more important than the other.

Anxiety is a disorder with uncontrollable, excessive, and persistent worrying occurring on more days than not over a six month period (Baldwin, 2016). This type of anxiety is known as generalized anxiety disorder (GAD) with a minimum of three or more of the following symptoms: Easily fatigued, difficulty with concentration, muscle tension, sleep problems, and feeling hyper or restless (Dunphy, Winland-Brown, Porter, & Thomas, 2015, p. 1028). This paper will discuss GAD in adults including: (think this sounds better with a colon) symptoms, diagnostic criteria, differential diagnosis, potential complications, and non-pharmacological treatment. Patient education for anxiety will also be discussed in this paper.

There are four main anxiety disorders which includes, Generalized Anxiety Disorder GAD, Phobic Disorder, Panic Disorder and Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder. The most common of these anxiety disorders is Generalized Anxiety Disorder (GAD). Clients diagnosed with GAD usually demonstrate a high level of anxiety that is not tied to any specific threat with a tendency to be particularly sensitive and susceptible. Being diagnosed with generalized anxiety disorder, I myself can personally attest to the importance of therapy. The fear of being labeled with a ‘disorder’ in the military or being linked to PTSD after a deployment, therapy was not an option due to fear of losing one’s job. However, the social worker that acquired my case made such a significant difference in my life the decision to change from a nursing major to social work took precedence.