Table of contents:
- Symptoms of generalized anxiety disorder
- Generalized anxiety disorder: causes
- Causes of physical health
- Psychological causes
- Environmental causes
- Mental health causes
- Generalized anxiety disorder: psychological treatment
- Generalized anxiety: drug treatment
- Mindfulness or meditation
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Do you normally worry about everything in an exaggerated way and feel that you cannot help it? Do catastrophic thoughts come to your mind that generate a lot of stress and worry for apparently no reason? kind of negative situation? If you've answered positively to all of these questions, you are probably suffering from generalized anxiety disorder.Generalized anxiety disorder is an irrational, exaggerated and constant fear that causes great discomfort in the person due to the fact that they present excessive worry that does not allow them to carry out their daily activities and increasingly affects more areas of their life. These people live all or most of the time worried that things are going to go wrong for various reasons, for example, they may fear having an accident when they go out on the street with the car or walking, suffer a serious illness and / or that a loved one suffers from it, being bankrupt and without a job, among other situations.
In this Psychology-Online article on generalized anxiety disorder: causes, symptoms and treatment, we will learn in more detail about this disorder.
You may also be interested in: How to help a person with generalized anxiety disorder Index- Symptoms of generalized anxiety disorder
- Generalized anxiety disorder: causes
- Generalized anxiety disorder: psychological treatment
- Generalized anxiety: drug treatment
- Mindfulness or meditation
Symptoms of generalized anxiety disorder
A person with generalized anxiety disorder can present a series of symptoms that vary depending on their individual situation and personality, however, the most common symptoms are the following:
- Constantly feeling irritated
- Fatigue very easily.
- Have great difficulty concentrating.
- Excessive worry about the future and stop living fully in the present.
- Muscle tension or pain.
- Sleeping problems.
- Being constantly anxious and on the alert.
- Constant catastrophic thoughts about what could happen to oneself and / or loved ones.
- Tachycardia.
- Fear of making wrong decisions.
Generalized anxiety disorder: causes
Anyone can suffer from generalized anxiety disorder regardless of age or gender, however, it is more common in women than in men. The exact causes for which this disorder originates are unknown, but it has been found that it may be due to different factors in constant interaction such as, for example, factors of physical and / or mental, psychological and environmental health.
Causes of physical health
Some of the most common causes of physical health, which are related to anxiety, are the following:
- Cardiovascular diseases.
- Premenstrual syndrome.
- Menopause.
- Hypothyroidism or hyperthyroidism.
- Muscle pains.
- Gastrointestinal diseases.
Psychological causes
It is common for people with generalized anxiety disorder to report that they have been very anxious for as long as they can remember. Some personality types have been shown to be more prone to developing this type of disease, among the most common personality traits are the following:
- Shyness.
- High degree of perfectionism.
- Low self-esteem.
- Little assertiveness: they find it difficult to express to others what they feel for fear of doing it in an inappropriate way).
- Indecision: it is difficult for them to make their own decisions for fear of being wrong since they are very anxious to know that they have to take responsibility for them.
- Negative temperament. most of the time they have negative thoughts about everything or almost everything that happens to them.
- Constant sadness: they have a rather sad temperament due to the negative perception they have about their life.
- Low tolerance for uncertainty.
Environmental causes
There are some environmental factors that can contribute so that, combined with others, a person is more likely to develop this disorder. Some of these factors are as follows:
- It is frequent that it appears in people without work.
- Childhood trauma (sexual abuse, physical and / or psychological abuse, abandonment or death of one or both parents, bullying, among others).
- Having anxious parents, so they have learned from childhood to have this type of behavior.
- Have lived or continuously live stressful situations.
Mental health causes
It has been found that people with a chemical imbalance in brain activity can have this type of disorder. For example, not enough neurotransmitters such as noradrenalide, dopamine and serotonin are produced in the brain and / or some areas of the brain responsible for controlling emotions and behavior are too active.
Generalized anxiety disorder: psychological treatment
Generalized anxiety disorder should be treated mainly with psychotherapy, however, on some occasions, depending on the individual situation, it can also be combined with pharmacological treatment.
Psychological treatment is aimed at reducing anxiety symptoms and reducing the disability caused by it. Depending on the difficulties of the patient, they will work on one or more areas of their life that have been affected by suffering from this disorder. What is generally worked in therapy is to provide the person with all the information related to the disorder they suffer from, since most of the time they do not know what it is or that they are suffering from this disorder and the factors that cause it are analyzed and maintain anxiety levels.
The person is also taught relaxation exercises to reduce anxiety, they work with their own thoughts to help prevent worrying behaviors, assertiveness and problem-solving techniques are taught, as well as some social skills. Finally, the person is exposed in the imagination and live to face the feared situations.
Generalized anxiety: drug treatment
Pharmacological treatment is aimed at alleviating the symptoms of anxiety and / or depression that the person may present, as well as preventing relapses. Normally, the drugs that are administered are anxiolytics, such as bromazepam, diazepam, lorazepam, among others that help the person feel calmer and not be distressed by any situation in an exaggerated way. Antidepressants are also often used, since it is common for people with this type of condition to have some type of depression.
It is important to take into account that the professional indicated to prescribe the medications must be a psychiatrist. The psychiatrist is the one who will evaluate in detail the individual situation of each person, because it will not be the same for everyone, it may be that for some the consumption of certain drugs has the desired effect and it may be that for others it is all. contrary. It must also be remembered that drugs alone will not eliminate the problem and must always be combined with psychological treatment.
Mindfulness or meditation
People with generalized anxiety disorder often stop experiencing the present, what they are living in the here and now to focus solely on the future. They live worried about what may or may not pass and overlook what is really happening, which causes their anxiety levels to increase significantly. This is why mindfulness or meditation techniques are very beneficial for this type of condition, since they help us focus on the present moment and put aside those concerns about what has not happened. It helps us learn to enjoy every moment we are experiencing and improves our relationship with our environment and the people around us.
In the following Psychology-Online article, we talk about the different types of meditation and their benefits.
This article is merely informative, in Psychology-Online we do not have the power to make a diagnosis or recommend a treatment. We invite you to go to a psychologist to treat your particular case.
If you want to read more articles similar to Generalized Anxiety Disorder: Causes, Symptoms and Treatment, we recommend that you enter our category of Clinical Psychology.