GAD And Causes Of Anxiety

GAD Or Generalized Anxiety Disorder

We can seek anxiety relief for a variety of disorders. Amongst the various psychiatric disorders pertaining to anxiety, the one that is most often associated with anxiety is termed "Generalized anxiety disorder" or GAD. GAD is characterized by too much worry about common situations and events in normal day-to-day life. Those who suffer from GAD can be expected to show symptoms such as a tendency to expect the worst possible turn of events, or consistent worrying about their family, their work, health etc.

Grows If Left Unchecked

Simple, day-to-day events have become a source of generating fear in these people. Left untreated without a route for anxiety relief, GAD slowly overcomes one's thoughts and supplants all thinking, and gets in the way of how a person carries out day-to-day activities in work and social relationships.

Neurochemical basis of GAD

While GAD is primarily a psychiatric condition, there are a number of debilitating physical effects on a person's health. The biomedical basis for these symptoms is not clear, but is thought to be related to continued, elevated stress hormones being released by the GAD sufferer, which induces a range of stress-related responses. For example, those with symptoms of GAD may feel tense all the time, and express this with irritation in social interactions. There may be physical manifestations of tension in the muscles. Naturally, such tensions lead to constant headaches. When feeling nervous, a GAD sufferer may sweat profusely and have trouble concentrating on the task at hand, instead focusing on problems and worries. In extreme cases of worry, a GAD sufferer can feel nausea and exhibiting shaking, tremors. And during downtimes, because of the heightened and constant state of anxiety, those with GAD will lack energy and feel tired. Despite the tiredness, they may not even be able to sleep well. The identification of these causal factors is one major impetus for the development of various methods for anxiety relief.

Unknown Causes

Because GAD is a complex, psychiatric condition, medical science has not yet been able to penetrate the etiology of the condition. The biomedical science of anxiety relief is also incomplete. But it is thought to be some combination of environmental, chemical and genetic reasons. Research into family trees of those with GAD increasingly suggests that the tendency to over-worry can be transmitted from one generation to the next. Siblings and others related by blood will have higher chance of associated GAD.

Genetic But Chemical

The genetic factors manifest as chemical ones, in that those with generalized anxiety show elevated levels of particular brain chemicals that help pass messages from neurons to other neurons. Elevated levels of brain chemicals can push the psychiatric state to either relaxation or worry depending on the particular chemical, and in the case of GAD, the ones causing worry and stress-responses are being overproduced. This may lead to a feedback effect, as constant worry itself is a source of building up worry. Finally, no doubt environment plays a strong role in giving rise to anxiety. Trouble at work or with a relationship are triggers for worry. When these triggers fire, they stimulate the genetic and chemical factors which can become self-sustaining. Treatment methods pertaining to anxiety relief may address some of these factors directly.

A Common Condition

Generalized anxiety disorder is not a rare condition, but it is uncommon. However, latest statistics seem to show that around 1-2% of all Americans suffer from GAD, putting the number of those afflicted at 4 million. There is no preponderance of either gender for the condition. The time at which anxiety starts is usually past puberty, and some show symptoms well into adulthood before these people start seeking anxiety relief.