What is Generalized Anxiety?
Anxiety comes in many forms and there are a a lot of different diagnoses for anxiety
The top 5 most common ones are
Generalized anxiety
Social anxiety
Panic disorder
Obsessive Compulsive disorder
Post- Traumatic stress diroders
In this video I will cover the first one Generalized anxiety disorder. So stay tuned for future videos about other top 5 anxiety disorders.
first, it is important to note that experiencing anxiety Anxiety is actually a normal response to stressful situations. Anxiety can actually be a good thing, because it alerts us that something is off, or something needs our attention.
Anxiety is normal and most of us will experience symptoms of anxiety or even panic attacks sometime in our lives. But there is a difference between experiencing a normal amount of anxiety vs. What we call generalized anxiety (GAD)
You may have felt anxious before an important event in your life
such as:
When you are starting a new job
Meeting your significant others parents for the first time
Having an important test coming up
Making a presentation in front of a large group of people
Maybe these situations caused you to “overthink” and worry about how things will turn out. You may have experience the butterfly feelings in your stomach, maybe tossed and turned at night and lost sleep over these thoughts or maybe you even experienced a panic attack .
It is completely normal to have experienced feelings of anxiety or panic in these situations, especially if you were not prepared for the presentation you were just about to make.
With Generalized anxiety disorder (GAD) it’s a bit different because there is no particular reason for the anxiety.
If you have GAD you may:
Experience a general feeling of restlessness or uneasiness but many times you cant pinpoint what is causing you to feel this way.
You may feel like things are going wrong in many or all parts of your life
There is a Constant worry about many things all at once and the worry can be really irrational.
You may obsess over these worries which can lead to loss of sleep.
You might feel Irritable
You may have panic attacks frequently
And you may avoid many situations because the worry is so bad
The main thing to understand is that with GAD, the anxiety interferes with your everyday life and you may have a hard time going to school or work/ You may even cancel plans at the last minute because of how bad you feel.
It really hard to control these thoughts and feelings.
Treatment for everyday anxiety here are 5 tips to help:
1) you can call a friend and rationalize the thoughts - sometimes it helps to talk to someone
2) Deep breathing to calm your nervous system down. I find 4-7-8 breathing works really well. Inhale to the count of 4. Hold your breath to the count of 7. and exhale to the count of 8. This type of breathing helps calm the nervous system down and since you are focusing on your breath, your thoughts will be more controlled as well.
3) Exercise, yoga is so helpful because it combined physical activity with deep breathing
4) Do something you love, draw, sing, take a walk, wherever makes you happy and takes you out of the current situation
5) Focus on right now- when we have small amounts of anxiety we may be worried about something that might take place in the future. So stop, take a deep breath, and focus on what is happening right now.
If you feel you have generalized anxiety (GAD), you can definitely use some of these tools but it may be best to seek help from a professional who uses cognitive behavioral therapy techniques and can work with you to help bring your anxiety levels down to a manageable level. Remember anxiety is extremely common and treatable.
What techniques have worked for you? please comment below.
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