Do you wake most mornings with a feeling of dread, or an overwhelming feeling that something bad is going to happen? Does your heart race, and do you have an uncomfortable feeling of anticipation? You may worry excessively and unnecessarily, with possible psychological and physical damage.
Now, worrying is a fact of life. It involves thoughts about future negative events that might happen. If you find yourself asking a, “What if ?” question, you are probably worried about something. And that is the difference between healthy worrying vis-a-vis unhealthy worrying.
If you are worried about something specific, such as whether your souffle will fall, that is healthy worry. Unhealthy worrying involves chronic and constant concerns about anything and everything in a person’s life. Worrying constantly about non-specific situations is a hallmark of generalized anxiety disorder, or GAD.
Do you worry about worrying too much?
That is a sign that you may be cognizant of a problem. If you can shift your thoughts to something else that is not worrisome, you probably have healthy coping strategies. But constantly worrying about something in the future without the ability to put it aside, causing mental and physical distress may be a sign that you suffer from GAD.
“The distinction between an anxiety disorder and just having normal anxiety is whether your emotions are causing a lot of suffering and dysfunction,” says Sally Winston, Psy.D., co-director of the Anxiety and Stress Disorder Institute of Maryland in Towson.
GAD affects nearly 7 million adults, or more than 3 percent of the U.S. population, every year. Women are twice as likely to be diagnosed with this disorder. It is thought that family background, biological factors and life experiences, especially stressful ones, may be contributing factors to GAD.
Signs That You May Be an Excessive Worrier, or GAD Sufferer
The definition of GAD is feeling anxious and worrying excessively for six months. Another way of looking at it is if you worry a lot more than your friends and find it difficult to stop worrying once you start, you possibly have GAD. This chronic worrying typically interferes with lifestyle, appetite, relationships, job performance and sleep.
The disorder often starts in childhood around the age of 11 or 12. These people usually say they cannot remember a day they didn’t worry. In adult-onset GAD, the disease typically manifests between 20 and 40 years of age and is usually triggered by a major life stressor.
People with GAD are often perfectionists, worrying about possible mistakes in work, life and relationships. Because these patients often look for reassurance that their worries are justified, they can be obsessive information seekers, may refuse to delegate work, or find themselves procrastinating and/or avoiding certain situations. They often experience a “chaining effect” where one worry brings up another, then another.
“People worry because they think something bad will happen or could happen, so they activate a hypervigilant strategy of worry and think that ‘if I worry I can prevent this bad thing from happening or catch it early,’” explains Robert L. Leahy, Ph.D., the director of the American Institute for Cognitive Therapy in New York City. Worrying is a strategy for the person to try to maintain control of his life.
Psychological and Physical Symptoms of GAD
It is estimated that 93 percent of GAD sufferers also have overlapping psychological disorders such as depression, compulsive behaviors and panic attacks. Constant worry and other mental disorders are stressors that can cause physical changes to the body as well. Depression and anxiety often occur together, and scientists are beginning to see a relationship between stress and general health.
Stress is responsible for the “fight or flight” response in us. This response is still useful in our high-tech lives – it alerts us to danger and ideally helps us escape the recognized risk. But too much psychological hypervigilance can activate a chain of events that could damage your heart.
For example, with the fight or flight reflex, your body muscles tense overall and your heartbeat increases. Hormones released while the body is feeling stress may damage artery walls, giving plaque a foothold. Stress also releases glucose and fatty acids into the bloodstream. These are converted to natural fats and cholesterol, and we all know of the dangers of too much cholesterol.
Other psychological symptoms include irritability, snapping at others for minor reasons, getting upset easily, and trouble concentrating or paying attention.
There are a multitude of physical symptoms a person can experience in the throes of an anxiety attack. The physical effects of anxiety include a racing heart, sweating, stomach discomfort, restlessness and fidgeting. A person may be easily fatigued, experience aches and pains, especially tightness in the neck and shoulders, have irritable bowel syndrome and nausea.
Chronic worrying is linked to an increased risk of smoking, self-medicating with drugs or alcohol, overeating, and living a sedentary lifestyle. A clear example of the damage these habits can do is illustrated by a study at the University of Maryland. It showed that excessive caffeine and smoking increased a person’s heartbeat by 14 beats a minute. Add stress, and a person’s heartbeat increased by 38 beats a minute.
Strategies for Dealing with GAD
Remember, all worries are thoughts. The bad things we worry about possibly happening probably won’t happen. And worrying about these things won’t prevent them from happening. Allow yourself worry periods of 10 to 20 minutes, and then set aside those concerns. Try to stay in the moment, fully appreciating what is happening around you. Chronic worriers with severe symptoms may want to seek a physician’s advice. Counseling and possibly medications to treat symptoms may alleviate patients’ suffering and give back lives stolen by chronic worry.
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