What is Generalized Anxiety Disorder?

Anxiety is at the crux of a great deal of mental illnesses. The pain of a mental illness is that it comes from within you and attacks you with weapons you have unknowingly given it. Due to this, anxiety is a very powerful influence on mental illness – because no-one knows what you are afraid of better than you do, your brain will in its disordered state confront you with the things that scare you and make you anxious. As a consequence you will find it all the harder to beat the problem because part of you is causing it.

Generalized Anxiety Disorder, or GAD is an illness which is characterized by worry about everyday, mundane things. It is typically a disproportionate worry about something that, in all likelihood, will not be a major problem. Typical flashpoints for GAD are things such as money, work and relationships – things that may well be going well for the sufferer, but due to the disorder will begin to niggle in their mind.

An individual with GAD may be in an excellent, well-paid job with prospects for the future, a stable and happy relationship and have numerous good friends. The disorder will pick at one or more of these and present the individual with the fear that something will go wrong. Most usually, it will use a small problem and expand it until the problem is all the sufferer can see. Usually treated using anti-depressants and cognitive behavioral therapy, GAD can become debilitating, but if it is tackled head-on the sufferer can overcome it and lead a happy life.