Generalized anxiety disorder (GAD) is a prolonged (multi-day or more) feeling of unhealthy anxiety.
Anxiety causes the human brain to send through the nerves throughout the body specific messages for the heart, lungs, muscles and other organs. Hormonal alarms come through the blood - for example, adrenaline is released. Together, these "messages" lead to the fact that the body accelerates and enhances its work. The heart beats faster than usual. There is nausea. The body is swept (tremor). Sweat separates intensely. It is impossible to avoid dry mouth, even if a person drinks a lot of fluids. Chest and headache. Sucks in the stomach. Shortness of breath appears.
The excitement of a healthy body must be distinguished from painful, pathological anxiety. Normal excitement is helpful and necessary when experiencing stress. It warns of a danger or a situation of potential confrontation. Then the individual decides whether he should “take the fight” (for example, pass a difficult exam). If the level of anxiety is too high, the subject understands that he needs to leave such an event as soon as possible (for example, during an attack by a wild beast).
But there is a special type of anxiety in which a person’s state becomes painful, and manifestations of anxiety do not allow normal life activities.
With GAD, a person is in fear for a long time. Extreme confusion is often unmotivated, i.e. the reason can not be understood.
Symptoms of pathological anxiety can be, at first glance, similar to the manifestations of a normal, healthy anxiety state, especially when it comes to so-called “anxious personalities”. For them, anxiety is an everyday norm of well-being, and not a disease. To distinguish generalized anxiety disorder from normal, you need to find in a person at least three of the following symptoms:
- anxiety, nervous excitement, impatience are manifested much more often than in normal living conditions;
- fatigue comes faster than always;
- it is difficult to collect attention, it often fails - as if it turns off;
- the patient is more irritable than usual;
- muscles are tense and cannot be relaxed;
- there were sleep disturbances that were not there before.
An alarm that occurs only for one of the above reasons is not a sign of GAD. Most likely, obsessive anxiety for any single reason means phobia - a completely different disease.
Generalized anxiety disorder occurs between the ages of 20-30. Women get sick more often than men. The reasons for this disorder are unknown, so it often seems that they do not exist at all. However, a number of indirect factors can influence the development of such a condition. it
- heredity: there are many anxious personalities in the family; there were relatives who had suffered GAD;
- during childhood, the patient suffered a psychological trauma: he had poor communication with the family, one of the parents died, or both, child abuse syndrome was detected, etc .;
- after major stress (for example, a family crisis), generalized anxiety disorder developed. The crisis is over, the provoking factors have been exhausted, but signs of GAD have persisted. From now on, any minor stress, which has always been easy to cope with, supports the symptoms of the disease.
GAD in some cases develops as a secondary, concomitant disease in patients with depression and schizophrenia.
A diagnosis of GAD is made if its symptoms develop and persist for a 6-month period.
Can generalized anxiety disorder be defeated? The treatment of this disease has been studied quite well. The manifestation of the disease can be mild, but in the worst cases it can make a sick person incapable of work. In the mode of surprise, heavy and lighter periods change, under stresses (for example, the patient lost his job or parted with a loved one), spontaneous exacerbations are possible.
Patients with GAD, as a rule, smoke incredibly much, drink alcohol and use drugs. So they distract themselves from disturbing symptoms, and for a while it really helps. But it is clear that by “supporting” themselves in this way, they can completely lose their health.
Treatment of GAD cannot be quick and, unfortunately, does not provide a complete recovery. At the same time, the treatment process, if carried out in courses for many years, will provide significant symptom relief and a qualitative improvement in life.
Cognitive psychotherapy is used. Her task at the first stage is to show the patient what changes need to be made in ideas and thoughts that provoke anxiety. Then the patient is trained to build his thinking without harmful, useless and false premises - so that it works realistically and productively.
Individual consultations are held, during which a person works out a technique for solving problems.
Where technical and financial conditions permit, there are group courses to combat anxiety symptoms. They teach relaxation, attach great importance to strategies to overcome difficulties.
For self-help in the centers of psychological support (if any), you can get literature and video materials that teach relaxation and how to overcome stress. Describes special breathing exercises, anxiety relief techniques.
Drug therapy is based on the use of two types of drugs: buspirone and antidepressants.
Buspirone is considered the best medicine for treating anxiety. Its action is not fully understood. It is only known that it affects the production of a special substance in the brain - serotonin, which is supposedly responsible for the biochemistry of anxiety symptoms.
Antidepressants, although anxiety is not their immediate target, can be effective in treating it.
Currently, benzodiazepine drugs (e.g. diazepam) are being prescribed less and less for the treatment of GAD. Despite their apparent ability to alleviate anxiety, benzodiazepines are addictive, causing them to stop acting. Moreover, against addiction, additional treatment is necessary. In severe cases of GAD, diazepam is prescribed for a period of not more than 3 weeks.
Antidepressants and buspirone are not addictive.
To achieve the greatest effect, cognitive therapy and buspirone treatment are combined.
The successes of modern pharmacology allow us to wait in the coming years for new drugs that will help completely cure generalized anxiety disorder.