What is generalised anxiety?

[newbs16]

I'm wondering if I might have generalised anxiety.

Have you suffered from it.
Have you overcome it, certain things seems to make me really anxious and it's getting me down a bit.

[Ajax Amsterdam]

In short I'd say it's experienced very much like SA but the difference being that SA has specific triggers (social/performance etc) but GAD can have a wide variety of triggers. Many varying things can stress a sufferer out and cause great anxiety.

There are lots of links online about GAD that will articulate things better than I'm doing here. http://www.nhs.uk/conditions/Anxiety...roduction.aspx

In the past I did wonder if I had GAD myself because I was constantly stressed, but in the end I could sort of trace pretty much everything to my anxiety being far more specific and social/performance related. I'd get anxious and stressed about my life situation generally, but that situation came into being as a result of SA and my resulting avoidance.

As it's an anxiety disorder, I suppose GAD would be treated in very similar ways to SA. The triggers may be different, but the issue itself is the same.

[Professor Willow]

Generalized anxiety disorder is what I was originally diagnosed with way back in 2005, the main feature of GAD is irrational interpretation of risks or fears and also rumination and generally there are multiple different triggers as opposed to a phobia where one specific thing causes intense anxiety.

A good example for me was back before I was diagnosed when I removed our old power shower, which hadn't been used for sometime, it still contained water in it and out of nowhere I convinced myself that I was going to end up with legionnaires disease and die
I worried myself sick for a fortnight, when I finally managed to go to my GP he nearly pissed himself laughing that I was worrying about such a minute, almost impossible risk.
I could write a book about all the stupid things I've been anxious about over the years, it is very much a broad spectrum problem, it will latch on to anything given the chance, money problems, work, health, death to name a few.
The best way I can describe it is basically it makes mountains out of molehills, what would be a trivial worry to a 'normal' person is amplified into an all consuming monster.

I was initially put on SSRI's which did help with some of the symptoms but ultimately the only effective treatment has been CBT and learning how to rationalize better, I do still worry about stupid things but I feel I'm definitely a lot better at reasoning with myself.
The truly perverse thing for me though is that I have and still do take real risks with things like personal safety at work (standing under raised objects, working with live electrics etc.) and never seem to worry at all, but give me a hypothetical risk and I'm screwed.
I do hope that has been of use or interest to you.

[tryinghard]

I am officially diagnosed with social anxiety, but I always assumed I actually had GAD - and then read about it an unconvinced myself...

...I am constantly tense and stressed and overwhelmed from the moment I wake up but I actually don't stress over the little things that much. From what I've read about GAD, it's supposed to be constant worrying about everything in life - work, finances, health etc. - but I don't tend to worry about things like that. I used to worry about money a lot, but now that I don't have any actual reason to worry about money (I have enough of it to last me the month, albeit still not much) then I never think about it. I also don't stress over deadlines, work, exams or public speaking. I've always considered my anxiety to be the art of freaking out over stuff everybody else doesn't care about yet being completely fine with the stuff everyone else gets nervous over. So I guess I don't have GAD....

Like Ajax said, I think it's possible to feel constantly stressed over one thing or a few things and not have GAD despite the "constant" feeling.

Every part of my anxiety could be put down to three things really: Putting enormous pressure on myself to never let anyone down and keep up with everything at all times (and usually to excel at those things...); believing I am fundamentally alone in life and therefore putting a lot of pressure on myself to always be able to "cope" and sort my own shit out; and just the stress of feeling consistently empty (which gets stressful over time). To be honest, I think I'm anxious because I'm depressed.

But having said all that, I think everybody's anxiety - GAD or no - could be put down to individual reasons like that. Once you get to the root of the problem, it doesn't really make sense to have a diagnosis anymore.