I made the decision to research and write about generalized anxiety disorder (GAD) because I have people close to me who may be affected quite mildly by it. I wanted to better understand the causes, treatments and also, in general, how to improve the quality of life of those suffering from GAD. As you can see from the name, GAD is more generalized, and it is so in the sense that it is not linked to a specific thing like a phobia might be. I believe this generalization has a greater detrimental effect on the patient than on someone who may be suffering from a phobia, such as a phobia of heights. If you have a specific phobia, you can avoid what causes you fear or you can undergo treatment that can follow a specific path to really examine that individual fear and how to overcome it. Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on "Why Violent Video Games Shouldn't Be Banned"? Get an original essay Generalized anxiety disorder is characterized by “excessive, ongoing anxiety and worry that is difficult to control and interferes with daily activities” (Mayo Clinic staff). GAD causes the sufferer to have an excessive stress response to minor problems that arise or an excessive stress response to nothing in particular. The sufferer may have difficulty relaxing and experience difficulty dealing with any situation about which he or she feels uncertain. It also leads to overthinking in situations that may be seemingly simple. There is also an aspect of GAD that can make the sufferer feel threatened in situations where they otherwise shouldn't feel that way. An accumulation of these symptoms can cause irritability and inability to sleep along with a constant feeling of tiredness. There is also the possibility of a psychic response to GAD. These mental symptoms may include “rapid heart, dry mouth, stomach pain, muscle tension, sweating, tremor, and irritability” (Harvard Health Publishing, Harvard Medical School, published June 2011). These psychological symptoms have a somatic relationship with the psychological effects of GAD. One thing that has been proven is that GAD is almost twice as common in women as it is in men. The risk of developing GAD appears to be highest in late adolescence through middle adulthood, but it can occur at any time. According to the Anxiety and Depression Association of America, “GAD is diagnosed when a person finds it difficult to control worry for multiple days and for at least six months and has three or more symptoms.” The combination of the psychological effects along with the physical symptoms make GAD a very destructive and possibly debilitating mental health problem. From a biological point of view, it has been found that those who have family members who suffer from it are more likely to develop GAD. Although it has yet to be established why some family members will develop the disorder while others will not. One of the major biological considerations is the fight-or-flight response. Those with GAD may have an imbalanced fight-or-flight response, and that stress reaction is a contributing factor to both what they think and the somatic relationship that causes the physical symptoms. Another biological consideration is a possible imbalance in the hormones produced by the brain and the possibility of an overly sensitive amygdala. From a sociocultural point of view, GAD can represent a major problem. First of all, we as a society look differently at those who have mental health issues. People with GAD may experience that others have a lack of trust in them. They may also experience that others see them as a burden because they are hindered in their daily livesfrom their anxiety. On the other hand, those with GAD may have more difficulty interacting with people. Social anxiety is a symptom of GAD that can be widespread. It can prevent the sufferer from going out with friends or engaging in social functions that a healthy adult would otherwise participate in. This can lead to further depression and anxiety further perpetuating the cycle of negative thoughts and feelings. The treatment modality I would choose to treat GAD is cognitive behavioral therapy. CBT has been widely used to treat GAD and a number of other disorders, such as post-traumatic stress disorder, and has been shown to be as effective, if not more so, than both short-term and short-term drug treatment. term. as in the long term. Cognitive behavioral therapy seeks to alter the unhealthy and unhelpful thoughts that people have planted in their minds. It works to help people recognize their unhealthy habits and the reactions they have to their thoughts and feelings. According to the American Psychological Association, CBT works on the following core principles. “1. Psychological problems are based, in part, on faulty or unhelpful ways of thinking, 2. Psychological problems are based, in part, on learned patterns of unhelpful behavior, 3. People who suffer from psychological problems can learn better ways to cope with them , thereby alleviating their symptoms and becoming more effective in their lives.” (APA Staff 2018) CBT wants the patient to recognize distortions in their thinking patterns and work to find solutions to make meaningful changes. Instead of letting a thought enter their head and letting that thought influence how they react, CBT works to get the patient to stop, recognize that the thought is occurring, and then address it. CBT also works to get patients to recognize destructive patterns in their behavior and work to correct them. This is where CBT works to instill problem solving skills. The techniques that can be used to solve problems that arise in their head are only one aspect of what makes CBT effective. This is an example of how CBT can be a useful tool to help someone who uses alcohol or tobacco relieve stress. CBT helps the person recognize that, in response to stress, they resort to gripes that end up hurting them even more. This comes into play with Generalized Anxiety Disorder in several ways. First of all, recognizing unhealthy and unhelpful thoughts is something that can help GAD sufferers a lot. Being able to stop and realize the fact that the patient is overanalyzing a situation, and that the overanalysis is causing a great deal of stress and pain, is a huge step in being able to face what is wrong and find meaningful solutions to correct those thought patterns. Another situation is the patient's reaction to these stress patterns. For example, if a patient suffering from GAD begins to feel a high level of fear and anxiety about a social function they are expected to attend, they may withdraw into themselves and refuse to leave the house. This can be one of the most crippling effects of GAD, social situations can be a huge stressor for anyone suffering from anxiety disorders. By using CBT, a person suffering from GAD may be able to recognize the reaction they are having to their feelings and be able to solve their problems in the way learned through CBT and be able to overcome their initial reaction. aspects of CBT that can help with GAD. Gaining confidence in one's abilities is something that I believe a GAD sufferer can benefit greatly frombenefits. I believe one of the many reasons that can cause great anxiety is a lack of control or failure to understand what could happen in a situation. This to me is more of a trust issue than some might think it is. If someone can develop confidence in themselves, when those anxious thoughts flood their head, they can use that confidence to convince themselves and know in their own mind that they are in control and that everything will be okay. Lack of confidence can be paralyzing when it comes to dealing with your anxiety issues. Furthermore, according to the American Psychological Association “CBT treatment usually also involves efforts to change behavioral patterns,” these include “Facing your fears instead of avoiding them, using role-playing to prepare for potentially problematic interactions with others, learning to calm your mind and relax your body." (APA Staff 2018) Facing your fears instead of avoiding them is a huge step toward being able to correct your unhealthy thoughts and feelings, especially when it comes to anxiety disorders. You have to be able to look carefully at yourself to resolve what ails you. Anxiety tends to force people to retreat to a place in their mind that makes them feel safe. The sufferer must be able to stop himself from going to that place and instead face what he knows scares him. Using role play to prepare for potentially problematic interactions can really help someone navigate social situations. The anxiety that prevents someone from entering social situations is what needs to be overcome. Gaining self-confidence through the role-playing process can work wonders in terms of reducing anxiety levels by showing the patient that they can overcome anything. is thrown towards them. Considering how social anxiety can be a paralyzing effect of GAD, this role-playing process can be a very important aspect of CBT that can really help the patient. With many things in life, practice can make perfect. Also, the more someone does something, the more comfortable they feel. Repeated exposure to something that can cause great anxiety can help teach someone the best way to deal with it. If someone always avoids something they're not good at, like how to behave in a social situation, they will never develop the skills needed to do so. Ultimately, learning to calm the mind and relax the body can have enormous benefits for your entire life. well-being for those suffering from GAD. This goes back to the benefits found in somatic psychology. Being able to make the mind and body work in unison to get someone's overall well-being where it is needed is one of the main goals of CBT. If a person can master how to relax the mind or body, then they have developed the foundation work to be able to gain general awareness which is something that GAD can really steal from someone. CBT doesn't actually focus on specific events in someone's life, i.e. causing them stress, but more importantly negative feelings that someone will associate with those events. CBT really lets the patient become their own psychiatrist, examining their own feelings and finding ways to curb those negative reactions. GAD is actually about negative reactions to situations that the person finds stressful. CBT can be an incredibly useful tool to use to get the person to examine why they have those negative feelings towards certain situations and really help develop a strategy for dealing with them. I think that's a good field of study to use to really dive into Generalized Anxiety Disorder is Biological and Somatic Psychology. I think a lot of itof GAD is the way in which the mind and body interact and create a toxic and stressful environment within them. The mind overreacting to what it perceives as a stressful situation has a direct negative effect on the body, and hormones that are released over and over can over time have a very negative side effect. However, this body-mind interface can also be used as an effective tool to combat GAD. In Dr. Robert Sapolsky's YouTube lecture “1. Introduction to human behavioral biology”, explains the 2 main themes of his course which in this case is Bio 150 at Stanford University. He says, “Sometimes what happens in your body can greatly influence what happens in your brain,” then goes on to say, “Sometimes what happens in your head will affect every single outpost of your body.” These major themes in human biology can help us understand some of the effects of GAD. When you look at the hormones that cause the fight or flight response in the body, those stress hormones interact with both the mind and the body to achieve the goal of protecting the person. So a biological psychologist would see GAD as a problem that encompasses the entire body and not just as a mental disorder. The understanding gained using biological psychology can help fuel how we might treat someone using concepts from somatic psychology and it all goes back to stress. and how we can mitigate stress and anxiety through both mental health practices and physical intervention. We already know a way to help a person from a psychotherapeutic point of view, in this case cognitive behavioral therapy, but somatic psychology shows us that we can also do things like exercises or breathing techniques. CBT helps the patient learn problem solving techniques and coping skills when faced with an anxiety-inducing situation, but we can use things like exercises and breathing techniques to really lower the heart rate, which will have a profound effect on stress response that makes GAD so crippling. It has been shown that an activity such as weight lifting can have a positive effect on the regulation of emotions and hormones in the body. Depression, which is a very common occurrence in those who suffer from GAD and can sometimes be one of the root causes of GAD, has been shown to be significantly reduced in those who spend part of their time each day engaging in physical activity. 30 minutes of exercise 3 to 5 days a week can have a very positive effect on your physical and mental health. Additionally, the breathing technique of inhaling for 4 seconds, holding for 4 seconds, exhaling for 4 seconds, holding for 4 seconds, and repeat has been shown to lower a person's heart rate and instill in them a feeling of calm. Another theme within Somatic Psychology that can be used to at least understand what is happening inside the body is found in chapter 3 of the book “The Body Remembers” by Babette Rothschild (2000). Part of the chapter discusses the sympathetic nervous system and the parasympathetic nervous system, both of which are part of the automatic nervous system. The book takes an in-depth look at how systems relate to PTSD, but shows what is going on in the mind of someone experiencing a stress response, which is exactly what GAD is doing. The sympathetic nervous system is awakened. in times of stress, including periods of anger, despair, terror and anxiety. This is the system responsible for your fight-or-flight response and what contributes to the release of hormones. The nervous system, 9(1), 54-68.