education series: what is generalized anxiety disorder?
Woman with her hands over her heart, sitting against a couch with her knees bent represents the experience of anxiety
WHAT IS ANXIETY?
Unfortunately, if you have depression you are also more likely to be diagnosed with anxiety, and vice versa. It is like a terrible buy-one-get-one deal that no one asked for. Anxiety is the most common mental health diagnosis in the United States with about 1 out of 5 individuals experiencing anxiety in their lifetime (cited from https://www.nami.org/About-Mental-Illness/Mental-Health-Conditions/Anxiety- Disorders).
Symptoms of Anxiety:
The following symptoms have to be present for most of the day for six months in a variety of different situations, and not related to any underlying medical condition or better explained by a different diagnosis (like OCD). Most importantly, these symptoms must be creating significant distress in your life. If you aren’t experiencing any problems from the symptoms, then you do not qualify for a diagnosis of generalized anxiety disorder.
You need at least three of the following symptoms:
Excessive, uncontrollable worry
Feeling of restlessness
Irritability
Muscle tension (headaches, shoulder tension, stomach aches, etc)
Fatigue/exhaustion
Difficulty falling asleep or staying asleep
Anxiety is Different than Fear or Stress
In our everyday vernacular, anxiety is used interchangeably with stress or nervousness. However, anxiety is a clinical term meant to convey a certain set of criteria.
Anxiety may or may not have a certain trigger, but generally is an experience of unspecified doom. In comparison, stress has an identifiable trigger and a clear end. I may be experiencing stress as I prepare for a major presentation, but I feel relief when the presentation is over. I may also experience anxiety about the meeting if there are thoughts like “they probably hated it, I bombed” that are running through my brain even when I try to do other things. Racing and ruminative thoughts that are not necessarily logical or evidenced-based are a hallmark of anxiety. Anxiety doesn’t ebb when the specific trigger or event concludes.
In comparison, fear is in direct response to a physical danger. Swerving your car at the last moment to avoid an accident or hearing a garbage can fall in an alley at night initiates the classic fight-or-flight fear response. Your body’s sympathetic nervous system reacts before your brain even registers the experience of fear. Fear is time-limited and specific in comparison to anxiety, but both do involve physical symptoms. When you realize you aren’t getting into a car accident, or the cat knocked over the garbage can, your parasympathetic nervous system takes over to return your body to baseline functioning. Anxiety is like living in a constant state of fight, flight, fawn, or freeze (more of this in part three - coming soon!).
Questions, comments, or curse words? Comment below to let me know.
Additional resources:
Anxiety Fact Sheet from National Alliance on Mental Illness (NAMI) - https:// www.nami.org/About-Mental-Illness/Mental-Health-Conditions/Anxiety-Disorders