Generalized Anxiety Disorder Symptoms
The Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental
Disorders, or DSM, generally considered to be the psychiatrist's
Bible, is quite clear on the subject of generalized anxiety
disorder symptoms.
It will tell you what signs you should look for, and how often
and long you should have experienced them, before you need to be
anxious that they are generalized anxiety disorder symptoms.
The DSM says that, if your days of excessive worrying over lots
of things, over the past six months, have outnumbered your days
of normal worrying, you meet their first criteria for
generalized anxiety disorder symptoms.
If you have to struggle to control you anxiety, and that anxiety
brings with it at least three of six physical or emotional
manifestations, then you meet the second and third criteria for
generalized anxiety disorder symptoms.
What are the manifestations? A restless or edgy feeling;
inability to focus, or periods of mental blankness; difficulty
falling or remaining asleep; becoming fatigued easily; having
overly tense muscles; and being irritated for little or no
reason.
The DSM also says that in children, only one of these
manifestations for the prescribed period can point to
generalized anxiety disorder symptoms.
Your anxiety behaviors, in order to qualify as generalized
anxiety disorder symptoms, cannot be related to panic attacks,
social anxiety disorder, obsessive-compulsive disorder, eating
disorders like anorexia or bulimia, or hypochondria. And they
cannot be brought on by post-traumatic stress disorder.
In addition, to be classified as generalized anxiety disorder
symptoms, your anxiety behaviors must be severe enough to
interfere with your ability to function in social or employment
situations.
Finally, if the anxieties you experience result from drug use, a
disease like hyperthyroidism, or other mood or developmental
disorders, they are not generalized anxiety disorder symptoms.
If you eliminated all the other forms of
anxiety, disease, and substances which could be causing your
restlessness, tension, irritability, insomnia, fatigue, and
spaciness, you are a candidate for a diagnosis of generalized
anxiety disorder.
If you meet the DSM's criteria for generalized anxiety disorder
symptoms, don't be afraid to take the next step and consult a
mental health professional.
Once you have confirmed that you have GAD, you and your doctor
can take steps to treat it. Medications like Valium or Librium,
desensitization therapy which exposes you to threatening
situations for increasing periods, learning meditation or other
relaxation techniques, and psychological counseling are all
treatments used successfully for generalized anxiety disorder.
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