Generalized Anxiety Disorder (GAD)

Generalized anxiety disorder (GAD) is a disorder characterized by chronic excessive worry accompanied by three or more of the following symptoms: restlessness, fatigue, concentration problems, irritability, muscle tension, and sleep disturbance. (page 559) This is a uncontrollable worrying that produces a sense of loss of control that can so erode self confidence that simple decisions seem fraught with dire consequences. Anxiety disorders cost the U.S. more than $42 billion a year, almost one-third of the country's $148 billion total mental health bill. About 5% of Americans are estimated to suffer from generalized anxiety disorder at some point in their lives. Also, it often occurs more often in lower socioeconomic groups than in middle and

With that being said, many treatment methods have come out of this. Treatment can be with prescription drugs, which suggests that neurotransmitter imbalances may play a role in the disorder. Benzodiazepines, or more commonly known as Valium or Librium, stimulate the neurotransmitter gammaminobutyric acid (GABA) and overall can help with the symptoms of GAD. Also, there are other drugs that don’t directly affect GABA levels such as antidepressants (Prozac) that can help treat GAD. Taking these drugs sounds like no big deal and people will be much better off on them. That is not always the case, these drugs don’t work for all patients and they can cause dependency on them, which is never

After personally experiencing anxiety in college I can tell you first-hand how hard it can make things. I believe the reason that the number of people being diagnosed with GAD deals with 2 things, a more demanding job market and high schools aren’t properly preparing students for college. High schools and universities need to team up and figure out a way to better prepare students for the college workload and how to successfully deal with it. I have also spoke with numerous peers on what makes them the most anxious about a class and it is when a test is worth 20% or up of their final grade. In these cases, a test can literally make or break you in that class and that can cause a lot of anxiety to