General anxiety disorder or GAD is a condition where the sufferer has excessive anxiety on most days. Traditional treatment is initially the prescription of buspirone or another anti depressant. Long term general anxiety disorder sufferers are often given cognitive therapy, which until recently was regarded as the number one method of dealing with the condition.
General anxiety disorder affects about 2% of the population at some time or other, being more prevalent in women than men the onset most often being before sufferers hit the age of 30 and is characterised by anxiety that is widespread rather than targeted as in a phobia.
People with general anxiety disorder experience a lot of anxiety, feeling fearful, tense or worried most if not every day and is most often a condition which lasts for years and becomes a way of life. Other symptoms of general anxiety disorder are a feeling of vulnerability causing the sufferer to feel on edge, people often describing it as feeling wired up. This heightened state of tension, leads to excessive tiredness, with concentration lapses commonplace, however this is often coupled with difficulty sleeping and insomnia, because the condition keeps your mind racing making it difficult to relax.
Whilst some people are more anxious than others, stress of one type or another is often instrumental in general anxiety disorder and often times acts as a catalyst in triggering the condition. Most often though, its past events, that play the major part in laying the conditions foundations, abuse, loss of a loved one through separation or death, broken family life in childhood or any other stressful event or series of events being typical examples.
Modern therapies such as Thought Field Therapy are now highly regarded as treatments for this condition, with companies such as BeOnForm specialising in treating general anxiety disorder, panic attacks and agoraphobia.