Steven Gans, MD is board-certified in psychiatry and is an active supervisor, teacher, and mentor at Massachusetts General Hospital.
Generalized anxiety disorder (GAD) is a specific type of anxiety disorder. Most people worry at times about their health, job, money, or family, but people with GAD experience anxiety about these things and more, in a way that is persistent, excessive, and intrusive.
Often, people with GAD struggle to relax and have trouble concentrating on tasks. They may experience physical symptoms including restlessness, sweating, difficulty swallowing, and using the restroom a lot.
While symptoms of anxiety can be debilitating, with proper treatment—including medication and psychotherapy—people can learn to manage their symptoms and live a more productive life.
The 3-3-3 rule is a grounding strategy that people can use when they feel overwhelmed by feelings of anxiety. To do this technique, you name three things you can see, three things you can hear, and three parts of your body. By focusing your attention on your immediate environment rather than your feelings of stress, it can help distract and calm feelings of anxiety.
There are many possible GAD symptoms. Some people will experience most of them while others will have just a few. Some of your anxiety symptoms might be mild and fairly easy for you to cope with, while others might be intense and even make it difficult for you to function in your day-to-day life.
A person who has generalized anxiety disorder experiences worry that is persistent, excessive, and intrusive. Some people develop GAD during childhood while others don't have symptoms until they are adults. Regardless of when it starts, people often experience GAD as a lifelong condition.
Often used interchangeably with psychological disorder, mental illness, and psychiatric disorder, a mental disorder is the official term used in the American Psychiatric Association’s (APA) DSM-5 manual. The APA indicates that a mental disorder is a noticeable disturbance in a person’s emotions, behaviors, or thinking patterns that impacts their quality of life.
An anxiety disorder is a serious mental health issue that causes a person to feel excessive fear, anxiety, or worry along with other related symptoms and behaviors. Because these fears will generally not go away on their own, they may get worse over time and can interfere with daily activities without treatment.
Psychotherapy, or talk therapy, is a process used to treat a variety of mental health issues and emotional difficulties. Through different techniques and methods, a psychotherapist will help a client address psychological and life issues. While there are many approaches to psychotherapy, the overall goal is to help clients decrease symptoms and improve their functioning and well-being.
A phobia is a type of anxiety disorder that involves a persistent, excessive, and irrational fear of something like a situation, activity, object, person, or animal. Typically, people with phobias try to avoid the source of their fear; or if they cannot avoid the situation, they endure it with intense fear or anxiety.
National Center for Biotechnology Information, U.S. National Library of Medicine. Generalized anxiety disorder. Updated June 2, 2020.
National Institute of Mental Health. Anxiety disorders. Updated July 2018.