Generalised Anxiety Disorder

Generalised Anxiety Disorder (GAD) is characterised by a person being generally anxious and worried about a wide variety of things. According to Beyond Blue, about 6% of the Australian population will suffer from GAD at some stage in their life [1].

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About Anxiety

Anxiety is our body’s natural response to let us know when we are in potential danger or that something is wrong. Anxiety and worry, to a certain degree, are normal and, in fact, adaptive. However, when anxiety becomes uncontrollable or interferes with our ability to function normally, it becomes a problem, and you may have an anxiety disorder.

Symptoms of Generalised Anxiety Disorder

Common symptoms of generalised anxiety disorder include:

worrying or being anxious a lot of the time;
feeling constantly restless or on edge;
being easily fatigued;
having difficulty concentrating;
feeling irritable often;
experiencing frequent muscle tension;
having trouble falling or staying asleep, or having unsatisfying sleep.

Treating Generalised Anxiety Disorder

The most common treatment for GAD is Cognitive Behavioural Therapy or CBT Therapy. The cognitive component of this therapy involves challenging anxious and unhelpful thoughts by weighing up the evidence for the thought and, in time, replacing the unhelpful thoughts with more realistic thoughts. The behavioural component of therapy involves techniques such as self-monitoring to learn to catch unhelpful thoughts and relaxation techniques to help calm yourself down when feeling anxious.