Personal Narrative: Generalized Anxiety Disorder

Through my attempt to investigate my family health history, I discovered that among all the physical and mental/emotional disorders that run in my family, anxiety happens to one of the most common one. Beginning from grandparents, both of my grandparents from my mother’s side, suffer from Anemia and anxiety. On the other hand, my grandfather from my father’s side, also suffered from anemia and my grandmother currently suffers from rheumatism and anxiety. Furthermore, my mother currently suffers from type II diabetes, anxiety, and depression, while my father has suffered from bronchitis three years ago for a brief period of time. In addition, my aunt did suffer from anxiety and depression, which led her to taking her life two years ago through overdose of prescription drugs and intensified my mother’s depression even further. From my father’s side, my uncle

Living with anxiety is a battle everyday. I wake up and I’m not sure if today will be good or bad. It can start out good, but the next thing I know, I’m having a panic attack. The world around me starts to cave in, and the noise I hear becomes static; it’s as if I’m being swallowed whole. Suffering from a panic attack is incredibly embarrassing. Nobody understands what I’m going through, they all think it’s in my head or that I’m being dramatic. What they don’t understand is that, it’s a real problem. Just like any other illness, anxiety is paralyzing; so are panic attacks. There are days I don’t want to get out of bed because I’m afraid that today is the day everything will end, so it’s just safer to stay in bed. My anxiety is unpredictable,

Everyone experiences some form of anxiety within their life. Anxiety is highly individualized; meaning that each person who experiences

The anxiety started when we checked into the hotel. I was in Syracuse with three of my best friends, ready to have a weekend full of exhilaration and laughter.

This made me quit hanging out with friends however when I began middle school I started to discover that it is a typical thing so I started simply doing what I regularly would do and in the event that I had a fit of anxiety then I would utilize the methods I gained from my specialist. I had numerous individuals help me through this crucial step of my life and I learned through these individuals to be strong and even the most astute and most grounded individuals have difficulties. Another hardship I'm experiencing in my life at the present time is financial issues. My dad's company he was working for went out of business so he needed to begin another job that didn't pay to such an extent. He was them jobless for a couple of months until he recently found a new

Anxiety is a disorder many people are quick to self-diagnose. While anxiety is a very serious disorder, I believe it is important to educate and seek professional advice before assuming you are someone who suffers from this disorder. I chose the article by Alexander M. Penney, Dwight Mazmanian, & Caitlin Rudanycz because I was that person I previously mentioned. I suffered for years from what I assumed was severe anxiety and it wasn’t until I sought professional help that I was finally able to understand and better control the situation at hand.

Anxiety disorders can take over one’s life, and are very difficult to overcome and live with. The truth of the unknown and wanting to know what is unknown can cause these anxious feelings and thoughts. People with Generalized Anxiety Disorder, live life with persistent and constant levels of anxiety. Unlike

I’m an onion. At first, I seem quiet, timid, and reserved. Like an onion, I have layers.The more I’m comfortable with my surroundings, I will shed these alleged outer layers . My quiet, soft voice becomes stern and confident. My demeanor changes from reserved to self- assured. I know that UNC- Wilmington will allow me to grow into, this strong, independent, and anxiety-free woman that I so long to be.

I've struggled with Generalized Anxiety Disorder for years. It started when I was 11 years old...I bean over thinking things and became increasingly scared of social situations. In high school, it escalated quickly. I knew all too well the horror of anxiety attacks and many times I was too afraid to even get out of bed.

On our way up the stairs to our unit, a girl named Jada came up behind me. “So why are you here?” I was thrown off by the personal question she asked so casually. Only an hour prior I had arrived at the facility and was introduced to the other eleven teenagers.

As I faced the world of adulthood, I felt lost and unsettled. I was then diagnosed with Generalized Anxiety Disorder, and living with this disorder is my biggest weakness in life. Some days I am fine, others I am constantly worrying about the tiniest of things. I am overcoming this disorder, everyday might be a battle, but I will not let it define me.

In my freshmen year, I got my first stage management job, as a production assistant on one of my school’s mainstage productions. The majority of those I was working with were graduate students and/or faculty. I was extremely intimidated and I struggled to do any task without apprehension, due to my generalized anxiety disorder. After noting this behavior, I began working on my confidence, in order to mitigate my trepidation, by way of reflection and therapy. When asked to tape out the prop table, rather than asking dozens of questions about which color of tape to use and the ideal position for the breakable wine glass, I just began the task, trusting my judgement. Sometimes I was corrected and had to redo my work, but most of the time, my work

According to the Mayo Clinic, genetics may play a role as well as other factors, but is not fully known. Some of the risk factors for GAD is personality, genetics, and sex. With personality, a person who is shy, have negative thoughts, or who avoids dangerous situations may be more prone to generalized anxiety disorder than others are. GAD may run in the family, thus being a genetic factor. Also, women are more prone to have GAD than men. The common two treatments for GAD include medication and psychotherapy. Psychotherapy

A case that stands out to me was a patient who presented to the clinic with complaints of chest pain that had been ongoing for two years. It was an interesting case because of the differential diagnoses that included the cardiovascular, respiratory, musculoskeletal, and neurologic systems. After following all of these symptoms, the working diagnosis was generalized anxiety disorder. The patient was a forty five year old white female who was working a low-paying full time job, raising children and caring for her disabled husband. She was unwilling to take medication initially but later agreed to try a low dose Lexapro. We also discussed some coping strategies that included breathing exercise and prayer in order to manage her feelings of being

Figuring out that I had anxiety took a while, I always felt like I was anxious a lot more than everyone else and beyond stressed at a young age. It just did not click in my head that there might be something wrong. I was living my life in a low state, depressed and having multiple panic attacks through the day at any giving time and there was no obvious thing that trigger them. I was miserable to the point I did not want to get out of bed, I was too afraid. This caused me to become super depressed, to the point of cutting and thinking of my options to end this cruel disorder that was taking over my life.