The Glamorization of Mental Illness Among Teenagers

Generalized anxiety disorder (GAD) is an anxiety disorder that is characterized by excessive, uncontrollable and often irrational worry about everyday things that is disproportionate to the actual source of worry. This excessive worry often interferes with daily functioning, as individuals suffering GAD typically anticipate disaster, and are overly concerned about everyday matters such as health issues, money, death, family problems, friend problems, relationship problems or work difficulties.[1] They often exhibit a variety of physical symptoms, including fatigue, fidgeting, headaches, nausea, numbness in hands and feet, muscle tension, muscle aches, difficulty swallowing, bouts of difficulty breathing, trembling, twitching, irritability,

GAD’s potentially interwoven origin marks significant challenges for diagnosis and treatment. Patients often leave the opportunity for diagnosis of GAD to the primary caregiver (Roberge et al., 2015). Primary care professionals must be able to attribute physiological symptoms to psychological conditions in many of these cases to prevent missed or misdiagnosis, as well as correctly evaluate potential psychological disorders akin to GAD. The Roberge et al. (2015) research article indicates the need for increased efforts in preparing primary care professionals to properly screen and diagnose patients with GAD.

Anxiety disorders are the most common psychiatric disorder in the United States. Between 15 - 19% of the population suffers from this disorder, which impairs the quality of life and functioning (Stuart 218). What is anxiety? Abnormal Psychology describes anxiety as “an adaptive emotion that helps us plan and prepare for a possible theat.” The text book further states, “worrying about many different aspects of life becomes chronic, excessive, and unreasonable.” This is also known as generalized anxiety disorder or GAD (Butcher 201). DSM IV-TR specifies that GAD is a worry that occurs more days then not for at least 6 months, and that it must be experienced as difficult to control (Butcher 201). 25% of those that suffer from this

GAD is diagnosed when a person worries excessively about a variety of everyday problems for at least 6 months. Physical symptoms include tension, fatigue, insomnia, irritability, gastrointestinal problems, restlessness and edginess (Aikins & Craske, 2001). Excessive worry becomes a typical way of thinking and everyday problems result in a series of ''what-if'' thoughts, which eventually leads to a disastrous prediction. Because individuals with GAD are highly sensitive to threat in general, particularly when it has personal significance, they frequently observe possible threats (Barlow, 2002). In response to these anticipated dangers, fight-or-flight reactions are activated. In most anxiety disorders, it is generally clear what needs to be escaped or avoided (e.g., spiders or public speaking), but in GAD there is

About three percent of men and women in the U.S. suffer from Generalized anxiety disorder (APAA). It is one of the most common forms of anxiety and seems to be the most left untreated because people don’t know that it can be treated (McGradles). GAD, although it affects many, is a disorder that can be detrimental to the quality of life of an individual. With the regard to the quality of life, the level of severity that a person experiences is a great factor in determining more information. The accumulated information is a defining feature in figuring the dissimilarity of the normal fight or flight response and the diagnoses of GAD. The disorder itself is that of excessive worry (AnxietyBC) about everyday

Consequently, it is important to carefully follow diagnostic features provided in DSM-V for each type of anxiety disorder in order to avoid misdiagnose. In the United States, 18.1% of the adult population suffers from different anxiety disorders, and lifetime prevalence of GAD is among 5.7% of those adults (Kessler, 2005).

Anxiety disorders is the most common grouping of psychiatric illnesses which can affect both children and adults. There is an estimated 19 million adult persons in the United States suffering from an anxiety disorder. Anxiety disorders stem from numerous sources, including genetics, brain chemistry, personality, and life events. The Anxiety and Depression Association of America (ADAA) categorizes these disorders as General Anxiety Disorder (GAD), obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD), panic disorder, posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD), social anxiety disorder, and phobias. Anxiety disorders are treatable and manageable by psychosocial therapies, medication, or both, though only about one-third of those suffering from

Generalized Anxiety disorder (GAD) is a disorder consisting of excessive worrying, tension and nervousness. This condition can occur over and over again and if left untreated can lead to suicidal and violent thoughts in the patient. Even though there are certain triggers to the condition, the person eventually becomes so used to worrying and taking stress that they can't control the feeling. These dreadful feelings and excessive thinking eventually overtakes them and leads them into more and more depression. Consequently, the stress and anxiety interferes with the patient's ability to lead a normal life. The major symptoms of this order are motor tension, violence, autonomic hyperactivity, apprehension, and vigilance. GAD has been defined as a state of worry and anxiety that lasts for at least six months and is accompanied by any of the associative symptoms. Associative symptoms included irritability, insomnia, and fatigability.

Generalized anxiety disorder(GAD) is much more than the normal anxiety people experience everyday. It is a chronic condition that is chracterized by excessive worry and anxiety, even though there aren't any reasonable explanations for the cause. It is diagnosed when a person spends a least 6 months worrying excessively about numerous everyday problems.

Anxiety Disorders are an extremely prevalent type of mental disorder that affect approximately 10% of the population (Burton, Westen and Kowalski, 2015). One of the lesser-known Anxiety Disorders is Generalised Anxiety Disorder (GAD) affecting around 2% of the population (ABS, 2007d, as cited in Burton, Westen & Kowalski, 2015). Stapinski, Abbot and Rapee (2010), define GAD as “persistent anxiety at a moderate, but disturbing level [in addition to] unrealistic worry about life circumstances” (as cited in Burton et al., 2015). Furthermore, GAD has been closely linked with depression and a reduced life quality (Roemer, Orsillo & Salters-Pedneault, 2008).

Generalized anxiety disorder (GAD) is a disorder in which an individual may feel persistent, excessive, and worry about everyday things that may not even happen. Individuals with this disorder may feel worry, excessive anxiety, and have thoughts of the worst even when there is no need for concern. A person experiencing GAD may expect a disaster. They may worry about their finances, money, health, family, work, or any issue that may come to mind. This disorder may be present when a person worrying increases on more days than one for at least six months. GAD can interfere with work, school, family, and even social activities. GAD can be diagnosed in adults when they experience at least three of the symptoms. These symptoms include restlessness or feeling on the edge, fatigue, difficulty focusing or mind going blank, irritability, muscle tension, pain in back or headaches, and sleep disturbance (ADAA, n.d.).

This in turn increases the obvious symptoms of anxiety. These include physical, emotional, and behavioral symptoms. Anxiety and guilt can cause headaches, stomach aches, muscle tension, insomnia, etc. These physical symptoms often affect how we live our lives since we do not sleep the recommended eight hours in order to deal with the daily worry. This then escalates to troubling our emotional fragility involving feeling on edge, defensive, irritable, sorrowful, and desperation to apologize. At this point, several loved ones and close friends believe we live a deranged life or simply want attention. Their diagnosis leads us to our behavioral symptoms that include: clinginess, overapoligizing, pleasing others, avoiding judgement, and righting perceived wrongs. Due to those behavioral symptoms, people who do not understand a life with anxiety become upset with those of us who suffer from GAD. They believe we take words and endeavours way too literal or too much to heart. When in reality we cannot help who we are, or how our brains work. Moreover, there are multiple ways an individual living with an anxiety disorder, and their loved ones, can help prevent an anxiety attack or help cope with

One criteria of GAD is to have feelings extreme levels anxiety for at least three months and these levels of anxiety at can be so severe that it affects an individual's daily life. For Allison, it stated that she has anxious thoughts almost daily, which affects her daily life. It also stated in the article that Allison has been an anxious personal all of her life making her fall into the criteria of having anxiety. The article even provides us with information dating back to adolescence when she would have anxiety about a house fire and would check outlets every night before bed. The second criteria of GAD is when you have these thoughts of worriment it can be difficult to control them. Allison also fits into this criteria because she often

CBT is a commonly used, evidence-based treatment for GAD. Linden et al. (2005) conducted a controlled clinical trial to examine the efficacy of CBT for GAD. Their study included 72 outpatients with the sole diagnosis of GAD. 36 participants were randomly assigned to twenty-five sessions of CBT and the remaining 36 were assigned to a control group, receiving the CBT treatment protocol 14.5 weeks after the start of the trial. Comparison between treatment and control groups and between treatment groups were performed on multiple measures of clinician and self- rated anxiety scales. Statistically significant reductions in anxiety were found between treatment and control conditions and improvement remained stable 8 months post-treatment. However, 33.4% of participants in the first treatment group and 15.7% of participants in the second treatment group remained “moderately ill” at the end of treatment (Linden et al., 2005). Although Linden et al. (2005) suggest that their findings supports CBT as an effective treatment for GAD due to the 65.6% of control group participants that were “moderately ill” after the wait period, it seems a sizeable proportion of participants remained symptomatic post-treatment.

Generalized anxiety disorder (GAD)- can be in children and adolescents. it is about worrying about EVERYTHING. significant worrying, causing problems in your life. There is a lot of muscle tension, autonomic restricters- worrying so much that when they are tested with brain measures you can see that their left side is very active. only in GAD. nothing can stop their worries. 10-14 age, 3-6% prevalence, equal between boys and girls, higher in adolescent girls. Higher rate of clinical depression in this group. about half of the adolescents will diminish the worrying part of it as they grow older, medication is very helpful and self-talk awareness. reinforcement of self-talk. if there are physical symptoms- headaches, stomaches. They have sleep difficulties.