Generalised Anxiety Disorder
Correspondent | Thursday March 5, 2015 16:47
For somebody to be diagnosed with Generalised Anxiety Disorder, the worry and associated symptoms must not be better accounted for by use of medication, general medical condition or mood disorders such as depression.
Why is a diagnosis important?
A diagnosis, whether medical or psychological, informs us that something about us is different.
It can be a confirmation that something we may have suspected about ourselves is actually true. Once a diagnosis has been done, we can gain a better way of understanding the experiences that did not make sense to us. Diagnosis opens the door to some tried and tested treatment.
Research shows that the majority of people experiencing GAD do not seek treatment, even though they are aware of their tendency to worry chronically (Craighead, E., Miklowitz & Craighead, L,W., 2008).
Below is a case example of somebody who has GAD:
Mogomotsi* (not his real name), is a 22-year-old young man in his first year at a university. Mogomotsi* presents an eight month history of the inability to function in day to day social life.
His engagement in his hobbies such as cycling and singing once a week in a church choir has evidently declined. He has even started doubting if he will make it to second year, despite his sterling academic performance. After going through a though psychological assessment, the results revealed that Mogomotsi had difficulty controlling excessive worrying.
Mogomotsi is the only child, and he is a resident student since he goes to a university which is located far from his parents’ home.
Mogomotsi visits his parents every holiday and every other weekend. His parents are both working and he comes from a high class family. His parents are highly ambitious and organised in a rigid way. They are also sensitive and class-conscious. His father is impatient, proactive, and places high value on time management.
His father is also a high-achieving ‘workaholic’. Mogomotsi’s parents describe themselves as type A personalities. He (Mogomotsi) describes himself as hardworking and results oriented.
He states that he has the urge to excel in everything he does.
Although Mogomotsi has consistently been doing exceptionally well in his academic work, he finds himself constantly worrying that he might not be able to cope with work in the later years at university.
He describes himself as a perfectionist. Mogomotsi has also identified a number of other areas of anxiety.
For instance, he noted that he worries excessively that his seemingly healthy mother might die before he completes his undergraduates program, each time he learns about any form of a high prevalence of female associated diseases.
He also worries excessively that his father is over-working himself. Mogomotsi tries to cope with his prolonged worries by calling his parents every night before going to bed and every morning he comes out of bed. His worrying has significantly affected him psychologically and physically.
He reported difficulties sleeping despite feeling fatigued. He complains of a sharp pain in his back and neck, most likely due to bodily tension he experienced when worrying. Mogomotsi has given up his other highly valued activities and replaced them with studying extensively and checking on the safety of his parents.
Mogomotsi is a classic example of an individual with Generalised Anxiety Disorder. Below are some behavioural symptoms typically found on people with GAD, just like Mogomotsi: Professional counseling and psychiatric medications can treat Generalised Anxiety Disorder.