Reasons behind GAD

[nicnac1987]

I've always had a problem with anxiety, even as a child I would go through phases of high anxiety. When my fiance died i had the usual grief period and then a couple of years later i got diagnosed with GAD. I went through some councilling and with time I got it to a level i could manage and anxiety wasn't effecting my life everyday. During pregnancy and after my son was born I felt my anxiety level creeping back up and then this year my cat got I'll and had to have a lot of expensive treatment and then died, my friend attempted suicide and I have got engaged and with each of these things my anxiety has got worse and worse. I also wanted another baby but my anxiety was too high for me to even try and that made me feel abit low and I didn't know what I wanted to do with my life if I didn't feel capable of having another baby. I feel like I need to fix something to get over my GAD again. Is it just something I'm going to have to learn to manage and isn't here due to a specific thing. Is this something that I will learn in CBT?

[MyNameIsTerry]

CBT aims to teach you about behaviours, thoughts, emotions, sensations and feelings and how they all work together. The first stage, other than the therapist understanding your issues, is always about education.

After that they will start looking at setting you homework to identify errors in your thinking or behaviours and to start setting goals to try to work against them. Its not much, often we are talking list/tables to fill in, things to rank, etc.

Then they see how you go working through things.

The final stages are about how to continue with this since we need to keep to these positive attitudes or we risk slipping backwards. They also educate you about noticing the signs.

Mine never made it onto the final areas but I had environmental factors stopping my progression to the point my therapists stated it couldn't complete until those factors were removed (work being a real pain, so I resigned in the end after 18 months trying to get them to help me).

Some of the things you learn are in Davit's "Words" thread, currently on the Panic board. Why not have a look?

A tip I would give you is to write things down beforehand as it will speed it up at the start. I did a lot of talking and it would have been better if I had structured my issues beforehand so it wasn't a bit all over the place when trying to explain everything.

You don't have to be anxious forever, its only a question of dealing with any things causing anxiety (e.g. any physical conditions, meds, etc) but not everyone has these anyway and the rest is about hard work with the right support. We aren't born like this, it develops and we have well proven & accepted science to show that.

[nicnac1987]

Thanks for the info. I just feel like something isn't quite right but I suppose that could just be anxiety.

[MyNameIsTerry]

Well, I would agree with that! Same here.

There is a thread on the depression board by PinguAnxious with that as the title and a few of us have been talking on it for a while now.

GAD is really all about things not quite being right. I've found GAD to be anything up to 24/7 whether intense or slight.

I've probably mentioned this on your OCD threads but I always encourage Mindfulness to people because it helped with my OCD more than CBT. There is some useful info on that "Words" thread about it with some studies attached that are worth a read because there is science behind it and for depression NICE have approved its use. It helps you not only to be more relaxed but stimulates certain areas of the brain towards personal improvement and helps you to be less out of control when it comes to emotions.

[nicnac1987]

Thank you for that. I will have a look at the threads. Thanks again

[xvolatileheart]

Nic, you've gone through a lot of stressful events and it's no surprise you feel anxious, even if you feel there's not one specific reason. Your brain has accumulated anxious thoughts over time and now the anxiety has reached a point that it feels uncontrollable. Some of us are just predisposed to being anxious unfortunately.

You're on citalopram at the moment, aren't you? Do you find it's helping at all? The gold standard treatment for severe anxiety is a combination of medication and therapy. CBT is a very useful tool.

You also mentioned that you don't know what you want to do with your life. This is such an important thing because everyone needs a sense of purpose! It can really help motivate you to get better. Having a family is great, but there are loads of options out there that could bring happiness to your life. Do you work or study? Do you have any hobbies? Have a good think about your long-term goals and what you want to accomplish in life and make little steps to getting there. Or maybe consider something you've always wanted to try or get good at and find a way to make it happen. I know how hard it is to take on these kinds of tasks when suffering from anxiety, but just give yourself a little time each day to think about these things.

I hope this helps a little. I've been going through this for a while as well but finally feel like I'm on my way to getting better.

[NoPoet]

I wonder whether GAD builds up over a long period of times - all that negativity building up behind the scenes, "the same sound getting louder", until one day that sound hits you in a single massive blast wave. Anyone who's seen the beginning of Back to the Future, where he stands in front of that giant speaker and plays a single note, will know what I mean. If you haven't seen that film by the way, you really should, it's fantastic.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=afwYMdN43Mc&sns=em
(link to the guitar scene)

[nicnac1987]

I have had a some stressful events and I suppose sometimes it does all add up. Its just when I'm anxious and I can't find a specific reason for it it makes me wonder why and I try and search for it.
Yes I have been taking citalopram for 2 1/2 weeks now and upped the does to 20mg at the beginning of this week. I do feel lime it is starting to work although I do still feel stupidly anxious every morning still. I have CBT starting in 2 weeks time so fingers crossed that helps.
I don't work as I decided not to go back to work after having my son and the only hobby I have is Pilates. I was thinking of either going back to work or studying something but didn't know if I should wait until I have got my anxiety down to a better level before I pile on more pressure. Catch 22 really as that could really help me but who knows.
Thanks for the comments

[Davit]

Nicnac

Tracy (my therapist) insisted I write down every thing between sessions. You will be surprised if you read it after how much you do not actually remember as it happened, also you will have things on paper you don't remember. Mark these things for discussion. With GAD a lot of triggers are hidden but they are still in memory, you just store them where they are not accessible. They still influence so it is good to find them.
Everyone should try this, it will surprise you how your memory can change based on your surroundings. Based on personality too. I and my brother can look at the same thing and a week later we remember it different.

---------- Post added at 12:49 ---------- Previous post was at 12:38 ----------

NoPoet

I've seen the movie, but it was a long time ago.

Every time I read "what would you do if you had no fear" I want to comment since I have little fear. With no fear something would far too easily kill you.

Have you seen the movie "meet me on Sunday" The man can not move information from short term memory to long term memory and can not fear because it is controlled by the same area in the brain. Good movie.

Does GAD build up? I would think so, all memory does, just with GAD they stay hidden till something triggers the reaction. Which is why they appear to come out of the blue, which they can't really.

[inCOGnito]

I wonder whether GAD builds up over a long period of times - all that negativity building up behind the scenes

I'd say so. I believe it's learned and not necessarily "something wrong with you" in any traditional neuropsychological sense. I do believe there are rare cases in which diet, neurological, or some metabolic process 'contributes'. But anxiety is basically stress. And stress is dependent upon expectations and judgements about yourself and about a situation. Stress arises when there is a real or imagined event that you believe is threatening or when you believe that you aren't capable of dealing with it. Anxiety comes when you fear the fear and what the fear brings..because its seen as a threat in and of themselves. hence, it's the fear of fear or stress of stress cycle. So yeah the stress builds up and we get stress in more places, more situations, and more and more, until everything becomes stressful. Fear is supposed to be a transient emotion, a message. But I think, for whatever reason, we leave the threat detection on high alert, so the body is stressed chronically. And our bodies are wonderful but also limited.