Anxiety disorders—particularly those that have to do with social situations—are often divided into two categories: specific and generalized. A specific anxiety disorder has anxiety symptoms that are triggered by very particular stimuli, or the thought of particular stimuli. For example, a person may become very anxious at the prospect of having to get up on a stage. On the other hand, the disorder may be more generalized, in which case the generalized anxiety disorder symptoms cannot easily be traced to a particular trigger.
• Generalized anxiety disorder, or GAD, is basically when a person tends to worry far too much about many everyday things, even when it is not likely that something is about to go wrong. The person always seems to be expecting something bad to happen. However, this is more than just simple pessimism. The person will be experiencing physical symptoms of anxiety and depression as well. These can include headaches, insomnia, nausea, muscle pains, and skin rash, as well has having a hard time breathing and swallowing. In addition, it must be noted that a brief onset of the symptoms is not going to be enough to induce an authentic diagnosis of GAD. You should have the symptoms for at least six months, and experience your irrational worry for the majority of days over that time. The waiting game might be a terrible experience for people who think they might have GAD, but there are reasons to make sure that a diagnosis is not being made prematurely. After all, pulling out drastic treatment measures for what turns out to be a passing problem may also damage the patient’s physical and mental health.
• Anxiety symptoms similar to those of generalized anxiety disorder may manifest themselves due to other, more physiological or pharmacological causes. For example, they may be the result of drug abuse, or may be side effects of drugs a patient is taking for another problem. The body itself may have a physiological problem (such as hormonal imbalance) that leads to the appearance of the symptoms. These other possibilities must not be ignored, lest a misdiagnosis occur.
