Peace of mind
If you always feel anxious and stressed, you may have Generalized Anxiety Disorder. Here's how to reclaim a sense of calm.
By Ben Kallen
Two weeks after the World Trade Center
was destroyed, Lisa Miller (a pseudonym)
began experiencing intense anxiety
symptoms. "I went to work, and though I
was functional, I was constantly exhausted,"
the 39-year-old finance manager recalls. "I'd
get an anxious thought in my head, and it
would get out of control and trigger a panic
attack." She eventually left New York for a new
job near Durham, N.C., hoping to find calm in a
new setting-but the anxiety followed her.
While almost everyone feels anxious from
time to time, when you worry excessively for
six months or more, you may be suffering from
Generalized Anxiety Disorder (GAD). Other
symptoms can include difficulty relaxing or
sleeping, fatigue, headaches, muscle tension,
irritability, sweating, nausea, light-headedness,
frequent bathroom trips, feeling out of breath,
and even hot flashes. It also can be associated
with social phobia, depression, or substance
abuse. While experts believe GAD may have
a genetic component or stem from childhood
fears or restrictive parents, the symptoms can
be triggered by trauma-like many New Yorkers
at the time, Miller felt profoundly affected
by the attacks of 9/11-or a difficult life event
such as a divorce or a death in the family.
Anxiety is usually accompanied by a
heightened state of arousal-the nervous system
is constantly over-activated, even when
there's no external reason for it. "In the presence of a
threat, your body will naturally click into the fight-or-flight
response," notes Jeffrey Brantley, M.D., founder
and director of the Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction
Program at Duke University's Center for Integrative
Medicine in Durham, which offers an eight-week stressreduction
course. "Your body can't tell if the threat is
outside or inside your head. So if you have a threatening
story going on in your own mind, your body will go into
the same fear reaction, and you'll feel anxious."
GAD affects almost 7 million Americans-and around
twice as many women as men. (This may be because of
interactions between sex hormones and brain chemistry,
or because women are more likely to have suffered abuse
as children.) And a study published earlier this year at the
Indiana University School of Medicine by Kurt Kroenke, M.D., found that 7.6 percent of all patients who see a
primary care physician have GAD. If your own anxiety
is ongoing and affecting the way you live your life, it's
important (and possible) to get relief.
