What Is GAD Anxiety?

Imagine that you are out enjoying a leisurely hike in the forest. You come around the bend in the trail and before stands a 10 foot angry black bear. Everything in you wants to run...but you are frozen solid on the spot. You have a million thoughts running through your mind of what is going to happen to you, but you can't move a muscle. There is nothing you can do to help yourself escape.

Now imagine that this exact scenario repeats itself several times a day.

You now have a sense of what it feels like for someone who has a General Anxiety Disorder (GAD Anxiety). The only difference is, there is no big black bear coming towards you wanting to tear you into shreds.

In fact in many ways GAD Anxiety is worse. People who suffer from it have what are known as "anxiety attacks" or "panic attacks". Anxiety attacks usually come out of nowhere, without any apparent reason and without any warning.

The most common symptoms of an "anxiety attack" are: dizziness; feeling faint; increased breathing; pounding heart; tingling or numbing sensations in the hands and feet; fear of impending doom; a disconnection with reality; or a total lack or loss of control.

GAD Anxiety is a disorder in which a person feels an intense, irrational, unprovoked, paralyzing fear...coupled with an impending sense of doom or dread.

From the descriptions and illustrations of GAD Anxiety given above, you would think it would be easy to spot someone who had it, but that is not true. People suffering with this disorder are (in most instances) able to appear on the "outside" like everything is perfectly fine, while on the "inside" they feel like they are are going to explode.

Many people with General Anxiety Disorder may also have other disorders that they are trying to deal with as well, such as: Depression; Obsessive Compulsive Disorder (OCD); Agoraphobia; or other types of Phobias.

The sad part is, most people suffering from GAD Anxiety (and some of the other disorders that sometimes go hand-in-hand as mentioned above) feel like they are the only one in the world having these internal struggles. Some even fear they are going crazy. What most don't realize is the condition is fairly common and widespread.

The good news is that large numbers of people who've suffered with GAD Anxiety, once they reached out for help, have found methods to reduce or completely remove GAD Anxiety attacks from their lives.