Generalized Anxiety Disorder

Adrian M. Ruybe
One in every thirteen people suffer from an anxiety disorder. This means that out of the 7.4

billion living on this planet about 569 million people living on this planet are suffering from this

disorder. People with anxiety disorders deal with the world they live in differently. This research

was prompted on the curiosity of how people diagnosed with an anxiety disorder typically deal

with their everyday life and how they adjust or do not adjust themselves to their surroundings

and what they think and do in social interactions. Also, how they work and how manage their

schooling and schedules. However, while their are many types of anxiety disorders this research

paper will focus on GAD or Generalized Anxiety Disorder (the most common diagnosed anxiety

disorder) among adults and how it affects specific parts of their life. Particulay the questions the

research strives to achieve and answer it is looking for are:

● How does having GAD for adults affect their social life and social interactions among

their peers and older citizens?

● How does having GAD affect adults at the workplace?

● How does GAD affect adults advanced education?

● Finally, how does GAD affect adults in their overall well being?

The main purpose of this research paper is to understand these four questions and to further

understand how GAD affects adults in their life and perhaps find some solutions these young

people take to their disorder. People who have GAD in their adult life have a hard time adjusting

and fitting in with their society and resort to different methods to cope with their social life

whether good or bad. The workplace can also be a very strange and often stressful place for

individuals with GAD that are just barely starting a job. People with anxiety often have a hard

time adjusting to the workplace since it may be a place for anxiety to popup. School can also
bring a lot of anxiety on people with GAD. Many even quit school because it can be too much

on the student. Finally, GAD can affect a person’s well being depending on the environment they

live in.

In order to understand how GAD can affect the wellbeing of a person's we first have to know

how GAD is diagnosed. According to the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders

4th Edition Text Revision, (DSM-IV-TR; APA, 2000) GAD’s main central feature is

characterized by excessive worry on more days than not and can be on a variety of topics. Worry

must persist for at least six months and can involve a several matters such as work, school

family, finances, health, safety and other minor matters (Craighead, Miklowitz, & Craighead,

2017). Such is a case example done in the book Psychopathology: History, diagnosis, and

empirical foundations. by W. Edward Craighead, David J. Miklowitz, Linda W. Craighead with

20 year old Jennifer a college student who moved away from her family to attend college, and in

her third year in college Jennifer was diagnosed with GAD after her parents requested that she go

to an anxiety disorder clinic for collage related stresses. Jennifer in her two previous school

years would constantly call her mother abnormally everyday before her mother went to work

and again 30 minutes after her mother arrived at work just to see if see she was okay. Also she

constantly worried about her parents finances and felt guilty since she felt that her parents were

not not doing to well since she was using their money to cover her living expenses, even though

a majority of the expenses where being covered with her scholarship and her mother would

constantly tell her they were fine. This is strange because Jennifer in high school was a leader in

student government and in a team member of the varsity soccer team. She described herself as

was very outgoing Type A personality person. Furthermore, Craighead, )Miklowitz, &

Craighead state that Jennifer constantly worried about her future and her academics, to the point
that she only studied and spent most of her daily live in her dorm room outside her classes since

she constantly feared losing her scholarship. “Jennifer had given up many valued activities and

hobbies and replaced them with devotion to her studies, checking for flyers for the best deals in

groceries, and checking on the safety of her loved ones.(e.g, calling her mother).” (Craighead,

Miklowitz, & Craighead, 2017, pg. 80) It seems that in college students developing or having

Generalized Anxiety Disorder affects their wellbeing in a very noticeable and very striking

manner. Jennifer being an outgoing individual not afraid of anything in high school with a

promising and bright future who received a scholarship to go college, now doesn't go out. Stays

at home and just studies. Has next to no hobbies and constantly worries about her parents

finances so much that she uses flyers to buy her food just to save money with the cheapest she

can buy, even though her parents say they are very well off. She constantly worries about her

mother and family so much that she cannot even sleep at night. It seems like Jennifer attitude

did a complete 180 and her sky high confidence shot down and has hit an unbreakable new low.

The well being of an individual with GAD cannot be made more clear here. Individuals who

have GAD may suffer on varying levels of excessive worry but, this is a prime example of how

bad the wellbeing of Individuals with GAD can be without medication and therapy. People who

are diagnosed with GAD often are susceptible to comorbidity (the presence of two diseases or

conditions in a individual). According to a study done by the Harvard/Brown Anxiety Disorders

Research Program where 300 patients who have GAD where were followed for 8 years to see the

comorbidity among these people. “Results indicate that comorbid anxiety, mood and substance

use disorders are very common with GAD and increased during follow‐up. For example, 39% of

participants with GAD also had a comorbid diagnosis of major depressive disorder at intake and

increased to 65% at 4 years and 74% at the 8‐year follow‐up” (Bruce, Machan, Dyck, & Keller,
2001). The well being over the years of these individuals drastic decline in the 8 years since they

were first being followed and studied shows the bad the obstacles of life these people are facing

in the world they live in, not only do they have to worry about being excessively worried about a

variety of big to trivial things, they also have to deal with having depression in there lives. In

another study done by Terri L.Barrira and Peter J. Norton they reported that quality of life of

those who have GAD was very low compared to those who had not had GAD. “The present

study examined quality of life impairments in individuals with generalized anxiety disorder

(GAD), social phobia and panic disorder. Results showed that individuals with these disorders

reported less satisfaction with their quality of life than non-anxious adults in the community.

However, the degree of quality of life impairment is similar across these three disorders.”

(Barrera & Norton, 2009). Individuals who have GAD seem to be on wrong side on the field

when it comes to their satisfaction on life and with their excessive worrying it's not making it

easier for them. Barrera and Norton also reported in their research that life impairment is hard to

distinguish between GAD and other anxiety disorders.

“While quality of life impairment is evident in each of the individual anxiety disorders, there is

very little research focused on comparing quality of life impairments among the major

anxiety disorders. A recent meta-analysis (Olatunji, Cisler, & Tolin, 2007) endeavored to

compile the current research and quantify the differences in quality of life between the

major anxiety disorders. While the authors found that there were no significant

differences in overall quality of life impairment, patients with PTSD, GAD, panic

disorder, and mixed anxiety diagnoses reported particularly low quality of life in the

mental health domain.” (Barrera & Norton, 2009).

 While it is hard to determine the severity between anxiety disorders like GAD the severity of

them is clear it affects a person's life and work and social interactions, with really poor mental

health these things seem more challenging on those who are affected with GAD compared to

those who are not. Barrera and Norton state from their research that people with GAD have low

self esteem in the workplace and in their social life from “Norberg, Calamari, et. al (2008) and

Norberg, Diefenbach, et. al (2008) and reported low quality of life among patients with

obsessive–compulsive disorder (OCD), particularly in the areas of self-esteem and work.

Similarly, posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) has been linked to poor quality of life, with

social relationships and self-esteem being especially affected (Lunney & Schnurr, 2007).

Generalized anxiety disorder (GAD) has also been associated with diminished quality of life

(Bourland, et al 2000), with substantial impairment in work and social roles (Henning, Turk,

Mennin, Fresco, & Heimberg, 2007).” (Barrera & Norton, 2009). People have GAD have trouble

adapting to work in new situations and also seems to be affecting their social life well over with

their low self-esteem, people with low self esteem tend to not be able to make long reaching

connections and have actually real friends to support them, moreover if someone with GAD has

comobity with social anxiety and/or depression they may try avoid interacting with people

throughout their enter lifespan As seen with Jennifer, since she remained in her dorm room

throughout her first two years of college. It seems that the well being, work, social life and

advanced education of someone who has Generalized Anxiety Disorder is according to our

research not very well but it also depends on the severity of those individuals who have GAD, if

a individual just has pure GAD they might be just be just constantly about one or three different

topic or that might have a severity similar to Jennifer’s case where she is just excessively worried

about her scholarship, family, and finances. But if the individual has comorbidity with other
things like depression or social anxiety it can affect them way worse than some with just pure

GAD.

In this Graph from lifepsych.com, it shows the prevalence of Generalized Anxiety Disorder

among different age groups notice how as age increases the bars mostly go up. It seems as you

get get older you are more prone to develop Generalized Anxiety Disorder. Also notice how

more Adults than Teenagers have Generalized Anxiety Disorder perhaps as adults go into their

new life in late 20s, 30s and 40s tragedy happens such as being in a war, a family member

passing away or alcohol abuse to name a few. All of of these could trigger depression in a adults

life and anxiety disorder like GAD come come in with comorbidity with depression and vice

versa. In an interview with undergraduate senior Joshua Palacios majoring in psychology from

the University of Texas at El Paso, Joshua responded to what to what had thought individuals

with GAD should do to balance out their social life with their Anxiety “I think that with proper

medication and therapy from a psychiatrist, people with Generalized Anxiety Disorder should

work their environment and see how they can cope and adapt and I’m not saying to just do
marijuana either if you can't afford prescription drugs from a physiatrist let alone go to one.

What I'm saying is you yourself have to balance yourself out mentally first in your head. It's like

self control. You have to find your sweet spot. And this is different for everyone. Not all

people have to the same level of anxiety. Not all people have too much to where it's a big

problem in their lives. Control your anxiety in yourself first and take the medication but don't

depend on it too much. The main battle is with you in your head. Get your heart in the right

place first, then take control.”

References

Craighead, W. E., Miklowitz, D. J., & Craighead, L. W. (2017). Psychopathology: History,

diagnosis, and empirical foundations. San Francisco, CA: Wiley.

Bruce, S. E., Machan, J. T., Dyck, I., & Keller, M. B. (2001, November 29). Infrequency of

"pure" GAD: Impact of psychiatric comorbidity on clinical course. Retrieved from

https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1002/da.1070

Barrera, T. L., & Norton, P. J. (2009, July 14). Quality of life impairment in generalized anxiety

disorder, social phobia, and panic disorder. Retrieved July 23, 2018, from

https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S088761850900142X

Generalised Anxiety Disorder (GAD). (n.d.). Retrieved from http://lifepsych.com.au/anxiety-

disorders/generalised-anxiety-disorder/

GAD Interview [Personal interview]. (2018, July 23).