The difference between normal worrying and generalized anxiety disorder is that the worrying involved in GAD is excessive, intrusive, persistent and debilitating. With normal anxiety:
1.Your worrying doesnt get in the way of your daily activities and responsibilities.
2. Youre able to control your worrying.
3. Your worries, while unpleasant, dont cause significant distress.
4. Your worries are limited to a specific, small number of realistic concerns.
5. Your bouts of worrying last for only a short time period.
However, with Generalised Anxiety Disorder
1. Your worrying significantly disrupts your job, activities, or social life.
2. Your worrying is uncontrollable.
3. Your worries are extremely upsetting and stressful.
4. You worry about all sorts of things, and tend to expect the worst.
5. Youve been worrying almost every day for at least six months. Most people with GAD experience a combination of emotional, behavioral, and physical symptoms.
Emotional symptoms
• Constant worries running through your head
• Feeling like your anxiety is uncontrollable
• Intrusive thoughts about things that make you anxious; you try to avoid thinking about them, but you cant
• An inability to tolerate uncertainty
• A pervasive feeling of apprehension or dread
Behavioral symptoms
• Inability to relax, enjoy quiet time, or be by yourself
• Difficulty concentrating or focusing on things
• Putting things off because you feel overwhelmed
• Avoiding situations that make you anxious
Physical symptoms
• Feeling tense; having muscle tightness or body aches
• Having trouble falling asleep or staying asleep because your mind wont quit
• Feeling edgy, restless, or jumpy
• Stomach problems, nausea, diarrhea.
Note: If youve struggled with anxiety and fears your whole life, its likely that your anxiety symptoms are due to GAD; if your anxiety symptoms are relatively new, this could be a sign of a different problem.
Source: http://www.helpguide.org/mental/generalized_anxiety_disorder.htm
thank you for sharing
You forgot to mention that a person can move from one to the other over time.
I disagree with the criteria of normal anxiety. Normal anxiety can very much interfere with one's daily tasks and responsibilities and it can be very distressing.
I feel like this is essentially telling someone their normal anxiety isn't all that bad or distressing or else they have a disorder. I'm not at all comfortable with that.
Hey @AffyAvo,
I don't think that the objective of this post was to insinuate that "normal anxiey" is any less valid or distressing! Of course anxiety on any level is at the very least uncomfortable, but I think that it is more axknowledging that there is a spectrum of the severity of symptoms. If it hurts you then of course it is valid an nobody should be able to tell you that it isn't, but at the same time somebody who experiences mild anxiety can experience very different symptoms than somebody who has an anxiety disorder and that can be important to recognise when we are trying to help or sympathise/empathise with others <3
(Just my interperetation)
@ashxr If it wasn't written out like a criteria list, then I could get behind it. The way it's written it seems to be very black and white. Normal anxiety can be pretty severe, it's not always mild. There are many situations where it's actually the normal to prescribe an anti-anxiety medication because that normal level of anxiety is expected to be distressing.
This post is really awesome, @Jace :D Not fully understanding the experiences and feelings associated with different areas of things like anxiety definately can make things difficult when we want to be able to help or understand others. While anxiety in general is a horrible horrible thing to endure on any level, it is important to recognise that there are different levels of severity and symptoms. And that what we experience (or don't) can be quite different to the experience that somebody else does, and so it may be easier or more difficult for them to cope with the anxiety trigger.This post is really great as it helps to simplify something that can be difficult to understand and it has definately made me think and be more aware :p Thank you <3
(excuse me if none of that made sense :p)
@Jace thanks for sharing!
@Jace So if the anxiety is relatively new, what other problems could it be a sign of? (I'm not asking for a diagnosis, just info)
