10 Things You Didn't Know About Generalized Anxiety and Panic Disorder

For all of you who were wondering what the difference is between Anxiety and Panic Disorders, here’s a brief run down. Generalized Anxiety Disorder (GAD) is characterized by 6 months of ongoing excessive anxiety and worry. The worry involved in GAD is not typical; it is defined as indiscriminant and unproductive. Usually when a person worries about an upcoming event the worry stops at the fruition of the situation, but worry associated with GAD does not discontinue at the completion of a problem. The physical symptoms of GAD are muscle tension, mental agitation, irritability, sleeping difficulties and susceptibility to fatigue. The causes can either be due to generalized biological vulnerability, in which one inherits vulnerability for the GAD or generalized psychological vulnerability, which vulnerability to GAD is due to early life stressors. The epidemiology of GAD is a gradual progression usually having an onset in early adulthood; the population most affected by GAD is the elderly.

Treatments for this disorder are pharmacological and behavioral; the most effective of the drug therapies is Benzodiazepine, however this drug has been shown to be very habit forming, so other drugs such as antidepressants are a better option. Cognitive Behavioral Treatment (CBT) allows the patient to enter into the worry process during the therapy session; through the guidance of the therapist the patient confronts anxiety provoking images and thoughts. Other behavioral treatments exist and like the CBT have demonstrated some success, like with many disorders there is no cure, but through effective drug and behavioral therapy one suffering from GAD can be equipped to confront their anxious tendencies and work through them.

A panic attack is “an abrupt experience of intense fear or acute discomfort, accompanied by physical symptoms that usually include heart palpitations, chest pain, shortness of breath, and, possibly, dizziness.” The differences are fairly obvious; a panic attack is confined to a single episode of acute physical symptoms and fear which has a definite ending point, GAD is a psychological disorder that has a gradual onset and does not have a definite ending point and requires long-term pharmacological and behavioral treatment for slight relief. 

Characteristics of Generalized Anxiety:

1. Physical Symptoms: muscle tension, mental agitation, irritability, sleeping difficulties and susceptibility to fatigue
2. 6 months of excessive worry and anxiety
3. Onset begins in adulthood
4. Affects mostly elderly
5. Strongly linked with early life stressors

Characteristics of Panic Disorders:

1. Abrupt experience of intense fear or acute discomfort
2. physical symptoms: heart palpitations, chest pains, shortness of breath, and dizziness
3. fear without a definite ending point
4. gradual onset
5. Requires long-term pharmacological and behavioral treatment