Skip to main content

Fight anxiety blues!

Image
By
It's natural to worry during stressful times. Some people however feel tense and anxious day after day, even when there is little to worry about. When this lasts for six months or longer, it may be generalized anxiety disorder or GAD. This illness affects several of us. Unfortunately, many people don't know they have it, and hence miss out on treatments that lead to a better, happier life.
The main symptom of is a constant and exaggerated sense of tension and anxiety. You may not be able to pinpoint a reason why you feel tense. Or you may worry too much about ordinary matters, such as bills, relationships, or your health. All this worrying can interfere with your sleep and your ability to think straight. You may also feel irritable due to poor sleep or the illness itself.
Body problems that accompany excess worry are muscle tension or pain, headaches, acidity, diarrhea, trembling or palpitations.
What sets GAD apart from normal worries is the feeling that you can't stop worrying. You may find it impossible to relax, even when you're doing something you enjoy. In severe cases, GAD can interfere with work, relationships, and daily activities.
What causes GAD has been the subject of research. Genes passed down through a family may make some people prone, but that's not the whole picture. Scientists think that a mix of DNA, environment, and psychological factors are to blame.
There's no lab test for GAD, so the diagnosis is made based on your description of your symptoms.  What do you worry about? How often? Does your anxiety interfere with any activities? You may have GAD if you have been feeling anxious or worrying too much for at least six months.
An extreme form of GAD is Panic disorder, in which one experiences sudden attacks of terror. Symptoms can include a pounding heart, sweating, dizziness, nausea, or chest pain. You may think you're having a heart attack, dying, or losing your mind.
Few simple changes in your habitscan help too. It is best to avoid caffeine and nicotine, and get adequate sleep and rest. Try relaxation techniques, such as yoga or meditation. And be sure to exercise; there's evidence that moderate physical activity can have a calming effect.
One of the effective methods of treatment by psychotherapy is called cognitive behavioral therapy or CBT. A counselor helps you identify your negative thoughts and actions. CBT may include homework, such as writing down the thoughts that lead to excess worry. You will also learn calming strategies.
Medications, called anxiolytics, that relax you help provide a good start. Antidepressant drugs work well to lower anxiety. Usually, a combination of medicatines and CBT work best for most.
If anxiety is spoiling your life, seek help to get it under control, and bring the relaxed smile back on to your face. 
As published in HT City (Hindustan Times) dated 4 December, 2011.
Labels:

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Teaching and Learning – is there a trick?

By
One of the big mistakes that we as parents and teachers often make, and that could stifle the mental development of our children, is to treat them as just small adults! In fact, it is this attitude of grown-ups that could be leading our next generation to become stereotyped conformists rather than original thinkers and innovators. And if we intend to drive home health messages and inculcate healthy habits we need to tailor our efforts to their cognitive potential. That children indeed think and discover the world differently was first noticed by a Swiss scientist Jean Piaget in the early 20th century. He studied his own three children grow and was intrigued by how they behaved, played games and learnt at different ages. With further observations and experiments, he propounded the theory of ‘cognitive development’, placed great importance on the education of children and is hailed even today, 30 years after his death, as a pioneer of the constructive theory of knowing.  He...
1 comment
Read more

The Doctor’s Dress

By
The familiar white coat worn by physicians as their distinctive dress for over 100 years, has started generating  murmurs  of controversy. It is not uncommon to find the blood pressure to be higher when measured by a white-coat-wearing-doctor in the hospital or clinic than the readings obtained at home by relatives.  This is due to the anxiety that the white coat and the hospital setting evokes in patients, and has been termed “White Coat Hypertension”. Mature clinicians often routinely subtract a few points from these measurements when entering records in case charts or calculating the dose of anti-hypertensive medications to be prescribed. The white coat scares children too.  Kids often express their dislike for this dress by crying and screaming and by denying access to their bellies or chest for examination by paediatricians in this attire. Many pediatricians across the world have folded up their white coats and taken to informal colourful dressing to...
2 comments
Read more

Questions from a Doctor’s Life

By
There is hardly any person in Uttar Pradesh who has not heard of Dr D K Chhabra, a senior neurosurgeon, who died recently. Over the decades his expertise, pragmatic advice and popularity had broken the shackles of his narrow surgical field coming to be known as a “brain-specialist”and a genuine adviser for all health problems. I got to know him in 1987 when I joined the upcoming Sanjay Gandhi PG Institute of Medical Sciences (SGPGI) in Lucknow as a young member of the faculty in Gastroenterology. He had moved from his alma mater the KG Medical College where he is still regarded as a legend. An omnipresent bachelor doctor living in the duty room readily available to help anybody anytime.He was tasked to heading and developing Neurosciences at SGPGI. He had an eye for detail and was tasked additionally by the director to set up not just his department, but the whole hospital, the building, equipment and the campus. DKC was a tall and handsome man who spoke little. But when he did inl...
1 comment
Read more