Generalised Anxiety Disorder (GAD): How Therapy Can Help You Manage

Generalised Anxiety Disorder (GAD) is considered the most common type of anxiety disorder. Our team at Cause Effect Psychology frequently work with individuals affected by GAD.

Treatment with your Psychologist will typically involve Cognitive Behaviour Therapy (CBT) coupled with Applied Relaxation (AR) techniques.

The goals of therapy are to utilise CBT and AR to reduce your symptoms of anxiety and worry by:
• Evaluating the usefulness of your anxiety and worry
• Identifying your GAD triggers
• Modifying your beliefs about anxiety and worry
• Supporting you to develop a greater tolerance for uncertainty
• Educating you about frequently avoided emotions linked to both anxiety and worry
• Evaluating any problematic relationship patterns
• Discussing problem solving strategies
• Learning how to relax to ease symptoms such as muscle tension, irritability and sleep quality.

Therapy may assist in the management of the following GAD symptoms:
a. Excessive anxiety and worry about events or activities, such as work or performance, occurring more days than not for at least 6 months
b. Difficultly in controlling worry
c. Restlessness, feeling ‘keyed up’ or ‘on edge’
d. Becoming easily fatigued
e. Difficulty concentrating or frequent ‘mind blanks’
f. Irritability and impatience
g. Muscle tension and / or headaches
h. Sleep disturbances including difficulty falling or staying asleep, or restless, unsatisfying sleep
i. Your anxiety, worry, or physical symptoms are negatively impacting upon your social, work, or personal function.

If you have been experiencing three of more of the above, you may wish to schedule an appointment or seek a referral to one of our committed Psychologists at Cause Effect to learn how to better manage your GAD symptoms.

by Amit Singh – Cause Effect Psychology

Reference: American Psychiatric Association. (2013). Diagnostic and statistical manual of mental disorders (5th ed.). Washington, DC: Author.

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