When Worry Consumes You

[Guest guest]

When Worry Consumes You

Published: 02/24/08

SUNDAY, Feb. 24 (HealthDay News) -- Almost everyone worries about something --

credit card debt, car repair bills, an upcoming work review, whether your child

will get into a good college. A little worry is natural and normal.

But when you become a 24/7 fret machine, that's not normal. You may have what

doctors call generalized anxiety disorder, or GAD -- a condition marked by worry

about most aspects of life that you feel you can't control. It can leave you

feeling physically exhausted and emotionally drained, and also frustrate loved

ones who must listen to you verbalize all that anxiety.

" This worry process never ends, " said Dr. H. Barlow, professor of

psychology and psychiatry at Boston University and founder and director emeritus

of the university's Center for Anxiety and Related Disorders.

" The key psychological feature of GAD is a state of chronic, uncontrollable

worry, " he added, noting that about 6 percent of Americans suffer from the

condition at some point in their life.

" They are always anticipating the worst, " Barlow said. They worry about major

concerns as well as ones most of us would consider minor, he explained. They

can't seem to stop the worrying, even when they know it's unrealistic or

unfounded. And once one worry is over, the next one surfaces.

" There is always the next crisis to worry about, " Barlow said.

People struggling with GAD " know the worry is out of proportion " to reality,

said Jerilyn Ross, a licensed clinical social worker and president and CEO of

the Anxiety Disorders Association of America. By way of example, Ross cited a

woman whose husband is a wonderful family provider. But she'll worry incessantly

about finances, even though she knows the worry is unwarranted.

All this worrying leaves GAD sufferers living in a chronic state of physical

tension, Barlow said. Many have trouble sleeping, are irritable, can suffer from

gastrointestinal distress, and can be left with frayed relationships. Other

symptoms can include muscle aches and trembling and twitching, according to the

U.S. National Institute of Mental Health.

Fortunately, mental health professionals have been paying increased attention

to the disorder, leading to successful treatment approaches. And the treatments

don't take years, Barlow and Ross said.

The trend is toward targeted, goal-driven sessions, with intense treatment

lasting a couple of months or so, then tapering off to occasional sessions.

Usually, cognitive behavioral therapy -- including talk therapy, cognitive

" restructuring " to change the way people view situations that typically trigger

worry -- can help, Barlow said. So can exercise.

The goal, Ross said, is to get the person with GAD to experience the feeling

of worry and " desensitize " him or her to it -- " to experience it over and over

again almost until it gets boring. "

Ross said she helps GAD sufferers learn to tolerate the discomfort of their

anxiety, over and over, until it starts to diminish. She helps them do this by

having them ask themselves about their areas of concern: Is this a realistic

worry? What are the probabilities of this happening? Then, she suggests they

attempt to let go of the worry.

Curiously, when a wave of worry sweeps over them, most GAD sufferers " try to

stamp it out, not experience it, " Barlow said. " But ironically, that only serves

to increase the intensity of the emotion. We teach them new ways to experience

emotions, how to experience emotions in more positive ways, to ride them

through, to accept them, to let them run their natural course. "

In addition to cognitive or behavioral therapy, medications can also help,

Barlow said, including the antidepressants Prozac (fluoxetine), Paxil

(paroxetine) and Effexor (venlafaxine).