Valium

Women are twice as likely as men to be afflicted with generalized anxiety disorder (GAD). One-third of afflicted adults had their first symptoms in childhood. The essential characteristic of GAD is excessive uncontrollable worry about everyday things. Everybody worries, but GAD is diagnosed when constant worry affects your ability to function in daily life for at least six months. GAD can occur in combination with other anxiety disorders, depression, or valium abuse. Physical symptoms include muscle tension, sweating, nausea, cold and clammy hands, difficulty swallowing, jumpiness, stomach and intestinal discomfort, and diarrhea. If you suffer from GAD, you tend to be irritable and complain about feeling on edge, you tire easily and have trouble sleeping. If you’re in a relationship, GAD is apt to impact it negatively.

Because GAD lacks some of the dramatic symptoms of panic attacks or phobias, it may be difficult to diagnose. To make a diagnosis, your physician may ask you …

1. Do you worry excessively most days, and has this been happening for at least six months?

2. Do you worry unreasonably about work or school or your health?

3. Do you believe you can’t control how much you worry?

4. Do you feel restless, keyed up, and on edge a lot of the

time?

5. Do you tire easily?

6 .. Is it hard for you to concentrate?

7. Are you irritable?

8. Are your muscles tight and tense?

9. Do you have trouble falling asleep or staying asleep, or do you toss and turn and get up feeling tired?

10. Does your worry interfere with your daily life?

Will, a twenty-eight-year-old mechanic, was having trouble falling asleep. He tossed and turned and woke up feeling tired. He felt on edge a lot of the time and as a result got into arguments with the other mechanics; he had unreasonable worries about the work he was doing and didn’t feel he had any control over his discomfort. Will’s physician diagnosed him with generalized anxiety disorder and gave him a prescription for an anti-anxiety drug (valium).