What Keeps Generalized Anxiety And Worry Going?
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Introduction & Theoretical Background
It is common to worry sometimes, but if you worry too much it can feel exhausting and may affect your health. Psychologists call this Generalized Anxiety Disorder (GAD). If you have GAD, you may feel:
- Worried
- Anxious
- Nervous
- Tension, aches, or pain in your muscles
- Restless or sleepless
- Distracted
- Easily irritated
- Easily fatigued
- Unable to control your worries
Research studies have shown that Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT) is one of the most effective treatment for GAD (Cuijpers et al, 2014). CBT therapists work a bit like firefighters: while the fire is burning, they aren’t very interested in what caused it, but are more focused on what is keeping it going. This is because if they can work out what keeps a problem going, they can treat the problem by ‘removing the fuel’ and interrupting this maintaining cycle.
Psychologists Tom Borkovec, Michel Dugas, and Mark Freeston are among those
Therapist Guidance
“One interesting way of thinking about GAD is to look at why, for some people, it does not get better by itself. This handout shows some of the most common reasons why some people’s worry persists. I wonder if we could look at it together and think about whether it describes some of what is happening for you?”
References And Further Reading
- Borkovec, T. D., & Inz, J. (1990). The nature of worry in generalized anxiety disorder: A predominance of thought activity. Behaviour Research and Therapy, 28(2), 153-158.