Generalised Anxiety Disorder (GAD)

Generalized anxiety disorder (GAD) is an anxiety disorder that is characterized by excessive, uncontrollable and often irrational worry about everyday things that is disproportionate to the actual source of worry.

This excessive worry often interferes with daily functioning, as individuals suffering GAD typically anticipate disaster, and are overly concerned about everyday matters such as health issues, money, death, family problems, friend problems, relationship problems or work difficulties.  

Individuals often exhibit a variety of physical symptoms, including fatigue, fidgeting, headaches, nausea, numbness in hands and feet, muscle tension, muscle aches, difficulty swallowing, bouts of difficulty breathing difficulty concentrating trembling, twitching, irritability, agitation, sweating, restlessness, insomnia, hot flashes, and rashes and inability to fully control the anxiety. 

These symptoms must be consistent and on-going, persisting at least 6 months, for a formal diagnosis of GAD to be introduced.  Generalized anxiety disorder is estimated to occur in 5% of the general population. Women are generally more affected than men.

       Normal Worry                                                               

• Your worrying doesn’t get in the way of your daily activities and responsibilities.
• You’re able to control your worrying.
• Your worries, while unpleasant, don’t cause significant distress.
• Your worries are limited to a specific, small number of realistic concerns.
• Your bouts of worrying last for only a short time period.

      Generalized Anxiety Disorder:

• Your worrying significantly disrupts your job, activities, or social life.
• Your worrying is uncontrollable.
• Your worries are extremely upsetting and stressful.
• You worry about all sorts of things, and tend to expect the worst.
• You’ve been worrying almost every day for at least six months.

Physical symptoms of generalized anxiety disorder (GAD)

Muscle tension, aches, or soreness Trouble falling asleep or staying asleep Stomach problems, nausea, diarrhea

Jumpiness or unsteadiness Edginess or restlessness Tiring easily

 Psychological symptoms of generalized anxiety disorder (GAD)

Irritability Feelings of dread Inability to control anxious thoughts

Inability to relax Difficulty concentrating Fear of losing control or being rejecte

Effective self-help techniques for generalized anxiety disorder (GAD) include:

• Dealing with your worry and anxiety in more productive ways. This may involve challenging irrational worrisome thoughts, learning how to postpone worrying, and learning to accept uncertainty in your life.
• Make any necessary anxiety-reducing lifestyle changes, such as eliminating caffeine, starting an exercise program, improving your diet, and drawing on the support of family and friends.
• Learn and practice relaxation techniques, such as meditation and deep breathing. As you strengthen your ability to relax, your nervous system will become less reactive and you’ll be less vulnerable to anxiety and stress.

The best methods for self-soothing incorporate one or more of the physical senses: vision, hearing, smell, taste, and touch. Try the following sensory-based, self-soothing suggestions when your GAD symptoms are acting up:

• Vision – Take in a beautiful view. Go to an art museum. Walk around a pretty neighborhood. Look at treasured photos or an interesting picture book.
• Hearing – Listen to soothing music. Enjoy the sounds of nature: birds singing, ocean waves crashing on the beach, wind rustling through the trees.
• Smell – Light scented candles. Smell the flowers in a garden. Breathe in the clean, fresh air. Stop by a bakery. Spritz on your favorite perfume.
• Taste – Cook a delicious meal. Slowly eat a favorite treat, savoring each bite. Enjoy a hot cup of coffee or tea.
• Touch – Pet your dog or cat. Take a warm bubble bath. Wrap yourself in a soft blanket. Sit outside in the cool breeze. Get a massage.

To Cope with Anxiety, Remember A-W-A-R-E

The key to switching out of an anxiety state is to accept it fully. Remaining in the present and accepting your anxiety cause it to disappear.
A: Accept the anxiety. Welcome it. Don’t fight it. Replace your rejection, anger, and hatred of it with acceptance. By resisting, you’re prolonging the unpleasantness of it. Instead, flow with it. Don’t make it responsible for how you think, feel, and act.

W: Watch your anxiety. Look at it without judgment – not good, not bad. Rate it on a 0-to-10 scale and watch it go up and down. Be detached. Remember, you’re not your anxiety. The more you can separate yourself from the experience, the more you can just watch it.

A: Act with the anxiety. Act as if you aren’t anxious. Function with it. Slow down if you have to, but keep going. Breathe slowly and normally. If you run from the situation your anxiety will go down, but your fear will go up. If you stay, both your anxiety and your fear will go down.

R: Repeat the steps. Continue to accept your anxiety, watch it, and act with it until it goes down to a comfortable level. And it will. Just keep repeating these three steps: accept, watch, and act with it.

E: Expect the best. What you fear the most rarely happens. Recognize that a certain amount of anxiety is normal. By expecting future anxiety you’re putting yourself in a good position to accept it when it comes again.

Adapted from: Anxiety Disorders and Phobias: A Cognitive Perspective, by Aaron Beck and Gary Emery

Anger

Anger can be normal and healthy emotion that helps us instinctively detect and respond to a threatening situation. More than this, when it is properly channeled, it can be a powerful motivating force. However it can also be an emotion that gets out of control, leading to stress, distress, unhealthiness and unhappiness. Uncontrolled anger can seriously harm your personal and professional life, because it can become incredibly destructive – to yourself and the people around you. 

Some useful Tips to handle Anger

·         Slow things down - count to ten; devise strategies to slow things down. As your pace slows down try to visualize a relaxing or pleasant experience - take your mind there. 

·         Express your anger - make sure you do this when you have calmed down. Do this in an assertive non-aggressive way. 

·         Exercise regularly - If you exercise regularly not only will your body better regulate your adrenaline and cortisol levels, but as you become fitter you well have better levels of endorphins - natural feel-good hormones. You will also sleep better; a crucial factor for good mental health. 

·         Plan what you want to say - if something is bothering you, remember that you are more likely to get sidetracked when discussing an issue if you are angry. Taking notes before the conversation may help you steer the course of the conversation. 

·         Focus on the solution, not just the problem - it is fine and useful to identify what made you angry. However, it is much more important to focus on ways to resolve the problem.

·         The word "I" is more constructive than the word "You" - when giving praise, the word "You" is great. However, when you are angry or resentful the word "I" tends to achieve better results. For example: 

·         Don't hold on to resentment - holding a grudge against somebody can only fuel your anger and make it harder to control it. It is important to be realistic and accept that people are the way they are, rather than how you want them to be. 

·         Humor -. Good humor can sometimes dissolve anger and resentment faster than anything else. Humor is a fantastic weapon and also a gift. Even if it means just laughing - as long as there is no risk of misinterpretation - your mood can change for the better rapidly. 

·         Timing - if you and your partner find your evening discussions tend to turn into rows, possibly because you or both of you are tired or distracted, change the times when you talk about important matters. In some cases the fights at that time of day initially started because you were tired or distracted, and over time simply became a habit. 

·         Proper breathing - just as anger can increase your breathing and heart rates and tenses up your muscles, you can learn to reverse this by deliberately slowing your breathing and systematically relaxing and loosening your muscles.

·         As soon as you feel those shallow rapid breaths coming on, which tend to aggravate anger, take action to redirect your breathing. If you can, spend 15 minutes focusing on relaxation - it can work wonders.

o    Take several slow and long deep breaths in a row.

o    Spend twice as long exhaling as inhaling.

o    Count slowly to four as you inhale.

o    Then breathe out slowly as you count to eight.

o    Make each breath deep and slow, and focus on where the air is going.

o    Your inhalation should start from your belly, then your lower chest, and finally your upper chest. Feel your ribs open up when you fill your lungs.

o    When you slowly exhale feel your ribs coming back to the original positions - exhale completely.

If at any time you feel odd or slightly dizzy go back to normal breathing for a couple of minutes.

Sleep - try to get at least 7 hours good quality sleep every night. Sleep is crucial for good mental and physical health. Sleep deprivation has been linked in many studies to mental, physical and emotional health problems - including anger.

Study Skills

• Identify what is really needed
  Study assignment titles carefully. Work out exactly what is required for assignments. This saves time in re-writing assignments later.
• Work strategically
  Set yourself clear goals and work towards these.
• Make the material meaningful
  Looking for 'the meaning' or how things work, rather than focusing on remembering information. Work with the material, looking at how it fits together and applies to different circumstances. If you develop your understanding of the subject, it will help you to take in future material more easily. This makes reading easier. It also improves your memory for the subject.
• Look for links
  Be active in searching out links between different aspects of the programme. Look also for links between what you are learning and the wider world. This helps to develop understanding and memory.
• Work with others
  Work with other students so that you share ideas and gain mutual support. You may be able to share some research tasks and clarify your lecture notes. Studying with others makes study more interesting, as you gain a different set of perspectives.
• Set yourself SMART-F targets
  Targets should be:
• strategic : they assist you to achieve your goals
• measurable: you can tell when you have completed them
• achievable: you are likely to succeed in meeting them
• realistic: they fit the circumstances
• time-bound: you have a set time to meet
• flexible: you can adapt them if the circumstances change

• Look for short-cuts
• Look for reasonable short-cuts that do not compromise your studies. For example:
• avoid unnecessary tasks such as writing notes out neatly
• use abbreviations in your notes
• write assignments onto a computer if possible rather than writing them out by hand and then typing them up
• focus your notes around themes and questions rather than making long notes that you do not really need
• Use the word limit to focus your energies
  Most assignments have a word limit. Use this as a guide to how much you need to read and how many examples you can include. Plan out in advance how you will divide up the words available to you. Often, you need to be very concise about each topic. This means you may not be able to include very much of what you have read if you have undertaken a great deal of reading or made very extensive notes.
• Take care of yourself
  Take rests when you are tired. Study takes longer and the brain is less effective when you are tired or stressed. · Plan your time so that you get breaks. A change of scene stimulates the brain and helps creative thinking

(This material is taken from the handbook on study skills by Stella Cottrell)

Study Plan

Develop a study plan for yourself which will help you to go a long way towards helping you reach your goal.  Make a realistic plan that’s established according to your needs and schedule, and supports the way you learn.  This allows you to stick to your study plan and learn at your own pace, which contributes to learning process.

A few important questions to ask yourself:

How much material do I need to cover?

How difficult is the material?

How much time is available?

Do you have any other priorities during the study period?

What is the format of the exam? How important is the exam?

What is your performance target for the exam?

Tips to create study plan

·         Budget time realistically
·         Allocate the study time into several manageable study sessions
·         Divide the course material into small segments and assign them to the study sessions
·         Set clear and specific goals for the study session
·         Prioritize to ensure that material weighted more heavily in the exams get sufficient study time
·         Take into account your familiarity with material and the difficulty level
·         Don’t make study session too long
·         No Noise – avoid studying with television or radio on.  Pick up a quiet place to study.
·         Study sessions should have enough variety in terms of topics and activities to prevent boredom and loss of affectiveness
·         Assess yourself – mark area you could be weak, and consider these areas, concentrate on them.
·         Avoid cramming before exam.

(This is an extract from the writings of Anuraj Chopra on study plan)

Techniques to Improve Concentration

1. Jot down things that are on your mind before you study, then set this list to the side. Add to it anything that distracts you as you are studying. Take care of the list later.

2. Study at the same time each day. A regular schedule can help you frame this as “study time”.

3. set a timer for an hour, don't allow yourself to stop studying until it goes off.

4. Take breaks. A three minute break for every 30 minutes of study is a good guideline. Take a longer break after 90 minutes.

5. Set goals for your session that is realistic (number of problems to solve pages to read, etc.) When you have met one of your study goals, reward yourself with a short break. Then, return to your study area.

6. Study in an area away from distractions such as a library, study lounge, or an empty classroom.

7. Make sure you have everything that you need before you begin.

8. Make sure your environment is conducive to studying, no TV, no telephone, no roommate, no boyfriend/girlfriend.

9. Make studying an active process; take notes and make review sheets. Intersperse different kinds of study into one session, e.g. reading, writing, taking notes, memorizing, etc.

10. Identify how what you are studying is relevant to your life. Draw connections between things you already know.

11. Insure that you are sleeping enough, eating well, and getting regular exercise. Your mind will be more alert, and you will be less likely to fall asleep or daydream.

Source:http://www.Attention-Deficit-Disorder.net

Purpose

University life is full of new opportunities and expectations, people and experiences, academic demands and freedom.  While it is often an exhilarating time, it can be stressful and confusing as well.  We all have times in our lives when we feel sad, anxious, confused or dissatisfied.  

When these feelings linger, become overwhelming or begin to interfere with a person’s ability to function, seeking counseling can be a good option.  The Osmania University Counseling Center is here to help students understand these feelings.

Through the counseling experience, individuals can reduce internal feelings of stress, improve their ability to make healthy decisions, take appropriate actions and /or enhance their relationship with others.  

Together we can find improved ways of coping with and growing from these experiences.

"When one is a stranger to oneself then one is estranged from others too." 
-Ann Morrow Lindbergh