I wake up in the morning and I’m barely awake, but I get up any way. I start to become anxious knowing I have to go to either Intensive Outpatient Program or a psychiatrist appointment. This means I have to go out and make sure I’m on time. I start to watch my time every 10 minutes, just to make sure I leave on time. That’s just the beginning.

Sometimes when I’m watching TV, I see commercials about college and student loans. My heart starts to beat really fast, tightness starting in my back and head, then moving throughout my whole body. My thoughts: “Am I going to find a job after I graduate?!” “How am I going to pay off my loans?!” “Should I even be going to college?!” “Where am I going to live after college?!”.

No joke, that’s what goes on in my mind. Worrying 24/7 about the smallest things to situations that haven’t even happened yet. In other words, I worry about five to 10 years from now. I have hard time living in the moment. Let me introduce to you…General Anxiety Disorder – GAD.

General Anxiety Disorder is characterized by excessive, persistent, and unrealistic worry about every day things, according to the Anxiety and Depression Association of America. According to the ADAA, people with the disorder experience excessive anxiety and worry. People expect the worst to happen when there is no reason to. The feel something really bad will happen and this can occur over anything like for example work, family, and money.

People with GAD, have hard time living in the moment and worrying every day can really be a struggle with those with GAD. The worrying never stops, so it’s hard to achieve daily actives. GAD is extremely hard to control because we don’t know how to stop the worry cycle.

General Anxiety Disorder is actually pretty common among all age groups. According to ADAA, the disorder comes gradually and the risk is highest between childhood and middle age.

The story of my GAD started when I was young. I always worried about everything as long as I can remember, but the worrying increased when I entered high school at the age of 15. At the time I was battling an eating disorder too, so I would worry constantly about numbers and food. Numbers were weight, calories, grades, and test scores. I remember staying up all night studying for an Algebra test. I literally got two hours of sleep and went in the next day to take the test. After the test, I had one of many anxiety attacks. Tension all over my body, tighten up like I had rope all wrapped around me. My heart beating out of my chest, literally throwing up, not purging. My body was shaking and I couldn’t stop worrying about the test even after I took it. I went in the following Monday and it turned out I actually did pretty good on the test.

That’s just one story of my GAD, but as you can see, severe anxiety exists. It can affect anybody and if it doesn’t get under control it can lead to some not so good consequences. So the question is, how can you treat and get help for your GAD?

GAD is treatable. Cognitive Behavioral Therapy can help identify and understand their GAD, according to ADAA. According to ADAA, relation techniques such as yoga, meditation and other alternative treatments can be part of the treatment plan. GAD is rarely occurs alone, so other anxiety disorders and even depression often accompany with GAD, according to ADAA.

The most important thing to do is recognized that your anxiety maybe severe. If you feel your anxiety takes a toll on your daily life, it’s important to seek help and get it under control, so you can do daily actives, concentrate, and live in the present moment, but most importantly enjoy your life.