There is a lot of information out there on Teen Mental Health and Mental Health Disorders. This month our focus will be on Generalized Anxiety Disorder.
According to www.teenmentalhealth.org, "Generalized Anxiety Disorder (GAD) is a disruption in how your brain controls the signals it uses to identify danger and initiate action to help you avoid it. However, in GAD, this signaling mechanism does not work as it should and you experience the danger signal when there is no danger. GAD is excessive anxiety and worry about everyday events that occurs over a prolonged period of time. Someone with GAD worries excessively about many different things and is not able to control his or her worry. The worrying and anxiety causes serious emotional distress, and causes problems at school, at work, and in relationships. These feelings of anxiety usually also have physical components, including headaches, aches and pains, nausea, shaking and sweating.
Feeling anxious in response to danger or in new situations is a perfectly normal response. It’s called the fight-or-flight response and helps us survive in dangerous situations. But these typical feelings are different from GAD. A person with GAD constantly feels tense and on edge, even when there is no danger present."
For more information on GAD visit Teen Mental Health.
