Anxiety is a natural feeling in human beings, and there is nothing strange about feeling it in certain situations of our life. Uncomfortable moments of stress or frustration are usually accompanied by the feeling of anxiety. However, there are extreme cases in which anxiety damages our quality of life too much.

In this article we will examine how to help a person with Generalised Anxiety Disorder (friends, family, partner, etc.) by means of a list of practical advice that we can apply in our daily lives, and we will also review the concept of this disorder.

What is TAG?

To understand how to help a person with Generalized Anxiety Disorder (GAD) it is best to understand what exactly this psychological disorder is about .

In short, it is a persistent state of anxiety, which affects the person constantly (for several months) and intensely, and which usually has no logical reason.

People who present this pathology manifest a pattern of accelerated thinking with a catastrophic, pessimistic tendency . This means that they imagine that things will always go wrong for them, even before they have started to do them. It is precisely this negative way of always anticipating situations that generates constant discomfort, which affects the subject in various areas of his or her daily life (personal, family, work).

When the subject is anxious frequently, and also with a high degree of intensity, we may be facing this disorder. However, the diagnosis can only be made by mental health professionals .

The causes of this pathology can be biological (brain chemistry) or environmental (social factors), although normally both play an important role. Ideally, both neurological and psychological evaluations should be performed to clearly establish the origin of the anxiety.

Symptoms of this disorder

The symptoms of this disorder are varied depending on the causes and the stage of development in which the person is; it is not the same to present generalized anxiety in adolescence as in adulthood.

During the young stages of development, the symptoms may become more acute. Adults usually manage to regulate themselves. However, it is advisable to seek professional help regardless of the person’s age .

Let’s take a closer look at some of these symptoms, the most common ones:

  • Constant anguish or worry for trivial reasons, sometimes for no apparent reason
  • Excess of thought in any circumstance, always determining a negative conclusion.
  • To have the impression that one is constantly under threat, even when there is no evidence of it.
  • Complications in dealing with difficult or uncomfortable situations.
  • Lack of self-confidence, conflict in decision making.
  • Impossibility to abandon a distressing thought.
  • Difficulties in relaxing, due to a constant feeling of being on the edge of events
  • Problems maintaining concentration due to intrusive thoughts.

How to help someone with Generalized Anxiety Disorder?

Now we will see some ways in which we could offer help and accompaniment to people with Generalized Anxiety Disorder .

1. Demonstrates ongoing support

It is important that we provide consistent support for people with this disorder. They are anxious subjects, and the fact that our help is intermittent would affect them even more in terms of the negative thoughts they present .

The ideal is to make a structured plan of support, where we establish times and dates in which we can assist the subject, so that we avoid failing to comply with any appointment or commitment we have made with this person.

2. Learn about the disorder

The more information we have about this disorder, the clearer we will be able to provide support to those who need it. If we are able to understand why they behave the way they do, we can be more empathetic and less critical of their behavior .

3. Accompanies during therapy

Therapy is an indispensable factor for the proper management of this disorder . It is important that we make the person understand that he or she requires treatment by a specialist. The fact that we accompany the subject to therapy will generate a sense of security that will make it easier for him/her not to abandon the therapy, at least in the beginning.

4. Take it out on someone else

Providing help to people with a disorder is often exhausting for those who take the trouble to do so. It is important that those who support others in this way also take time for themselves and have someone to talk to about their experiences and express how they feel.

5. Generates an entertaining atmosphere

Subjects with Generalized Anxiety Disorder live under a constant sense of distress. One way to alleviate this discomfort is to create an environment where worries are dispelled and there is an opportunity to laugh at everyday things .

Taking the problems seriously helps to make the position more neutral and less prone to catastrophic thoughts. In this way, we demonstrate to that person that not everything is as bad as they think.

6. Encourages their social relations

It is quite common for people with GAD to feel insecure in their relationships with others, for fear that things will not go well, and this causes them to limit or completely deprive themselves of initiating social bonds with others.

It is important to promote sociability in them , demonstrating that interpersonal relationships, however complicated they may seem, are necessary and can help a lot to improve the quality of life. However, it is not necessary to force or adopt an antagonistic attitude, because that will generate more anxiety; it is only necessary to facilitate that dialogues and social interactions take place, giving the opportunity to de-socialize, having the person with GAD the last word.

7. Help him to get organized

One factor that greatly helps to lower people’s anxiety levels is having some degree of control over their activities . Providing people with generalised anxiety with the necessary tools so that they can be organised is very helpful for them.

Bibliographic references:

  • Mochcovitch, M. (2014). A systematic review of fMRI studies in generalized anxiety disorder: Evaluating its neural and cognitive basis. Journal of affective disorders, 167, pp. 336 – 342.
  • Solomon, C. (2015): Generalized Anxiety Disorder. The New England Journal of Medicine, 373(21), pp. 2059 – 2068.