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Knowing anxiety professionally is different from living it personally.

GAD involves more than ordinary worry.

Recovery requires patience, compassion, and persistence.

As a therapist with over forty years of experience in the mental health field, I have come across clients presenting with anxiety on countless occasions. From education, workshops, conferences, and direct client contact, I’ve always felt I had a strong understanding of what their experiences were like.

A recent return of my own generalized anxiety disorder (GAD), the first instance being several years back preceding my cancer diagnosis, has reminded me of how little one can ever truly understand of the experience unless they've had the disorder themself.

Clinically, GAD is defined as “an anxiety disorder characterized by persistent, excessive, and difficult-to-control worry about multiple areas of life, such as health, work, family, finances, or everyday responsibilities.” In layman’s terms, GAD is the mother of all worries, which can weave its way into every aspect of life

Beyond the casual “worry” about one’s finances, employment, social conditions, and how one’s stock is doing, GAD’s version of worry typically:

Occurs more days than not for at least 6 months

Feels difficult to control

Is........

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