Too Afraid...Too Often...Too Dangerous

The very familiar view of your room with its high ceiling and old, convenient furnishing greet you. You have awakened to yet another ordinary day where you expect to do the very same things you've done the day before and those that came before it. You know you should be out of bed by now, rushing to the shower to ready yourself for work. But you dare not lift yourself from your bed. Muscles tight, your hands fasten themselves in a vise grip clutching the sides your bed. Gasping for air, your heartbeat drums frantically against your chest. Slowly at first, the once hazy images you saw in your dream come back to you, presenting themselves in open consternation for your conscious mind. If not for the tremendously paralyzing fear taking hold of you at this very moment, those images are nothing more than daily concerns no different from those other people face every day. But in your current weakened and unusually very frightened state, they are life-threatening menaces assaulting your senses, tearing your sanity apart. Shaking uncontrollably, you make a futile attempt to gather your wits about you, hoping they would somehow give you something to hold onto, something to keep you from totally falling apart. It wasn't like this before, and you weren't like this before. Worries are mundane, and you know that. But these past few months have shown a remarkably negative twist you least expected...and things don't look pretty at all...No...Not at all...

If you find yourself beleaguered by worries, which are otherwise trivial, and they storm your mind unrelentingly, causing uncomfortable physical symptoms, then chances are: you must be suffering from general anxiety disorder. Overcoming anxiety borne from this psychological disorder is possible through a combination of psychotherapy and medication, which your doctor should carefully monitor. To find out if your symptoms fit into this ailment, consider carefully the following indicators:

You're always looking forward to the worst that could possibly be. You think that you are just being extremely pessimistic. But you know there is something else worse than being just a pessimist. It's not that you want things to really turn out terribly. No. You are not a terrible person to want the worst in everything.

Your bills worry you to death. Not knowing what would happen during the seminar worries you to death. Even thinking of what to prepare for dinner drives you mad as a hatter. And at times, you also find yourself worried as to whether or not you're going to wake up tomorrow.

Sleeping has become a real hassle. Turning and twisting in your bed for half an hour or more has become a brightly occurrence you're starting to get used to. On top of that, you awaken in the middle of your sleep because of nightmares—you knew they were there, but somehow, upon opening your eyes abruptly, they just vanish as if they never came.

Every time you drive yourself mad by worrying too much, you experience muscle tension, twitching, sweating, hot flashes, and headaches.

You are as crotchety as crotchety could ever be. The slightest disturbance is enough for your head to burst into flames.

Your often gasping for air and spaced out. At times you are so nauseated, you could no longer do what you should do. Your trips to the bathroom have also become frequent. And that funny feeling of having a lump in your throat has become a daily fixture. These days, it hardly bothers you anymore. You're comfortable with it already.

You're very excitable, and you startle easily that there are times that you overreact to otherwise not very surprising surprises or sudden events.
You always feel exhausted even if you hardly moved a muscle throughout the day.

You can't keep your mind focused on one thing.
The inconvenient feeling of dejection strikes you often.


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Maricel Modesto is a writer and editor who writes for various health and lifestyle magazines.