![[dr. bob]](/dr-bob-sm.gif)
Dr. Bob is Robert Hsiung, MD,
bob@dr-bob.orgShown: posts 1 to 5 of 5. This is the beginning of the thread.
Posted by TommyTommy on February 25, 2003, at 0:35:44
The more I read about GAD or General Anxiety Disorder, the more I know that is definitely me. One phychiatrist diagnosed me with Obsessive Compulsive and said that's why I was depressed. He was way off. My current pychiatrist has consistently wanted to put the BiPolar title on me even though I sway heavily towards the depressive side. Bipolar II is more like this but the diagnosis doesn't even compare to me like GAD does. GAD seems to focus more on Anxiety's that will cause social distress and of coarse you can have depression along with GAD. If anybody out there can shed some more light on this I would be very grateful. Where does GAD fit in to the "Diagnosis" seen?
Posted by Ritch on February 25, 2003, at 10:10:40
In reply to GAD AS A DIAGNOSIS, posted by TommyTommy on February 25, 2003, at 0:35:44
> The more I read about GAD or General Anxiety Disorder, the more I know that is definitely me. One phychiatrist diagnosed me with Obsessive Compulsive and said that's why I was depressed. He was way off. My current pychiatrist has consistently wanted to put the BiPolar title on me even though I sway heavily towards the depressive side. Bipolar II is more like this but the diagnosis doesn't even compare to me like GAD does. GAD seems to focus more on Anxiety's that will cause social distress and of coarse you can have depression along with GAD. If anybody out there can shed some more light on this I would be very grateful. Where does GAD fit in to the "Diagnosis" seen?
GAD has to do with negative rumination about the *future* concerning all sorts of things: social stuff, bills, terrorist attacks, your car's transmission, taxes, landscaping DECISIONS,etc. Basically, super-generalizing small negative and relatively inconsequential facts into catastrophic for sure going to happen bad stuff in the future things in your mind. It is the "hand wringing", "worry wart" anxiety flavor. I have that comorbid with bipolarII. The bipolar can "fuel" the GAD and vice versa, but I can have symptoms independent of any bipolar symptoms (and vice versa). Usually all it takes is for something to break! Decision making can be greatly impaired because you try to anticipate all possible outcomes for every decision (you analyze everything to death). ADD seems to be commonly co-morbid with GAD as well.
Posted by TommyTommy on February 25, 2003, at 13:28:19
In reply to Re: GAD AS A DIAGNOSIS » TommyTommy, posted by Ritch on February 25, 2003, at 10:10:40
Thanks Ritch for your insight. When I was 15, I started analyzing the meaning of life to the point I convinced myself it was worthless to live because all were going to do is die. I spent every bit of mental energy analyzing this and of coarse you can't come up with answers to things we don't have factual proof to. After I exhausted myself with analyzing the meaning life it turned into a full fledged obsession to analyze everything you could possibly imagine and I don't really need to go into detail because most of it was so bizarre, far fetched and stupid. But to me it was all real and scary. Now all I seem to analyze is my day to day minute to minute awareness of how I feel mentally and how I am acting socially. I can change my states of mind it seems within a thought and go from confident to unconfident. Can you relate at all to this? What do you reccomend to combat this?
Thanks,
Tommy
Posted by male34 on February 25, 2003, at 16:51:55
In reply to GAD AS A DIAGNOSIS, posted by TommyTommy on February 25, 2003, at 0:35:44
GAD, its alittle bit ocd, a little bit anxiety ,alittle bit agoraphobic, botttom line GAD people worry ,Im gad ,always thinking e tc... my point is you can help yourself by progressing your thoughts for one thing change your "what ifs " to "what does it matter" lighten the situation change your thoughts and your gonna beat the system, good luck in all you do, remember its only in your mind you'll be fine,
Posted by Ritch on February 25, 2003, at 23:55:12
In reply to Re: GAD AS A DIAGNOSIS, posted by TommyTommy on February 25, 2003, at 13:28:19
> Thanks Ritch for your insight. When I was 15, I started analyzing the meaning of life to the point I convinced myself it was worthless to live because all were going to do is die. I spent every bit of mental energy analyzing this and of coarse you can't come up with answers to things we don't have factual proof to. After I exhausted myself with analyzing the meaning life it turned into a full fledged obsession to analyze everything you could possibly imagine and I don't really need to go into detail because most of it was so bizarre, far fetched and stupid. But to me it was all real and scary. Now all I seem to analyze is my day to day minute to minute awareness of how I feel mentally and how I am acting socially. I can change my states of mind it seems within a thought and go from confident to unconfident. Can you relate at all to this? What do you reccomend to combat this?
>
> Thanks,
>
> Tommy
That sounds more like phobic anxiety/OCD rather than GAD (although I am convinced they share similar circuits). My "worrying" tends to just slowly decay with a little time after everyday events that provoke it. IOW, I slowly stop rehearsing the events that led up to something breaking or failing and stop thinking about them-because I carefully realize that I don't have any CONTROL over them-then I can let them go. The main trouble is the time burned up before I realize that I wasted a bunch of time! :-) Trying to solve *future* problems is another issue altogether. That's where the ADD comes in. It helps to be able to make numerous quick *simple* decisions and to make PLANS. If you are off in outerspace and absent-minded all of the time, there will be a lot of ordinary/everyday stuff that won't get accomplished that will put a big drag on you that you won't realize until you get out there aways.
This is the end of the thread.
Psycho-Babble Medication | Extras | FAQ
Dr. Bob is Robert Hsiung, MD,
bob@dr-bob.org
Script revised: February 4, 2008
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/cgi-bin/pb/mget.pl
Copyright 2006-17 Robert Hsiung.
Owned and operated by Dr. Bob LLC and not the University of Chicago.