When Generalized Anxiety Disorder (GAD) Slows You Down

Generalized anxiety disorder (GAD) often slows you down; and when it does, it can be maddening and stressful. Anxiety can make people feel as though they're tarred and feathered, slowed down from real progress by a thick coat of heavy, gooey tar and coated in anxiety, represented by feathers. When generalized anxiety disorder slows you down, you don't have to give up. You can move forward.

GAD Slows You Down Because It's Hand-Wringing

Generalized anxiety disorder is anxiety that is persistent; it almost never seems to go away. Anxiety is frequently there even in the middle of the night. The anxiety in GAD is excessive and can involve worry about many different areas of life (work, home, family, school, relationships, etc.). The extreme worry of generalized anxiety disorder can absolutely slow you down, preventing you from moving forward in a way that is meaningful to you.

GAD feels overwhelming and horrible. The worrying, the fretting, and the constant hand-wringing are exhausting. This anxiety affects the whole person--thoughts, emotions, physical feelings, and actions (or lack of action). Because people often can't control the worry until they learn about techniques to transcend GAD, they can feel exhausted, always keyed-up or on edge, restless, and physically ill. They can feel paralyzed; however, despite paralyzing anxiety, it is possible to move.

Generalized anxiety disorder slows you down by taking over your thoughts. All at once, it can feel as though your mind is racing with worry yet completely blank. When GAD slows you down, it can make you tense and irritable.

What to Do When GAD Slows You Down

"You can't wring your hands and roll up your sleeves at the same time." --Pat Schroeder

GAD slows you down. With GAD, you worry, fret, and wring your hands in nervous agitation. Former American political leader Patricia Schroeder wisely reminds us that when we're wringing our hands, we can't push up our sleeves. When we're fully occupied with worry and anxiety, we're slowed down because that's all we are doing. Until we take control away from our anxieties, we can't take action.

Pushing up our sleeves means freeing our hands. It means calming the worry. As many of us know, calming our worries isn't as simple as telling ourselves not to worry. We can't tell ourselves not to wring our hands and expect it to work. So what does work when GAD slows us down?

• Give your hands something to other than to wring themselves. To get rid of anxiety and worry, it's important to replace the anxiety and worry. What would you like to focus on instead of anxiety?
• Push up your sleeves. Create an action plan. Where do you want to go? What steps can you take to get there?

Pushing up your sleeves is one way to reduce the hand-wringing caused by generalized anxiety disorder. Replacing your worries with goals and actions gives your brain something to do other than slowing you down through anxiety. To be sure, this approach doesn't, on its own, completely eradicate anxiety; however, it's a powerful way to regain direction and control when generalized anxiety disorder slows you down.

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