Generalized Anxiety Outline

Topic: Generalized Anxiety Disorder

General Purpose: To Inform

Specific Purpose: To help my audience gain insight into Generalized Anxiety Disorder so that they may better understand the illness.

Thesis Statement: Generalized Anxiety Disorder is widely misunderstood, understanding what it is, what the symptoms are, possible treatments, and how to best help someone during an anxiety attack is crucial for those who have family or friends with this disorder.

Introduction:

Attention Material: Your chest begins to tighten, hands start to tingle, everything gets too loud and too bright all at the same time. Your thoughts start coming faster and faster, becoming distorted, you cannot focus, your body begins to tremble, and it takes everything in you

It is always expecting the worse, looking for something to go wrong even when everything is going right. The source of the worry cannot always be pinpointed and an anxiety attack can be debilitating. The Anxiety Association of America notes that 6.8 million adults a year in the U.S. alone suffer from GAD, it is the most common mental illness, and women tend to be more affected that men.

(Transition: The symptoms however, tend to be

Having been diagnosed with this disorder myself for ten years, I can add a few symptoms to the list, such as, palpations, trembling, depersonalization, chest pain, hot flashes/chills, hyper sensitivity, also referred to as vigilance, and autonomic hyper activity. All of which can keep you from leaving your bed, much less your house when they are at their worse.

(Transition: As harsh as the symptoms may be, there is always treatment.)

The effectiveness of treatment on Generalized Anxiety Disorder patients depends on the patient and the severity of their case. As referenced in CNS Drugs, there are two common forms of treatment, psychotherapy and pharmacotherapy. Not all patients benefit form one or the other, there are times when it takes both methods working together to make progress. Psychotherapy alone may not work for someone with a severe case, they may also need the help of antipsychotics through pharmacotherapy, whereas, someone with a light case may benefit from psychotherapy alone.

(Transition: However, medicine may not always be available when an anxiety attack hits and other tactics may be