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What does anxiety mean? It means several things. In a lot of cases, when mental health professionals speak of anxiety, they are speaking of “generalized anxiety.” Generalized anxiety is essentially experiencing anxiety with no perceived or actual threat in the near future. For instance, lets say you get up one morning and drink twice the amount of coffee you usually drink, the rest of the day you feel jittery and “anxious”. You really have no reason or threat to feel anxious about but you feel anxious none the less. The caffeine in the coffee has led to some temporary generalized anxiety. Numerous things can lead to generalized anxiety including mood altering drugs, a history of trauma or abuse, or some people may just be genetically predisposed to generalized anxiety. A certain measure of anxiety is necessary to perform many tasks and is perfectly healthy when it is short term in nature. Anxiety becomes lethal when it is chronic or long term in nature. The are several different types of anxiety disorders including generalized anxiety disorder, agoraphobia (fear of being in crowds or public situations), social phobia (anxiety provoked by exposure to certain social situations), obsessive-compulsive disorder (characterized by obsessions or compulsions that cause mild to severe anxiety), and posttraumatic stress disorder (characterized by the reexperiencing of an extremely traumatic event). (American Pyschiatric Association, DSM-IV-TR).
The Georgia Professional Counseling Center, Inc. offers anxiety management training on an individual basis. Just give us a call for more information and appointment availability.
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