For
Sarah Robinson
Roul Perry
Delaware County Community College
Presenting Problems
While it is true that everyone experiences anxiety at some point in their life’s, generalized anxiety disorder or GAD, is a condition characterized by chronic or excessive worrying. Individual diagnosed with GAD often finds themselves worrying about minor details and events such as family, health, finances, relationships, work and school. They are generally unable to control their thoughts and emotions associated with worrying. This often leads to severe impairment, including loss of productivity and a reduced quality of life. Although the disorder is found more prevalent in women than men, …show more content…
Additionally, an individual diagnosed with Generalized Anxiety Disorder generally finds it very difficult to control their anxiety and worrying. They often worry about events such as work, school, family, social situation, etc. Generalized anxiety disorder causes significant distress or impairment in social, occupational, or other important areas of functioning. The anxiety and worrying are usually associated with the following six symptoms.
• Restlessness or feeling keyed up or on edge
• Being easily …show more content…
The Cognitive behavioral paradigm or perspective examines how environmental factors affects an individual behavior and influences their symptoms. Evaluating Sarah’s disorder from a cognitive behavioral perspective is particularly important considered the details provided during her clinical evaluation. Sarah reported that her mother was frequently withdrawn and emotionally unavailable. She also mentions that she had to take care of her two younger sisters. In addition to this, Sarah had to work in order to meet her family financial obligations. Although Sarah’s sincere intention might be to help her family during challenging time, the demand place on her by her mother, especially during her adolescent, undoubtedly contributed to her initial symptoms and significantly increases her disorder. Her circumstances not only affected her self-esteem but also her self-values and her perceptions of other. Furthermore, her limited interactions with her friends at school and restricted exposure to other environment other than work and home may have also contributed to her symptoms and influence her thought processing negatively. Additionally, the death of her father and her inability to correctly process her thoughts and emotion may have also contributed to her