Treatment of Generalized Anxiety Disorder

Help for Persitent Anxiety and Worry

What is the treatment for Generalized Anxiety Disorder?

At the CTSA, we are committed to providing empirically supported treatments. That means that we provide treatments that have been proven, through research, to be effective for many people.

The treatment that we provide for Generalized Anxiety Disorder is based on empirically supported cognitive-behavioral and mindfulness-based techniques. It is mostly based on the GAD treatment manuals by Lizabeth Roemer and Susan Orsillo (2005), and Michel Dugas (2002), but also uses techniques that we have found to be helpful across anxiety disorders through research at the CTSA for the past few decades.

This treatment usually lasts between 13 and 20 sessions, although it can last slightly shorter or slightly longer depending on each individual's case.

In this treatment, we aim to combat a few major problems that often occur in GAD: the inability to identify the source of one's emotional responses, the desire to control one's internal experiences, specifically to avoid certain feared thoughts and experiences, and the interference that anxiety can have with one's relationships, work, and self-care.

We have found that while avoidance of what provokes our anxiety may make us feel better right now, overtime it allows these situations, thoughts and emotions to stay "scary" and therefore for anxiety about them to keep coming back. In this therapy, we aim to combat this avoidance in a few different ways.

What kind of changes to do we attempt to make in this therapy?

1. Increase awareness of your anxiety and other emotions, and of the present moment
2. Increase choice and flexibility in everyday life
3. Help you act in a way that aligns with your personal values, rather than merely acting to avoid worry or anxiety
4. Help you get confront and get used to situations, thoughts, and emotions that until now, you have been pushing away

What do the sessions involve?

1. Education about what causes anxiety and what maintains anxiety
2. Mindfulness practices and techniques to help you increase awareness
3. "Imaginal Exposure": Confrontation of the worst possible scenarios that you might have anxiety about
4. "In Vivo Exposure:" Confrontation of situations in your daily life that cause anxiety, and until now, may have been avoided.
5. Exercises and methods aimed at helping you deal with your anxiety when in appears
6. Discussion and examination of the ways in which anxiety has interfered with your life
7. Discussion of actions that you can take to move your life back in the direction you wish it to go

This therapy involves active discussion and participation from both the therapist and the client. The client is expected to complete homework exercises between sessions to practice the techniques learned, and put them to use in their everyday life.

Related Links

• Penn Program for Mindfulness
• Pocast: The Present Moment, with Jon Kabat-Zinn