Generalized Anxiety Disorder

Rachel is a forty-six year old, African American. Rachel suffers from generalized anxiety disorder. She lives with her two college-age daughters in a dangerous neighborhood on the south side of Chicago. Rachel only leaves the house typically between two and four times a month, usually to get her monthly haircut, gets a few items at the grocery store, or goes see her primary doctor. Whenever she needs something, food or otherwise, she has one of her daughters go do it for her. In the past two years, she has held one job for less than a month. Her daughters help pay household bills when they can, but it’s just not enough. Rachel’s bills are piling up, debt collectors keep calling, and it doesn’t faze her.

According to biological theorists, Rachel suffers from anxiety due to insufficiencies and differences in certain areas of the brain and in neurotransmitters. One example is lower levels of GABA (gamma-amino butyric acid) activity. Another is the sensitivity and responsiveness is reduced in the GABA receptors. When Rachel’s body releases GABA and the GABA cannot connect with the GABA receptors, the neurons don’t stop firing; therefore, the intense fear and anxiety does not stop (Comer, 2011, p. 104). Both of these two factors also negatively affect one another making Rachel’s GAD even worse. The other factor that has been known to impact generalized anxiety disorder are increased levels of norepinephrine (Ackerman, 2008, p.84). To help Rachel, biological theorists would suggest a few different approaches. The first is antidepressant medication, which has proven to be more beneficial and less detrimental than benzodiazepines, or antianxiety medication. The second form of therapy would be biofeedback, or more specifically electromy...

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...hobias begin to turn into GAD. If there is only a fear of one thing, that can be managed most of the time because it is easier to avoid that one thing. However, when it turns into a number of things that gets harder and harder to avoid, therefore turning into excessive worry, or generalized anxiety disorder. If Rachel has phobias of multiple things around her, or from her childhood, she may have developed generalized anxiety disorder simply through classical conditioning or modeling (Comer, 2011, p. 109).

Works Cited

Ackerman, M. J. (2008). "Does Wednesday Mean Mom's House or Dad's" Parenting Together While Living Apart. Hoboken, NJ: Wiley.

"Anxiety Disorders; Treatment." NWHRC Health Center - Anxiety Disorders. Healthy Women, 2005. Gale Power Search. Web. 22 Feb. 2012.

Comer, R. J. (2011). Fundamentals of abnormal psychology. New York: Worth Publishers.