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Reflective Essay: Generalized Anxiety Disorders

654 Words3 Pages

Mental illnesses encompasses many broad definitions. Based on societal views, lifestyles, cultural traditions, etc. we have formed our own interpretations of what is considered abnormal and normal behaviors. One of the prime examples in which I have interpreted mental illness is generalized anxiety disorder (GAD)—a very common disorder in my bloodline that even my younger sister and I possess this hereditary trait but have experienced generalized anxiety disorder in different situations. My younger sister experiences GAD when she is very self-conscious. For example, she would be sitting in class and while doing nothing, she begins to experience bodily tension and sweats excessively, especially her hands. Running through her anxious mind …show more content…

Ever since I was a little girl and I watched a scary movie called The Grudge, I was sleep deprived for a whole week and I was never able to sleep in the dark again. Unfortunately, scary movies are not suitable for me anymore. Even till now, I cannot be alone in the dark because I am a visual person; therefore, I have the tendency to imagine and visualize apparitions everywhere I go and it is like a threat to me. I have all these anxious thoughts about being attacked or disappearing one day and this causes me to feel fatigue and irritable throughout my whole day. There are days where I would come home late and I would just sit in the car for a couple of minutes playing with my phone to get rid of all these scary and disturbing illusions I have created for myself: is someone hiding behind a tree, am I going to get hurt, and what if someone is in the car with me but I just do not know? I just simply cannot stop my imagination when I am in the dark—it is a habit of mine. According to Lilienfeld et al. (2014), specific phobias (i.e. water, thunderstorms, insects, etc.) are widespread through childhood but disappear with age and I would agree to this if I was married or always having someone around me because I have tried to face my fears by trying to watch a scary movie but eventually, I had to close my eyes throughout the scary parts. So, trying to face my fears have never really

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