By Mohammed Hassan, No Panic Academic

Anxiety can be a normal part of life, being a natural and common response to everyone’s stress, danger, or worries. (Mind,2025)

 However, it becomes a cause of concern when this feeling of overwhelm, and worry becomes chronic and can spiral out of control. Generalised Anxiety Disorder (GAD) is a condition that can develop gradually, leading to a debilitating sense of distress and impairment in daily functioning (NHS,2024).

GAD is one of the primary anxiety disorders that causes chronic symptoms, which are often misdiagnosed or overlooked. It affects millions of people, regardless of age, gender, background, or personality (Psychology Today,2025)

This article aims to explain how anxiety can develop, form, and become a significant obstacle in one’s life, making it challenging to manage. It will also explore the biological and psychological factors of anxiety and examine how it manifests in various forms within GAD.

What is Anxiety?

Generalised Anxiety Disorder is a mental health condition that can result in long-term, debilitating experiences for individuals. It involves constant worrying and persistent nervousness over things they may find overwhelming. For example, a person may experience insomnia and difficulty sleeping, leading to poor concentration and trouble focusing. This can negatively affect their performance and even increase the risk of accidents.

Many factors can trigger excessive worry, such as finances, work, or family. While someone without anxiety might experience stress and then return to their normal routine, a person with GAD tends to worry excessively and struggles to break the cycle of worry (Mind,2025).

GAD is often described as involving pervasive, free-floating anxiety and a general sense of unease without an identifiable cause—unlike panic disorder, where anxiety is typically triggered by specific stimuli. This highlights how anxiety can be severely debilitating, as individuals may constantly feel a low sense of self-worth or worry without a clear reason.

Over a prolonged period, these worries become difficult to control and interfere significantly with home life and relationships, creating a vicious, repetitive cycle. Anxiety can present in various ways and is often mistaken for something else. Symptoms can include repetitive, intrusive worrying, difficulty concentrating (often due to anticipatory anxiety, where one fears something bad might happen), and physical symptoms (NHS,2024)

Physical Symptoms

Physical symptoms of anxiety include rapid breathing, fatigue, muscle tension, headaches, and more. These symptoms are sometimes misdiagnosed as other ailments. Behavioural signs, such as avoiding tasks or obsessively checking things, are also common and can become highly disruptive, creating mental and physical distress. The key difference between everyday worry and anxiety is that ordinary worry is usually temporary and situational, lasting minutes or hours. In contrast, anxiety is chronic, lasting months and potentially leading to lifelong issues. Moreover, while typical worry focuses on specific concerns, anxiety involves multiple simultaneous worries, making it difficult to manage or control.

Anxiety can severely impact a person’s quality of life, with individuals waking up exhausted due to poor sleep caused by racing thoughts. This can lead to stomach issues or a sense of dread, even over issues that may seem minor to others. These mental worries can cause physical symptoms, which in turn heighten anxiety, creating a vicious cycle.

There is no single cause of GAD. Instead, it results from a complex combination of environmental, biological, and psychological factors. By addressing one or more of these factors, anxiety levels may be reduced. For example, limiting exposure to toxic people on social media or reducing screen time can lessen comparisons and negativity that trigger stress (Mental Health Foundation,2025)

Psychological

Psychological factors can exacerbate anxiety, particularly through patterns of overthinking and distorted thoughts. Individuals may think in black-and-white terms, believing that outcomes will always be negative, leaving no room for hope or alternative outcomes. This rigid mindset can fuel anxiety and cause burnout, especially if individuals overwork themselves to prevent failure.

Another significant factor is intolerance of uncertainty. The inability to cope with the unknown can trigger obsessive behaviours, such as excessively checking tasks to ensure everything goes according to plan. While these actions may offer temporary relief, they reinforce the idea that uncertainty must be avoided—an impossible goal that only increases anxiety over time (Psychology Today,2025).

Perfectionism is another psychological factor linked to anxiety. Unrealistic self-imposed goals can lead to chronic stress and self-blame if those standards aren’t met. For instance, a university student who refuses to accept anything less than top marks may overwork themselves to the point of burnout, fuelling their anxiety even more.

Often, these behaviours can be traced back to childhood traumas, such as criticism or neglect. Individuals may have developed these patterns as coping mechanisms to seek validation or approval from caregivers. Additionally, anxiety can be a learned behaviour if a child observes an anxious parent and internalizes those behaviours as normal.

Environmental

Early life experiences, especially growing up in a negative or unstable environment, can significantly affect emotional regulation. For instance, a child from a financially unstable household or with a chronically ill parent might become hypervigilant, always anticipating problems. Even when everything is fine, they may continue to worry excessively, as this pattern was ingrained during their formative years.

Trauma can have long-term effects on the brain, especially in children. Experiences such as bullying, neglect, physical or emotional abuse, or witnessing domestic violence can lead to GAD. For example, a bullied child may develop anxiety symptoms like avoiding school, sleep disturbances, and mood swings, which can persist into adulthood (Mind,2025).

Anxiety often stems from early childhood experiences but may go unnoticed as individuals might appear outwardly normal while suffering internally. Signs may appear through unstable relationships, health issues, or chronic stress. Early recognition of GAD can have a profound impact by encouraging lifestyle changes or seeking therapy to address underlying traumas.

Biological Factors

The human body’s response to stress is fascinating. Studies show how the body is designed to manage stress by shifting into survival mode. For people with GAD, the amygdala (the brain’s alarm system) may be overactive, constantly detecting threats and triggering the stress response, even in the absence of real danger. This can overwhelm the prefrontal cortex, which is responsible for regulating emotions and decision-making.

Brain chemicals like serotonin and norepinephrine also play crucial roles in mood and stress regulation. These chemicals are often imbalanced in individuals with GAD, contributing to their heightened anxiety levels. Genetics may also play a role, as anxiety can sometimes be passed down through family trauma and experiences (NHS,2024)

Unfortunately, GAD is often trivialized as mere worrying. However, it is a serious and damaging condition. Differentiating GAD from normal stress and seeking treatment is crucial, as there are many effective treatments available. Healing doesn’t necessarily mean eliminating anxiety but learning to cope and live with it more peacefully and less fearfully.

References

Mind. (2025). Anxiety and panic attacks. https://www.mind.org.uk/information-support/types-of-mental-health-problems/anxiety-and-panic-attacks/about-anxiety/#:~:text=Anxiety%20is%20what%20we%20feel,thoughts%2C%20feelings%20and%20physical%20sensations.

Mental Health Foundation. (2025). What causes anxiety? https://www.mentalhealth.org.uk/our-work/public-engagement/mental-health-awareness-week/anxiety-report/what-causes-anxiety.

NHS. (2024, October) generalised anxiety disorder (GAD). https://www.nhs.uk/mental-health/conditions/generalised-anxiety-disorder-gad/.

Psychology Today. (2025). What is anxiety? https://www.psychologytoday.com/gb/basics/anxiety.