The importance of the present in being a human being: Lessons from generalized anxiety disorder

Generalized Anxiety Disorder (GAD), one of the most common mental disorders (prevalence rate of 1–3% current and 4–7% over the lifetime) is defined in the psychiatric diagnostic system as chronically excessive, uncontrollable worrying about many things in life, leading to significant distress and impairment in functioning. GAD is one of the most frequent additional diagnoses among anxiety and mood disorders. Indeed, the disorder is considered by many clinical scientists to be the basic anxiety disorder, out of which emerge the other adult emotional disorders. Furthermore, worry is pervasive throughout the mood and anxiety disorders, and it is ubiquitous among human beings in general. The importance of GAD is further reflected in the documented facts that people suffering from the problem have very high rates of medical health care utilization, high rates of absenteeism from work, significant impairments in social role functioning, and increased risk of cardiovascular disease.