GAD, how I hate being anxious. It's one thing to fret a bit as you watch the teen head off for an evening with friends, but quite another to dither endlessly over replacing the gutters, or finding a parking place, or, worst of all, to pace the floors over no troubles at all.

A patient I saw yesterday could hardly bear his ride to work on the light rail; he'd plot his escape at each stop, then grit his teeth and travel on, promising himself he'd surely bail at the next opportunity. Then another patient in the early afternoon related that she'd finally gotten up the nerve to come in to discuss her unending fear, then nearly made herself sick with worry that her employer would be angry that she was taking time off to visit my office.

Generalized anxiety disorder or GAD is associated with an unpleasant free-floating sense of danger, exaggerated worry over the trials of everyday life, and an inability to relax. Social scientists have recently released a 7 item screening test to easily identify GAD, appropriately named GAD-7.

Worried that you suffer from GAD? Check out:Are you overanxious?