Autism and Neurodiversity Workplace Masterclass - Sports Edition

Anxiety Disorders

Some people only know an Anxiety Disorder as one thing and don’t realise there are many types of Anxiety Disorders including PTSD and Panic Disorder but we are going to focus on the ones that we have the most expertise in.

General Anxiety Disorder (GAD)

Generalised Anxiety means having regular or uncontrollable worries about many different things in your everyday life. Because there are lots of possible symptoms of anxiety, this can be quite a broad diagnosis, meaning that the problems you experience with generalised anxiety disorder might be quite different from another person’s experiences. It is often categorised by excessive, uncontrollable worry about various aspects of daily life. This worry is often disproportionate to the actual situation and can interfere with daily functioning. Here are the key features and symptoms of GAD:

1. Excessive Worry: Persistent and excessive worry about various topics such as work, health, family, or finances, which is difficult to control.
2. Physical Symptoms: These can include restlessness, fatigue, muscle tension, difficulty concentrating, irritability, and sleep disturbances.
3. Psychological Symptoms: Constant worry, feeling on edge, and a sense of impending doom or danger.
4. Duration: For a diagnosis, these symptoms must be present more days than not for at least six months.

Here are some of symptoms of GAD:

I often refer to this as random anxiety also, as sometimes I don’t know whether I’m going to have it or not. To make matters worse, I could do the same thing twice and get anxiety one time, but not the other.

Social Anxiety Disorder

Some of the symptoms here are similar to GAD. Social Anxiety can create an overwhelming fear of social situations, which could lead to sufferers avoiding going to social events or communicating with their friends or loved ones. 

Some of the symptoms are: