With this form of anxiety disorder, a person needs to identify what causes and triggers the fears. Since there is no basis for the anxiety, working on behaviors that help a person cope with the stressors is important.

Therapy is used to:

• Identify the stressors that produce the anxiety
• Offer coping skills for handling the stress
• Eliminate any physical sources of stress
  

Types of Psychotherapy:

Insight-Oriented Therapy: explores the unconscious and symbolic meanings of the anxiety.

Cognitive Therapy: helps patients  identify the events or circumstances that trigger conscious "automatic thoughts," and then develop more rational ways of thinking and feeling about these stressors.

Behavioral Therapy: used as a supplement to the above mentioned therapies. Some of these methods include muscle relaxation techniques, mediation, biofeedback, and autogenic training.

Drug therapy:  Buspirone is an anxiolytic medication often prescribed for chronic anxiety. Benzodiazepines are used for acute episodes of anxiety, but are prescribed for limited durations only (2-4 weeks) to prevent long-term physical and psychological dependence.

There are a number of other drugs that doctors may prescribe, depending on the situation.  Here is a list of the more common GAD drugs.

• Tricyclic Antidepressants (TCAs). Usually for patients with depression.
• Antihistamines. Usually for patients with addiction potential.
• Benzodiazepines. Usually of short-term use with no long-term efficacy proved.
• Buspirone. Usually for chronic, or long term anxiety.
• Alprazolam (Xanax)
• Diazepam (Valium)
• Lorazepam (Ativan)
• Selective Serotonin Reuptake Inhibitors (SSRIs). Clinically appear helpful but not well studied yet.
• Beta-blockers. Propranolol (Inderal) may help physical symptoms (not FDA approved) but has no effect on psychic component of anxiety.