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People with GAD often feel embarrassed about their
anxiety. This just makes the anxiety even worse.
Some people with GAD have felt anxious their whole lives.
Other times, GAD develops over time. Many people with GAD
come from families in which anxiety is common.
Specific Phobias
A person with a phobia has many of the same symptoms as a
person with GAD—with one big difference. People with GAD
worry about all kinds of things. People with a phobia fear one
specific thing. For example, a person with
arachnophobia
will
panic at the sight of spiders. A person with
claustrophobia
Lots of people might
think this jumping
spider is pretty
creepy, but that’s
not a phobia. A
fear of spiders has
to be very intense
to be considered
arachnophobia.