Gad: Info Speech Informative Speech

GAD: Info Speech

Informative Speech Outline

Generalized Anxiety Disorder

To inform my audience of the symptoms, diagnosis, and treatment of Generalized Anxiety Disorder.

Specific purpose: To help my audience gain a good understanding of the disorder so they can recognize the symptoms of the disorder within their own mental health profile or in the general population.

Central idea: Generalized Anxiety Disorder is a common, but often-misunderstood and unrecognized mental health complaint.

Get the Audience's Attention: Feeling anxious? On edge? Having trouble sleeping, eating, or concentrating? Maybe you have a big test coming up, or you're undergoing some life stress in your family, like nursing a sick parent or child.

Reveal topic: Now imagine feeling that way all of the time, even if you didn't have anything particularly important to worry about. That is what Generalized Anxiety Disorder is like for millions of sufferers.

Establish Credibility: The National Institute of Mental Health informs the general public that although anxiety may be a common term that is used to describe the stresses we all face, Generalized Anxiety Disorder is something different -- it is feeling anxious even when there is little to feel anxious about.

IV. Preview: A person with Generalized Anxiety Disorder is in a state of constant anxiety. Unlike normal anxiety, for a person with Generalized Anxiety Disorder there is often little in the person's life to provoke this heightened state of worry and tension. Although everyone worries, when worry becomes constant, it is time to seek help. It can even affect the person physically, causing their pulse to race, or provoking changes in their eating or sleeping patterns.

Body:

Main point I. Generalized Anxiety Disorder is different from merely worrying about a legitimate problem.

Sub-point A. Generalized Anxiety Disorder. According to the NIMH, people with Generalized Anxiety Disorder (abbreviated as GAD) go through the day filled with a sense of exaggerated worry and tension, even though there is little or nothing to provoke this level of anxiety. Their worries may be legitimate, but the level of anxiety and preoccupation with worrisome issues is not normal.

Main point II. Often, people with Generalized Anxiety Disorder know they have a problem. But sometimes they do not.

Sub-point A. Some people with GAD think they are 'just worriers.' GAD is diagnosed when a person worries excessively about a variety of everyday problems for at least six months. Again, the worries may be legitimate, but the level of preoccupation is often obsessive and inhibits the quality of the person's life. Often, difficulty sleeping, a racing pulse, hot flashes, and nausea accompany the sufferer's vague sense of impending doom.

Transition) So that quirky aunt or grandmother who always sees death around every corner isn't just 'eccentric' -- she may have a mental health complaint that is inhibiting the quality of her life even though she doesn't admit it to herself.

Main point III. GAD is common but treatable.

Sub-point A. GAD affects about 6.8 million adult Americans and about twice as many women as men, estimates the National Institute of Mental Health. Often the condition starts slowly, as a personality pattern or quirk, but gradually spirals out of control. Sufferers are usually able to hold down a job and function normally, but that doesn't mean that they shouldn't seek help.

Transition) According to the publication: "Generalized Anxiety Disorder: a Real Illness," cognitive behavioral therapy or in some cases medication to treat the physical or mental complaints that accompany Generalized Anxiety Disorder can improve the quality of a sufferer's life.