A quick question.

[vikkib]

I suffer from GAD and Social anxiety and i understand GAD can be developed over a few ways.
My question is, if a chemical imbalance causes it for you can it be cured without medication?
Also, is it possible to test if it is a chemical imbalance?

[willow]

For me, it was not a chemical imbalance that caused the anxiety.  They were able to perform a blood test at a family doctor's office and determine that much.  This was about 10 years ago so I'm not sure if advancements have been made for testing. Best wishes!!!

[firebird]

Hi, it's almost always a combination of genes, chemical imbalance, your youth and the environment.

But what do you mean with chemical imbalance precisely? You mean an imbalance of active neurotransmitters and calming neurotransmitters like GABA? This imbalance can be cured by psycho anlysis and cognitive behavior therapy. This imbalance is mostly caused by ''ideas'' or the unconcious. Ideas can be cured.

Or are you talking about phsyical imbalance like a disrupted hormonesystem?

It's difficult to test the levels of neurotransmitter, and it's almost impossible to give you with precision the causal relationships. You will not get far if you test the GABA levels for example. The brain is much too complex to give you a full answer. Also, the methods to test neurotransmitters are not very sophisticated. Blood tests are not very accurate.

[Rae Rae]

For females, hormones are a big cause of anxiety & the chemical imbalances in the brain. I don't think you can get the chemical imbalances tested? But you can get hormones levels tested, but they usually don't reccomend it seeing as how it would probably show up inaccurate b/c hormones go up & down all the time like a rollercoaster. But if you have GAD it is most likely that you do have a chemical imbalance to which you are not able to control yourself when you feel anxious. Everybody's anxiety differs.. if you can control it to the point where it doesn't get too bad, then yes I believe it can be cured without meds.