eGAD

I think I have read too many Victorian novels.  Possibly in one of those, a character actually said, “Egad!”  Possibly the same character said, “Gadzooks!”  I don’t know that I have heard either spoken in real life.

But my GAD in “eGad” stands for Generalized Anxiety Disorder.  Trying to give a name to my current wretched emotional state I went on line and took a little self-diagnostic test for GAD.  Questions like the following appeared:

Yes or No? Are you troubled by:

·        Excessive worry, occurring more days than not, for a least six months?

·        Unreasonable worry about a number of events or activities, such as work or school and/or health?

·        The inability to control the worry?

Are you bothered by a least three of the following?

·        Restlessness, feeling keyed-up or on edge?

·        Being easily tired?

·        Problems concentrating?

·        Irritability?

·        Trouble falling asleep or staying asleep, or restless and unsatisfying sleep?

·        Sad or depressed?

·        Disinterested in life?

·        Worthless or guilty?

I responded “yes” to each of these questions.  I mean, natch.  What else could the answer be?  So I guess I have GAD, though maybe these are trick questions or just stupid ones. 

How much should I trust a site that uses “disinterested” incorrectly?  “Disinterested” means “objective” and should not be confused with the word they want, “uninterested.”

This appeared on the American Association of Anxiety Disorders site.  You would think an organization with such an imposing name would have a proof reader or at least one person among them who knows something about usage.

eGAD—something more to worry about.

2 Replies to “eGAD”

  1. You worry about usage? No wonder you are anxious. Sometimes I sit and yell at the newspaper because the writing is so bloody stupid. I guess everyone turns off spell-check and grammar-check, though half the time I think the grammar thing is wrong anyway.

  2. You worry about usage? No wonder you are anxious. Sometimes I sit and yell at the newspaper because the writing is so bloody stupid. I guess everyone turns off spell-check and grammar-check, though half the time I think the grammar thing is wrong anyway.

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