ABSTRACT
Robert's emotional pain represents one of the many forms of suffering that meet criteria for generalized anxiety disorder (GAD) as conceptualized by the current version of the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM) and the International Classification of Diseases (ICD). Humanistic psychotherapies maintain a somewhat ambivalent position regarding labeling human psychological suffering, or emotional pain, as disorder. The main feature of GAD is anxiety. According to the DSM, worry is a defining feature of GAD. Worry should be distinguished from other psychological phenomena such as ruminations or obsessions. GAD has high comorbidity with other psychiatric/psychological disorders. Some of the most important early research into GAD and the role of worry have been carried out by T. D. Borkovec and colleagues, who, since the 1980s have worked on the development of what was later named as an avoidance theory of worry.
