Lesson 1 of 6 · Three things wearing one name
What would mean this needs more than a course
These are here in lesson one, not buried at the end, because a person in a bad enough state may never reach lesson six.
Most days for two weeks or more, and it is not lifting. More than an hour a day going on worrying, checking, or preparing for something that has not happened. You have stopped doing something you used to do, a place, a call, a route, the masjid. Wudu or salah is taking twice as long as it used to, or you are repeating either. You are drinking, or using something, or taking more of a medication than you were given, to get through the day or the night. Someone who lives with you has said something.
And one that goes to a doctor before it goes anywhere else. Chest pain, fainting, or breathlessness that has not been checked.
What the research says
Guidance starts with low intensity self help and moves you up when daily life is markedly affected or the lower step has not helped. The markers above are that trigger in ordinary words. They are not a score and not a diagnosis.
Guidance sets out stepped care, with low intensity self help first and a higher intensity treatment when there is marked interference with daily life or no response to the lower step. The markers above are that trigger stated in ordinary words. They are not a score and they are not a diagnosis.
National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (2022). Generalised anxiety disorder and panic disorder in adults: management, NICE clinical guideline CG113, updated July 2022. National Institute for Health and Care Excellence
The thresholds used to decide whether to refer someone are practical: how long, what it is costing, what has been tried, and risk. Nothing in them is about your religion, and nothing in them is about how hard you have prayed.
The referral thresholds used by non-specialist health workers are functional: how long it has gone on, what it is costing, whether anything has been tried, and risk. Nothing in them is about a person's religion.
World Health Organization (2019). mhGAP Intervention Guide for mental, neurological and substance use disorders in non-specialized health settings, Version 2.0. World Health Organization