Lack of treatment progress can often be traced to a failure to follow through with homework assignments of practicing relaxation. Reducing stress and increasing overall coping skills may also be beneficial in helping the client. Helping the individual find a better balance in their lives between self-enrichment, family, significant other, and work may be important. People who have GAD have lived with their anxiety for such a long time they may not recognize a life without constant worrying and activity. Helping the individual realize that life doesn't have to boring just because one isn't always worrying or doing things may also help.
Individual therapy is usually the recommended treatment modality.
Many times people who present with GAD feel a bit awkward discussing their anxiety in front of others, especially if they are less than accepting. A clear distinction should be made at the onset of the evaluation to differentiate GAD from social phobia, however, and the appropriate diagnosis should be made. It would be unwise to recommend group therapy to someone who had social phobia or GAD early on, because of the social component to either disorder. Placing a person into a group setting without minimal interpersonal and relaxation skills being taught first in individual therapy is a recipe for disaster and early treatment termination. Non-specific factors in therapy are important to these patients, as they will make the most beneficial gains in a supportive and accepting therapeutic environment.