Worry is something most of us experience, but for some people it becomes constant, overwhelming, and impossible to control. Generalised Anxiety Disorder (GAD) involves worrying excessively about all sorts of things — health, family, finances — for months at a time. It's particularly common in older adults, and it can seriously affect day-to-day life.
A major research review by Hall and colleagues (2016) analysed multiple studies to find out whether Cognitive Behavioural Therapy (CBT) — a structured, evidence-based talking therapy — actually works for older people with GAD. The conclusion was encouraging: CBT significantly reduces worry and anxiety symptoms in older adults. This is significant because older people are sometimes overlooked when it comes to psychological treatment, with medication often being offered as the default. But this research confirms that talking therapy is a genuinely effective option at any age.
CBT works by helping people notice the patterns in how they think and respond to worry, then building practical skills to break those cycles. It's not about "just thinking positively" — it's about learning to relate to worry differently, so it stops running the show. The results hold up across different therapist approaches and settings. If you or someone you care about is struggling with constant, out-of-control worry, reaching out to a psychologist for CBT could make a real and lasting difference.