Worry Does No Good
- Occasional worrying is a natural mental activity, but some worry relentlessly and are emotionally overwhelmed, resulting in anxiety disorders.
- Some believe that a moderate amount of realistic worry is useful and helps one prepare for upcoming problems.
- To some degree, worry is beneficial, like during a pandemic, helping one take necessary safety precautions.
- Chronic worrying has plenty of negative consequences, including manifesting into reality.
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.. is a disorder involving extreme levels of unstoppable worrying, for things that usually don’t come true.
GAD leads to lost energy and wastage of time, and in some cases, it actually manifests a negative outcome. It depletes our ability to think well and to concentrate, delaying any productive work or decision making.
Worrying is an all-in-all bad deal, but it is difficult to stop ourselves using sheer willpower.
Certain approaches can help:
- Acceptance and commitment therapy(ACT) focuses on accepting the worry and not getting consumed by it.
- Mindfulness builds a positive force inside our mind and keeps us emotionally strong.
- Cognitive Behavioural Therapy(CBT) tries to change our worry and how it affects us using logic and evidence to counter its claims.
- Steady breathing or progressive muscle relaxation helps in putting the body at ease and reduces the grip of worry on the mind.
Catastrophizing is when people think that the worst outcome will come true and will have consequences that would be unmanageable or unsurvivable. We think worry helps us solve problems and cope up with negative outcomes, but the assumption is inaccurate.
Repeated worry has no benefits while incurring significant wear and tear of the body/mind, increasing psychological stress, and creating misery.
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All people experience negative or troubling thoughts from time to time. Worry helps us to anticipate and prepare for the challenges in life.
But for some, worry can be persistent and overwhelming. People who worry a lot can become depressed and shift to a negative outlook on life.
Each time we worry and nothing bad happens, our mind connects worry with preventing harm:
Worry → nothing bad happens.
And the takeaway is, "It's a good thing I worried."
Severe chronic worriers are less accepting of their emotions, meaning they're intolerant of uncertainty and negative emotions.
Meanwhile, non-worriers tend to look at negative emotions as a sign that whatever is causing those emotions needs attention. They use emotions to make informed decisions.
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