Yes, great topic. My adult daughter and I have complete opposite habits of worry.
I tend not to worry at all because it doesn't matter what I do or don't do... life happens. In my depression, I often feel that I have no power and thus no impact on my life or anyone else's. Furthermore, I'm terrible at anticipating what actually might happen so I give up... and don't.
My daughter is a constant worrier. It breaks my heart to see her expend so much energy on worry. She believes that by worrying she can anticipate any and everything that might go wrong and thus prevent it from happening.
We both seem to manage ok no matter what happens, but I suspect we would both be happier if we could find some sort of middle ground. Perhaps we would have more energy to actually enjoy our lives.
I like the post very much too. I tend to worry a lot. I worry about my work, my family and about my future. Worry consumed my time without getting work done. The funny thing is that the more i become depressed, the more I worry.
Ashley, your post helped me to overcome depression through reducing unnecessary worries. Thank you.
Great post Ashley. The more I try to deal with worry the worse it becames. I can have some control over depression but over worry it has been difficul for me. I have tried most techniques and the only thing that Help is trying to distract my busy mind with something to do.
There are a number of CBT techniques that are commonly used to help people challenge worry including: thought records, thought stopping, worry time, challenging the value of worry, problem solving, experiments to increase intolerance of uncertainty and cognitive exposure. Let’s take a look at them one at a time:
Challenging the Value of Worry: Many people who worry find it difficult to challenge their worry because of their basic beliefs about worrying. As we discussed before, worry a little about a problem makes some sense because it can lead to the identification of a problem and problem solving. On the other hand, worrying more that a little usually doesn’t get you any further ahead. Worrying that doesn’t lead pretty quickly to problem solving doesn’t get you anywhere. Unfortunately, many people who worry have beliefs about worrying that encourage them to worry more, rather than less. For example, if you have beliefs such as “Worrying makes me a better person,” Worrying helps me to solve problems,” “Worrying helps me do a better job,” and “Worrying about something makes it more likely that it will happen,” you may want to spend some time challenging those beliefs about worry and what worry does for you.
