Anxiety lesson 7 – lets evaluate our positive beliefs about
worry
This is going to be a short blog and I would like you to
print this off and stick it to the fridge.
When anxiety and worry have existed for some time, we develop
positive beliefs about this awful paralysing condition. These beliefs are
sometimes the following:
1)
Worry helps me find solutions to my problems.
2)
Worrying is a motivator and so it means I get
things done.
3)
Worry is a protective factor from negative
things happening, should negative things happen then I will be prepared.
4)
Worry can prevent negative things from happening
(miracle thinking, thought action connection) ‘If I worry about this strongly
enough, it won’t happen’.
5)
Worrying about people and situation means I am a
caring and compassionate person.
That’s address these individually
1)
Do you actually solve your problems by worrying
about them, do you come up with solutions after endless sessions of worry? Or
does the problem just go around and round without structured problem solving.
The worrying makes you anxious so that the prefrontal cortex area is off line
and you can then not access rational, logical problem-solving thought.
2)
Can you think of successful, motivated people
who are not worriers? I want you to take a pen and paper and write down the
people, how active they are in getting things done and if they are successful.
Are you confusing worrying with caring, you can care that you get things done,
that the children are ok, that you are successful at your job/school, but you don’t
have to worry about it all the time. Does worry really improve your performance
in any aspect of life or does it make you unable to concentrate, tired, memory
problems.
3)
There must be things that you worried about
before hand and then they happened, did it lessen the pain or impact on you.
Where you protected from the sadness because you had worried about it. Worrying
increases the negative emotions in the here and now.
4) "Worry prevents negative outcomes" So if you reverse this and really really
wish you could win the lottery and think about winning the lottery all the
time, does that increase the probability of winning the lottery…NO
5)
Is there anything else you do that shows you are
caring and conscientious, think of other people you consider caring and
conscientious, that don’t worry. What are their positive attributes that make
them that way, are they similar to yours?
Think about the impact that excessive worry
has had on your relationships, such as partner, children, sibling relationships.
Do your teenagers believe you to be intrusive, or for young people, do your
friends say your worry is excessive and no fun.
Worrying is a passive stance, finding solutions is an active
stance. This blog is about unravelling positive beliefs about long standing
worry. You are not going to change those positive beliefs straight away. However,
you need to change your thinking and consider how much time has been spent
worrying about hypothetical things that didn’t happen. How uptight you have
felt and for how long.
It’s a bit like giving up drinking or smoking, you need to
think about how it damages you now, how it no longer serves you and then think
about all the time you could gain from not excessively worrying.
Print this out and stick it on your fridge. I will include the
original word document for easier printing.
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