Everyone is familiar with the song by Bob Marley, “Don’t worry be happy” one of the best to hum whenever you are disturbed. However, even those who are familiar do not seem to go deep into the words to understand the content.
Yes, one of the biggest obstacle to experience happiness is the tendency to worry. The other is, executing time management initiatives because of the inability to assign specific time for worrying. Worrying is one of the top time wasters, which ends up making people either sit idle and worry or carry their worries along with them in whatever activities they do, resulting in slowing down of the productivity. This leads to crumbling of the time plans and ends up in leaving it incomplete.
Breznitz (1971) described worry as some kind of ‘‘internal reality testing’’ that starts, when the individual experiences a threat concerning possible future events. Worrying can be intrusive, recurrent and most of the time, keeping a person preoccupied even when they are involved in other activities. Even though, no one takes worrying as a serious issue it is a prelude and part of anxiety and depression disorders.
Worrying is common to every human being. Everyone worries once in a while. It may be associated with anything including school, family, health, financial or interpersonal relationship, physical or social inadequacy. Sometimes, it may just be worrying about the tendency to worry.
Studies have shown that, nearly 38 percent of people worry every day. While 20% is anticipation about negative outcomes, more than 50% is about related to either the current problems they face or anticipated problems that may or may not arise.
If the worries exist for a few minutes it may not disrupt the functioning of the person in any way. However, as the time increases the impact is experienced without being noticed. Sometimes, it can become excessive, uncontrollable, and continuous, which can lead to discomfort, disrupting the day to day activities and often results in the loss of joy in life. Constant worrying can make a person inactive and prone to developing feelings of hopelessness and worthlessness.
Worry is a dysfunctional goalless, incessant thought process which usually happens in the subconscious state that does not lead to behavior associated with the thought process. Worrying, a cognitive process, is not anxiety, but worrying can be a part of anxiety. Worrying is a sub vocal conversation, an individual makes within himself mostly about anticipated assumed negative events or consequences. While stress, anxiety and even depression have a physical component of expression, normal worries are not manifested physically in any manner.
In contrast to stress and anxiety, worry does not inhibits the psycho physical responses in a person, making them dormant and unreactive, preventing them from taking measures to find solutions to the sources of their worries. People who worry, are lost in thought and develop the tendency to postpone external reality testing, leading to procrastination and delayed actions. Sometimes they even put their intended activities off to escape from the clutch of worrying. The only physical condition manifested in worries is the loss of sleep. While worries are intrusive in nature and uncontrollable, in many it is a mere habituated mental activity.
Why People Worry
Worrier get in to vicious cycle of worrying because they have poor problem-solving confidence, poor perceived personal control, have the tendency to take responsibility for negative but not positive outcomes, focus on defining events as threats and generally use avoidance or emotion-focused coping strategies.
Some even believe that worrying somehow helps to prevent bad things from happening and it mentally prepares them to face the negative outcome in a more effective manner. Some even believe that worrying about events which are rare helps then to manage or adapt to the situations easily.
Worriers often view problems as threatening. They doubt their ability to solve problems and distrust potential solutions. High-worriers have been found to be slow in decision making. They try to postpone the decision as much as possible because they need to be absolutely sure that they are doing the right thing. They try to act usually in the extremities of either finding a perfect solution or try to remain dormant. People who worry excessively have also been found to have elevated fear of failure and greater concern about being evaluated by others.
Resistance to change is one other characteristic that is usually seen in these people. They try to remain within their comfort zone to the extent possible and even a small change may mean stepping out of their comfort zone. Worriers are also seen to show a lot of concern regarding what opinion they create about themselves in others, how people judge them and allow themselves to be controlled by situational demands rather than working on a goal directed behavior.
They are also empathetic in nature which also results in they not just worrying about themselves but also about people and situations around which may not be congenial to others even if it does not have a direct impact on them. They also have the tendency to imagine extremities which also results in catastrophic thoughts.
Worry reactions
The typical strategies adopted by people who worry excessively are approach and avoidance. Approach strategies involve collecting excessive information, seeking reassurance, double-checking, and hyper vigilance and avoiding delegation. Avoidance strategies attempts to stop worry through procrastination, trying to evading uncertainties, avoiding worry provoking situations, and failing to commit to people or events.
Worry precipitates worry, creating a vicious cycle which only escalates as the person gives in to the habit of worrying. People who worry excessively do not stick to a single domain. It happens more like a chain reaction. If something triggers worry in one domain it automatically shifts to other domains which may or may not be relevant.
Irritability is the usual reaction that is seen in these people. Whenever their worrying episode is disrupted they tend to take it as an infringement in their privacy. They believe that other don’t understand their concerns. They feel embarrassed and guilty for even very small mistakes. They also involve in self criticism and sometimes project the victimization tendencies.
Studies have shown that worrying can be highly distracting, inhibiting the intellectual functioning of an individual.
The Encouraging factors
Goal focused Worrying can lead to adaptive problem-focused coping strategies and an information-seeking cognitive style. Worrying can sometimes be productive and instructive which help the person to initiate steps to solve the problems. Worrying can sometimes help in specific planning, identify coping pattern and provide reasons for taking preventive protective action. Worry can also act as an emotional buffer to a potential negative outcome which can lead to disappointment.
Worrying can help in finding innovative solutions to existing problems. Excessive worriers have been found to be reacting immediately to crisis situations. Worrying has been found to motivate people to take care of their health and engage in behaviors which are beneficial to their health. It has also been found to be helping people, to accept disappointments and failures thereby reducing the emotional distress associated with it. Worrying has also helps people in predicting the future outcome which can in turn reduce the anxiety associated with uncertainty.
Can you eliminate worry?
Eliminating worry from life completely is nearly impossible. Excessive worrying may also signify an anxiety or depressive disorder that is characterized by significant pathological worry about future events and fear. Striking the proper balance between worry and goal directed activities helps in keeping your worrying tendencies within the reasonable and effective limits. No matter how much you have worried in the past, it’s never too late to develop control. The key is, to learn how to identify the signs that indicate that your worrying habits are harming your functional abilities and well-being. Whenever you feel that your worrying tendencies have exceeded the limits then you should start focusing on developing a conscious control over the worrying tendencies.
Managing habituated worrying
Keep yourself occupied with productive goal oriented or relaxing activities, even if you continue to have worries running parallel in your mind. This gradually takes away your focus on worries and makes you feel confident to proceed with the things you intent to do. Focusing on the present the “Here and now approach” and mindfulness approach to everyday activities have been found to be effective.
The other simple effective approaches are postponing the worrying time, fix a specific time in a day to worry and also trying to list down your worries on a paper or note pad regularly, which can help in identifying the content of your worries which are repeated frequently there by devaluing it. Listing down the issues which are within your control and the ones that are out of your control, accepting what you cannot control and focus the worries on issues and situations under your control are also helpful. If you still find it difficult to manage your worrying habit, then meet a professional for assistance.
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