How To Stop Worrying

How to Stop Worrying
Self-Help Strategies for Anxiety Relief
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Worrying can be helpful when it spurs you to take action and solve a problem. But if you’re preoccupied with “what ifs” and worst-case scenarios, worry becomes a problem of its own.
Unrelenting doubts and fears are paralyzing, not motivating or productive. They sap your emotional energy, send your anxietylevels soaring, and interfere with your day-to-day life—all this with no positive payoff! The good news is that chronic worrying is a mental habit you can learn how to break. You can train your brain to stay calm and collected and to look at life from a more positive perspective.
In This Article:
* Why is it so hard to stop worrying?
* Create a worry period
* Ask yourself if theproblem is solvable
* Accept uncertainty
* Challenge anxious thoughts
* Practice mindfulness
* Be aware of how others affect you
* Related articles & resources
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Why is it so hard to stop worrying?
Why You Keep Worrying
You have mixed feelings about your worries. On one hand, your worries are bothering you - you can't sleep, and you can't getthese pessimistic thoughts out of your head. But there is a way that these worries make sense to you. For example, you think:
* Maybe I'll find a solution.
* I don't want to overlook anything.
* If I keep thinking a little longer, maybe I'll figure it out.
* I don't want to be surprised.
* I want to be responsible.
You have a hard time giving up on your worries because, ina sense, your worries have been working for you.
Source: The Worry Cure: Seven Steps to Stop Worry from Stopping You by Robert L. Leahy, Ph.D.
Constant worrying takes a heavy toll. It keeps you up at night and makes you tense and edgy during the day. You hate feeling like a nervous wreck. So why is it so difficult to stop worrying?
For most chronic worriers, the anxious thoughts are fueled bythe beliefs—both negative and positive—they hold about worrying.
On the negative side, you may believe that your constant worrying is harmful, that it’s going to drive you crazy or affect your physical health. Or you may worry that you’re going to lose all control over your worrying—that it will take over and never stop.
On the positive side, you may believe that your worrying helps you avoidbad things, prevents problems, prepares you for the worst, or leads to solutions.
Negative beliefs, or worrying about worrying, add to your anxiety and keep worry going. But positive beliefs about worrying can be just as damaging. It’s tough to break the worry habit if you believe that your worrying protects you. In order to stop worry and anxiety for good, you must give up your belief thatworrying serves a positive purpose. Once you realize that worrying is the problem, not the solution, you can regain control of your worried mind.
Worry and anxiety self-help tip #1: Create a worry period
It’s tough to be productive in your daily life when anxiety and worry are dominating your thoughts. But what can you do? If you’re like many chronic worriers, your anxious thoughts feeluncontrollable. You’ve tried lots of things, from distracting yourself, reasoning with your worries, and trying to think positive, but nothing seems to work.
Why trying to stop anxious thoughts doesn’t work
Telling yourself to stop worrying doesn’t work—at least not for long. You can distract yourself or suppress anxious thoughts for a moment, but you can’t banish them for good. In fact, trying to do sooften makes them stronger and more persistent.
You can test this out for yourself. Close your eyes and picture a pink elephant. Once you can see the pink elephant in your mind, stop thinking about it. Whatever you do, for the next five minutes, don’t think about pink elephants!
How did you do? Did thoughts of pink elephants keep popping in your brain?
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