Worried? It\u2019s no wonder. Watching TV, reading the paper, surfing the web and talking with friends, every day we\u2019re inundated with tens of thousands of situations that call for a reaction. Sometimes stressing out\u2014over, say, rising gas prices or your parents\u2019 health\u2014seems warranted. But sometimes it can get in the way, like it did with me last year.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe all get anxious from time to time,\u201d says Bromwyn Helene, Ph.D., a psychologist in private practice in upstate New York. That\u2019s fine, even useful. But for some people, stress can spiral out of control. Each year, 19 million Americans ages 18 to 54 experience a diagnosed form of anxiety, according to the National Institutes of Mental Health. And some of us just worry far too much. Simply put, worry is negative thinking.<\/p>\n
You may recognize the symptoms. You can\u2019t relax or even sleep. Anxious feelings can linger long after the event that triggered them. Do you worry too much? \u201cThe division is between whether you\u2019re able to function or the anxiety is interfering with your life,\u201d Helene says.<\/p>\n
I know if I had been reading this a few months ago, I\u2019d have started worrying, This sounds like me. I\u2019m doomed!<\/em> Don\u2019t go that route yourself. Read on and you\u2019ll find there\u2019s plenty you can do to put worry in its place.<\/p>\n Anxiety never kept me from doing what I wanted to do. But I knew I was in trouble last year when I realized I was too worried to actually enjoy what I was doing. At work, that made sense. I didn\u2019t love my job. On weekends, though? Stress seemed to spring from nowhere. What if I\u2019m too nervous to have a good time?<\/em> I\u2019d fret before dinner out with friends. It got to the point where I would worry about being too worried!<\/p>\n My gloomy predictions came true once or twice, and I took that as proof things would only get worse. My negative thinking was a big part of the problem, but I couldn\u2019t figure out how to stop. Over and over, I retraced my steps: At what point had worry taken over my thinking?<\/p>\n But sometimes it\u2019s impossible to find the source of your anxiety, according to Helene. You might even make connections that aren\u2019t really there to try and solve the mystery. (Hmm\u2026kind of like the way I kept worrying my new, happy marriage was in trouble, though there was no evidence other than the fact that my anxious feelings reminded me of my first marriage, which ended in divorce.) \u201cIf you can find the source, good,\u201d Helene says. \u201cIf you can\u2019t, it\u2019s helpful to talk about some strategies for coping with and reducing your anxiety.\u201d<\/p>\n I\u2019d lived with worry all my life. Did I study hard enough for this exam? Will my car make it through another winter? Do I have enough money to pay the cashier at the grocery?<\/em> I made a decision: I was tired of letting my anxiety run the show. I would do whatever it took (for the rest of my life, if necessary) to feel good again.<\/p>\n It turns out I was onto something. Stress affects different people in different ways. Some people get migraines and backaches; others tend toward worry. If you\u2019re one of them, you need to be aware of that tendency at all times, so you can recognize and handle the anxiety when it strikes again. And you have to have faith that a power greater than yourself is in charge and wants the best for you. Too much worry means I\u2019m not trusting enough in that higher power.<\/p>\n Helene told me some anxiety-reducing strategies that have worked for her patients. I also did some research on my own. There\u2019s an added benefit to developing healthy mental habits. Each time you overcome worry and succeed in doing what you want in life, your confidence grows. You realize you can do it. And, as I\u2019ve learned, really enjoy<\/em> it, too!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Worried? It\u2019s no wonder. Watching TV, reading the paper, surfing the web and talking with friends, every day we\u2019re inundated with tens of thousands of situations that call for a reaction. Sometimes stressing out\u2014over, say, rising gas prices or your parents\u2019 health\u2014seems warranted. But sometimes it can get in the way, like it did with […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":29307,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"ep_exclude_from_search":false,"footnotes":"","_wpscppro_dont_share_socialmedia":false,"_wpscppro_custom_social_share_image":0,"_facebook_share_type":"","_twitter_share_type":"","_linkedin_share_type":"","_pinterest_share_type":"","_linkedin_share_type_page":"","_instagram_share_type":"","_medium_share_type":"","_threads_share_type":"","_google_business_share_type":"","_bluesky_share_type":"","_selected_social_profile":[],"_wpsp_enable_custom_social_template":false,"_wpsp_social_scheduling":{"enabled":false,"datetime":null,"platforms":[],"status":"template_only","dateOption":"today","timeOption":"now","customDays":"","customHours":"","customDate":"","customTime":"","schedulingType":"absolute"},"_wpsp_active_default_template":true},"categories":[339],"tags":[],"ppma_author":[1151],"class_list":["post-21303","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-positive-thinking"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\n