Worrying Well: the positive side of worrying

In this Article (Index)

• Anxiety and Evolution
• Embrace Normal Anxiety
• The Positive Side of Worrying: skills to manage it
• Worrying is Futile

Anxiety and Evolution

Anxiety, like fear, is an emotion that has been with us humans for hundreds of thousands of years. They have survived because they provide selective advantages. Fear protects us against immediate, present dangers and anxiety, against possible, potential future dangers. (1)

This "normal" anxiety protects you and is a normal response to perceived future threats. Feeling anxious causes your brain cells to release dopamine, a so-called "feel good" neurochemical that stimulates you and motivates you to pursue rewards. In the case of anxiety, its goal is to prompt you to take action and change the ominous future that you are expecting.

Embrace normal anxiety

There is an enormous variability in the way that anxiety and worries affect different people. We all know someone who is a constant worrier and is "tightly wound," and others who have a remarkable ability to "go with the flow" without displaying any worries whatsoever.

The healthy attitude is to recognize the signs of worries, accept that they play a protective role in our lives, and instead of burying them and pretending they aren't there, face them and adopt a proactive course of action.

Everyone feels anxious and worried from time to time, but our society frowns upon us expressing our true selves if this involves displaying negative feelings. Societal expectations can worsen worries; you are expected to live in a constant state of satisfaction and happiness, and everyone wants to see you calm, centered, and worry-free.
Conforming to these expectations and denying our true selves creates inner conflict.
Although most of us go through periods of anxiety without falling into depression, some people go on to develop intense, frequent, and excessive worrying, known as anxiety disorders.

Anxiety disorders include specific phobias, panic disorder, and social anxiety. They impair normal functioning and require treatment either with cognitive behavioral therapy and/or medication.

An estimated 4% of the global population currently experience an anxiety disorder. In 2019, 301 million people in the world had an anxiety disorder, making anxiety disorders the most common of all mental disorders World Health Organization, Anxiety disorders. Sept. 27, 2023

The Positive Side of Worrying: Skills to Manage It

Anxiety is an evolutionary tool designed to help us prepare for an uncertain future. We should learn how to harness this potent emotion and use it to solve the problems that triggered it.

• Take Control
• Exercise
• Meditation, Relaxation, and Mindfulness
• What Ifs Lists
• Humor
• Social support
• Build Resilience
• Optimism
• Positive reappraisal
• Active Coping
• Get Outdoors and Avoid Coffee

Worrying is Futile

As a cancer patient, I have learned that worrying is pointless. A waste of time and energy. I will share one of my favorite quotes about worrying. It puts things into perspective:

If it is fixable, then there is no need to worry. If not, there is no benefit to worrying. Dalai Lama: A Policy of Kindness.

This quote appears in the 1997 movie "Seven Years in Tibet." Austrian mountaineer Heinrich Harrer is talking with the Dalai Lama and expresses his concern about the Dalai Lama's safety at his enthronement ceremony. The Dalai Lama replies: "We have a saying in Tibet: If a problem can be solved there is no use worrying about it. If it can’t be solved, worrying will do no good."

This quote originated in a book written by Sāntideva, an Indian Buddhist monk, philosopher, and scholar (c.685-c.763). The Bodicharyavatara Chap. 6:10 states "If there is a solution, then what is the point of dejection? What is the point of dejection if there is no solution?"

The Christian Bible has a similar text in "Can any one of you by worrying add a single hour to your life?" (Matthew 6:27) New International Version.

My second favorite quote about money is a true saying: "Any problem that money can solve is not a problem." But, I haven't been able to confirm who is the author of this phrase.

All of these quotes share the common view that worrying for the sake of worrying is worthless. If something must be done, go ahead and do it, but don't worry.

Take Control

Step one is to let your worries express themselves, don't avoid them, and don't silence them. It is their negative side that exerts the protective effect. The uncomfortable feelings caused by anxiety will lead you towards a solution.

Step two is to feel the anxiety and learn from it. Take a grip on the situation and keep it from getting out of hand. There are many ways to do this. Below is a summary of these techniques.

Exercise

Physical activity is an effective way to defeat depression and negative mood symptoms. It helps you feel more positive and improve your emotions. (2),(3).

Meditation, Relaxation, and Mindfulness

Many people use meditation to counteract stress and its nasty side effects. Manzoni et al. (2008) (4) reported that meditation had a higher "efficacy" in treating anxiety when compared to mere relaxation techniques. Meditation by itself or combined with cognitive therapy as is the case of Mindfulness-Based Cognitive Therapy (MBCT) during an "8-week course for patients with recurrent depression or recurrent depression and anxiety, [resulted in] a great average reduction of anxiety, as well as depression."

Meditation can handle anxiety, and negative feelings as well as medication without the toxic side-effects of drugs.

What Ifs Lists

Whenever possible, try to set down your worries in writing. Prepare a to-do list. This technique echoes Expressive Writing, and Journaling, the act of sharing in writing (in this case with yourself) traumatic facts; they have been proven to be effective in reducing anxiety and stress. (5)
Writing these lists is helpful because it allows you to gain insight into what is happening to you and find a way out. For instance ask yourself "If X happens, what can I do?" and when you answer "Well, I could do Y" you begin to clarify your thoughts and calm anxiety. It is very effective for highly expressive people, though it may be counterproductive for those who do not typically express emotions.

Humor

Several studies have found a link between humor, optimism, depression, and anxiety. Positive humor is positively associated with optimism and negative or self-defeating humor has the opposite effect. This means that humor and an optimistic outlook (a positive view of future events) can protect against anxiety and depression. (63)

Humor is a form of active coping that builds resilience and helps release tension; it also promotes social support. (8)

Social support

Humor can also help reduce social distance and improve interpersonal relations. Oxytocin, also known as the "love hormone" is released during laughter and it boosts both laughing and smiling, promoting a favorable interpersonal environment. Positive social support has a calming effect and reduces anxiety, promoting a feeling of resilience. (7)

Feeling compassion (for others and also for yourself) is another way of social interaction that reduces stress.

Build Resilience

Adapting successfully to stress and anxiety requires resilience. It will help you defeat the negative effects of worry-causing challenges.

There are many ways to build resilience. Below are some of them. (8)

Optimism

Being positive protects you from stress, it helps you feel less hopeless and helpless in the face of adversity. Optimists take a hands-on approach to facing difficulties and don't use avoidance as a way to cope with worries.

Positive reappraisal

Check your negative thoughts and replace them with positive ones. This is also called cognitive reframing, or cognitive reappraisal. It helps you change the way you view events and situations giving them a more positive perspective. Instead of worrying about the possibility of being fired from your job, consider the doors it can open for you, pursuing a new career path or exploring a new field.

Active Coping

This is the opposite of avoidant coping behaviors like alcohol and substance use, emotional withdrawal, denial, procrastination, passive-aggressiveness, and rumination. Instead, active coping is taking steps to solve or remove the problem that is worrying you. If it can't be removed, then act to diminish its negative impact.

It involves solving problems, seeking information, being aware of your feelings, focusing on things you can control, and working actively to solve them.
Active coping means dedicating time to things that are meaningful to you.

It prompts you to plan, imagine, and evaluate courses of action and hypothetical scenarios in your mind, and find a way out.

Get Outdoors and Avoid Coffee

A meta-analysis of 14 studies involving 546 subjects found that "low-dose caffeine intake moderately increased the risk of anxiety, whereas high-dose caffeine intake had a highly significant increase in the risk of anxiety. The results confirm that caffeine intake is associated with an elevated risk of anxiety in healthy individuals without psychiatric disorders, especially when the intake dose is greater than 400 mg." (9)

Regarding the outdoors, being exposed to natural environments, even if they are virtual reality simulations can improve mental health, and "hundreds of observational and experimental studies show that nature exposure can decrease symptoms of anxiety and depression." (10)