The worry cure

The worry cure

Sunday, August 2, 2009Last updated 6:13 p.m. PT

By SUSAN CRANDELL
GOOD HOUSEKEEPING

Excerpts:

I am a habitual worrywart. If I don't have something substantial to stew about, I'll inflate a minor issue - like an anxiety blowup doll. I can lie awake for hours ruminating about what results I'll get from a critical medical test, but I can also spin my mental wheels fretting that I bought the wrong size lasagna pan. And at 3 A.M., such disparate causes mysteriously provoke equivalent agonies.


For starters, it's important to understand that although worry may make you feel anxious and overwrought, it's not actually a feeling at all. Rather it's a thought process in which you focus on a problem, either real or perceived. Chronic worry, the type I specialize in, leaves your mind revisiting the same issues over and over, with no solution in sight and no exit ramp. "Toxic worry" is what Edward M. Hallowell, M.D., author of Worry, has dubbed it, or "the infinite web of 'what if.'"

Accept uncertainty
Act unconcerned
Focus on the day-to-day
Don't catastrophize worry
Practice problem solving
Work out your worry
Busy your brain
Spend time with a friend

Read full article: http://www.seattlepi.com/health/408615_goodhouse471013.html


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This posting was made my Jim Jacobs, President & CEO of Jacobs Executive Advisors. Jim also serves as Leader of Jacobs Advisors' Insurance Practice.