Mental health, emotional wellbeing & personal development
Photo by Giorgio Montersino Making worry work for you Worry is a persistent and uncontrollable chain of thinking that mainly focuses on the uncertainty of some future negative or threatening outcome. During this thinking process a person rehearses various problem-solving solutions but fails to reduce…
The main causes of anxiety Avoidance As long as you avoid your fears, they will continue to exist as they go left unchallenged. There is no reality testing going on and the threat remains. When you avoid situations that cause you anxiety, you will be…
The cycle of anxiety We all worry about things that threaten us but often we overestimate the threat and fear it more than we need to. When we feel the fear, we assume we won’t be able to cope with the threat. Many times…
How to challenge worry Worrying is a waste of time- it expends mental energy but doesn’t solve anything. Solution focused worry is the best type of worry but most worry is made up of random ‘nonsense’ thoughts that destroy the current moment by sucking…
Do you have Generalised Anxiety Disorder? (GAD) Therapists are trained to spot people with Generalised Anxiety Disorder and one of the easiest ways to detect GAD is to look at whether a person worries about a particular situation or whether they tend to worry…
Generalised Anxiety Disorder (GAD) Generalised Anxiety Disorder (GAD for short) is a common anxiety disorder where a person worries excessively in most situations. Their fear or anxiety is not limited to one specfic situation but is generalized to many different types of situations. GAD often…
How to cope with anxiety Tension and anxiety are very common problems. The symptoms of anxiety are basically the same as fear although anxiety often has a less clear reason behind it. When you are in real danger you can usually do something…
Why you need to stop worrying Worry seems to be an inherent part of life. When I worked at the probation service, we had a questionnaire that every new client had to complete. One of the questions was “I worry too much” and I…
Self pity and wallowing Self pity is a normal human reaction to negative events and disappointment in life. In fact, I think it is unhealthy not to allow ourselves a little self pity and sympathy at times. Putting a time limit on self pity…
What to do when you’re worrying too much 1) Remind yourself that it won’t last forever Change is inevitable and the wheel of life trundles on. Use this to your advantage when life feels miserable – things will change, new chapters will emerge. 2) Try…
Strategies to manage worrying unnecessarily We all do it far too much for our own good but it is a habit that we can manage. The questions and exercises below are a fantastic effective way to put manage worrying and put you back in the…
5 Things You Could Stop Worrying About I like to think of worrying as unnecessary mental torture. We experience something like 50 000 thoughts per day (some estimate the figure as much higher – around 80 000 thoughts per day) and up to 80% of…