Worry

Worrying means spending a lot of time thinking about negative possibilities. A certain amount of worrying is a healthy response to life, it can help to guide or motivate. Sometimes anxiety can become overwhelming and unhealthy making us too anxious to be able to act in a useful and rational way.

Symptoms of worry

People who over-worry often:

• Find it difficult to concentrate
• Feel helpless and unable to cope
• Lose confidence
• Experience disturbed sleep and eating patterns
• Develop obsessive behaviours
• Get headaches, stomach upsets (‘butterflies’)
• Feel emotionally drained

Help with worry

Breaking the cycle of worry is important. By keeping a record of your worries and recognising how you behave physically when you have anxiety (you may notice that tense your jaw or bite your nails or eat) and emotionally (you may stop relating to people or feel worthless).

Noticing yourself and what you do in response to worrying is the one of the first steps that you can take. You can begin to take control over your worries and anxiety. Relaxation exercises can help manage the feelins of anxiety when worrying. It may be useful to share worries with a friend (who does not worry and is more relaxed in life) who can help you to define your thoughts. It is very important to do reality checks (how likely is that to happen, in reality?) and encourage your thinking to move from negative to positive.

Often worrying is a learned or family habit ("I'm just like my mum or dad"), and is a way of being, so it can be helpful to work out when you first started worrying and or who taught you to worry. When you have done this you can learn something new about yourself and move away from the cycle of worry and anxiety.

The sad reality is that worrying can be time consuming and tiring - worrying does not solve problems, so if you would like to stop worrying it is worth using the following list to help you move forward through worrying into action:

• EXISTENCE OF A PROBLEM OR SITUATION- there is actually a problem to be resolved.
• SIGNIFICANCE OF THE PROBLEM OR SITUATION - the significance of the problem is understood.
• CHANGE POSSIBILITIES TO RESOLVE THE PROBLEM OR SITUATION - something can be done in response to the problem.
• PERSONAL ABILITY TO CREATE CHANGE TO RESOLVE THE PROBLEM OR SITUATION - you can do something different to solve the problem.

Counselling and psychotherapy

Counselling and psychotherapy can help to reduce the symptoms of anxiety.