Worries about worry

Worrying

Not only people with a generalized anxiety disorder worry about worry. You are in trouble, when you get into a conflictual relationship with your own thoughts.

Worries about worry

When I look back on all these worries, I remember the story of the old man who said on his deathbed that he had a lot of trouble in his life, most of which had never happened.

Winston Churchill

Especially people with a generalized anxiety disorder worry about worry. They get into a conflictual relationship with their own thoughts. People with a generalized anxiety disorder want to make very sure that their bad thoughts will never become reality. They want to eliminate all doubt.

But since it’s impossible to prove, beyond a shadow of a doubt, that something could never happen, this opens the door to worry without end. So they spend a lot of time trying to adjust their thoughts. They don’t want to have any negative thoughts, and if they have any, they want to be able to prove to themselves that they can’t possibly happen. They spend so much time and effort trying to get their thoughts cleaned up and arranged the way they want, that they spend less of their time and energy out in the real world. When we worry, the use of energy is consistently higher than normal in the brain (orbital cortex). It is working overtime and heating up.

Constant worrying takes a heavy toll. It keeps us up at night and makes us tense and edgy during the day. The problem with thought stopping and distraction is, in general, that if you tell yourself not to think about your worries, you’ll probably realize even more of them.

Telling yourself to stop worrying doesn’t work or at least not for long. You can distract yourself or suppress anxious thoughts for a moment, but you can’t banish them for good. In fact, trying to do so often makes them stronger and more persistent. The more you try to suppress a thought, the more it tends to return. While objects won’t return when you dispose of them, thoughts will.

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These pages are intended to provide information for those interested in psychotherapy using hypnotherapy. It is not intended to replace psychotherapy or personal consultation, examination or diagnosis by a licensed medical practitioner. I am not a medical doctor. I specialize in helping people with anxiety and anxiety disorders. The profession of a hypnotherapist (official license to practice psychotherapy according to the HPG) is fundamentally different from that of a medical doctor. Medical diagnoses are not made, nor are promises of healing made or medication prescribed. Hypnotherapy is not a substitute for medical or psychiatric intervention where this is required.

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Published: March 12, 2007
Author: Karsten Noack
Revision: August 15, 2023
Translation: May 26, 2008
German version: 
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AN: #34300