Chronic worrying stems from a craving for control. But the more we fret, the less our bodies are able to cope with stress.
Key Concepts
Worrying about the future is a natural tendency, but for some people it is a constant, unwelcome state of mind. These chronic worriers crave a sense of control they can never seem to find.
Spending too much time fretting actually undermines the body’s ability to react to stress, weakening the cardiovascular system and disrupting normal emotional functioning.
When overworrying seriously threatens a person’s health and happiness, drugs or psychotherapy can help.
The young girl wanted to unburden herself about her problem. She told her doctor that she worried excessively and that she felt overwhelmed by these thoughts. One memory that she described to Douglas Mennin, director of the Yale Anxiety and Mood Services at Yale University, was particularly telling. Her grandmother had shared intense feelings about the recent passing of a good friend. As the young girl listened, her mind wandered to thoughts of her grandmother dying. The worry soon spiraled into concerns about the girl’s own death. She became so disturbed, she cut short her visit to her grandmother and ran home.
Psychologists believe that worry, defined as a person’s negative thoughts about a future event, evolved as a constructive problem-solving behavior. But excessive fretting—as happened with the girl—does more harm than good. Chronic worriers operate under the misperception that their overthinking and attempts at controlling every situation allow them to problem-solve and plan for the future. Instead their thought pattern hinders cognitive processing and also causes overstimulation of emotion- and fear-processing areas in the brain. The hypervigilance that is the result can lead to cardiovascular problems, ultimately rendering the body unable to cope properly with stress.
An improved understanding of how excessive worry (the thought-driven aspect), which is linked with anxiety (the emotional element), affects our mental and physical functions can help us cope with this often self-induced foible.
Craving Control
Worry began to draw the attention of researchers about 25 years ago, when they started to fine-tune their understanding of the spectrum of anxiety-related pathologies. In the early 1980s psychologist Thomas Borkovec of Pennsylvania State University, a pioneer in this field, became interested in the trait while investigating sleep disorders. He found that intrusive cognitive activity at bedtime—worrying—was a factor in insomnia. -see full article at Sci Am
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I took a personality test at Ipersonic and this was the result:
Independent Thinkers are analytical and witty persons. They are normally self-confident and do not let themselves get worked up by conflicts and criticism. They are very much aware of their own strengths and have no doubts about their abilities. People of this personality type are often very successful in their career as they have both competence and purposefulness. Independent Thinkers are excellent strategists; logic, systematics and theoretical considerations are their world. They are eager for knowledge and always endeavour to expand and perfect their knowledge in any area which is interesting for them. Abstract thinking comes naturally to them; scientists and computer specialists are often of this type.
Independent Thinkers are specialists in their area. The development of their ideas and visions is important to them; they love being as flexible as possible and, ideally, of being able to work alone because they often find it a strain having to make their complex trains of thought understandable to other people. Independent Thinkers cannot stand routine. Once they consider an idea to be good it is difficult to make them give it up; they pursue the implementation of that idea obstinately and persistently, also in the face of external opposition.
Independent Thinkers are not the type who easily comes out of his shell. Speaking about their emotional life is also not one of their strong points. Anyway, social relationships are not particularly important to them; they are happy with just a few, close friends who find it easy to share their intellectual world. They find it difficult to establish new ties. In love, they need a lot of space and independence but this does not mean that their partner is not important to them. Independent Thinkers often make a cool and reserved impression on others; but this impression is deceptive: they can hardly bear it if people close to them should reject them. They prefer a harmonious, balanced relationship with a partner who shares their interests and with whom they can realise their visions.
Adjectives which describe your type
introverted, theoretical, logical, planning, rational, independent, intellectual, self-confident, analytical, structured, dogged, witty, resolute, self-critical, visionary, inventive, independent, unsociable, reserved, nonconformist, quiet, visionary, honest, demanding, hardworking.
Good post and info – thanks!
Hi Pam.
What a nice surprise! Welcome and you’re always welcome to submit your pieces here.
I’ll be waiting for that. Thanks Pam
Hi Victoria,
I read your article ‘Why We Worry’ in Scientific American Mind (Behavior – Brain Science – Insights) Nov/Dec 2009 and loved it, so I tweeted it on Twitter, for others to read. Hope you have a happy, healthy and succesful 2010! @VictoriaKizito
Hi Victoria.
Thank you for mentioning your message to Ms. Stern here at WPWG even though
you didn’t have to. Happy Holidays to you all there!