Worrying thoughts drive the vicious circle of anxiety.
With every worrying thought, anxiety increases a little more.
People with anxiety problems tend to worry.
Sometimes their worrying thoughts are directed inwards - about possible physical or mental illness.
At other times, the worry is directed outwards - about possible unpleasant events happening to you or others, such as fears of particular objects or situations, financial difficulties and so on.
Although the subject of worry varies, all worries make anxiety worst.
How worry worsens anxiety When faced with a threat, we asked inwardly; "Is this dangerous and where is safety?" This reaction is a normal part of the flight or fight response that protects us from danger.
When these thoughts occur as part of a true alarm, there is no problem.
When worrying thoughts occur as part of a false alarm, the result is quite different.
When there is no danger, you find yourself in the vicious circle of anxiety.
The more you worry, the more anxious you become.
The more anxious you become, the more you worry.
Many people do things to cope with worry.
Stop worry by thinking straight If worry makes anxiety worse, the solution is to think straight and solve any problem as they come.
Although easier said than done, but this is possible.
If you try to challenge worrying thoughts when you are anxious your mind will jump from worry to worry and you will not be able to think straight.
So you should try to practice thinking straight through worry when you are calm.
This will help you to jump out of the vicious cycle and stop anxiety rising.
Let look at an example of how to do this.
Andy worried that his chest pain would eventually cause a heart attack and he would die.
He found it more helpful to reason that his doctor has checked him and all his medical tests have shown that his heart is in good health.
His chest pain is because his body needs more rest after three days of working late into the night to complete a rush job at the office.
The more he worry about his chest pain, the more stress is placed on the heart.
If he starts believing his heart is in excellent shape, his chest pain will eventually goes away.
Andy's first strategy in challenging worry was to ask himself a question, 1.
What is the evidence for what I thought? He found there was no evidence that he was going to have a heart attack.
But there was evidence he was anxious.
Andy used a second strategy, which was to ask himself another question.
2.
What is the effect of thinking the way I do? Andy wanted his chest pain to go away, so he asked himself if his worrying helped him to achieve this.
He decided it did not.
Andy chosen a last strategy as an alternative to his way of thinking 3.
What alternatives are there to what I thought? As an alternative to his way of thinking, Andy realized his chest pain was anxiety made worse by over stressing his muscles.
This realization helped him to stop his anxiety spiraling into panic.
The three strategies for challenging worrying thoughts and thinking straight involve asking yourself the 3 questions above and it will help you with the answers.