I need to always have a concern

It is no mystery that life is full of challenges, situations that can make us face emotional ups and downs and that, due to the need to solve problems in what surrounds us, they add the need to know how to manage our emotions so as not to fall into a dynamic of self-sabotage.

Unfortunately, the latter is what often happens to people who always feel the need to prepare for the worst, even when there are no objective indications that something bad is going to happen to occure. “I need to always have a reason to worry”: This is a phrase that is heard a lot in psychotherapy consultations, and that helps to understand the mechanisms of fear and anxiety. Let's see what this phenomenon consists of and how to deal with it.

• Related article: "What is anxiety: how to recognize it and what to do"

What are worries?

concerns are thought patterns in which a person's attention is directed toward a significant problem, something that affects us. It is part of the adaptation strategies that allow us to manage abstract thoughts to anticipate problems and give them solutions, even creating complex plans that include complicated and very coordinated.

A concern is a thought that arises in the mind automatically, generating a feeling of discomfort in the subject who feels it. In this way, we see how its appearance does not depend on the will of the individual, thus being difficult to control. They can be considered normal or common responses to certain situations that can activate them, helping to stay alert and focused on the problem, as long as its presence does not affect the functionality of the subject.

And it is that concerns only make our attention remain fixed on those needs to be covered or problems to be managed; by themselves they do not provide us with a solution. And sometimes we experience worry as just that, a trap for our attention, an obstacle that prevents us from progressing.

Thus, worries can be functional, helping us to be alert to the events that can happen and that can put in an unpleasant situation, but they can also be pathological, affecting the functionality of the subject and generating discomfort. We believe that the concerns they are pathological when they are repeated too much and when the problem they pose to us is very unlikely (the chances of it happening are very low).

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anticipatory anxiety

Behind the tendency to always look to worry, there is often anticipatory anxiety. In such cases, the person already experiences a state of psychological agitation, which takes shape through somewhat arbitrary thoughts: discomfort is expressed by associating with each other the ideas available in the person's mind. That is why the feeling arises that even when what worried the person is refuted by reality, another concern quickly appears and takes over automatically.

Anticipatory anxiety consists of the presence of worries, negative thoughts about future events that are self-reinforcing. In other words, the person develops anxiety at the idea of ​​being in an anxiety-producing situation, which makes this experience more and more consolidated. It is common for individuals who present this type of anxiety to show discomfort before the uncertainty, rumination of negative thoughts and the use of anxiety as an "excuse" not to move on to the action.

Some of the experiences linked to anticipatory anxiety are:

• Headaches
• Tendency to eat without being hungry
• Repetitive movements made on the skin: scratching, pulling the hair, etc.
• Feeling that it is hard to breathe
• increased heart rate
• sweating
• In very severe cases, nausea

Although anticipatory anxiety is not a diagnostic category, it does show up in different disorders, especially those linked to anxiety. For this reason, and with the intention of improving the subject's life, techniques are used in psychotherapy to mitigate it.

In this way, individuals with this type of anxiety cannot avoid thinking that something bad will happen, that is, they cannot stop worrying about future events. They appear like this pathological worries that reverberate in the subject, who cannot control them and feels the continuous need to worry. Therefore, to overcome this malaise, it is necessary to break the vicious circle of anticipatory anxiety in its most dysfunctional form.

• Related article: "Anticipatory Anxiety: Causes, Symptoms, and Therapy"

How to deal with anticipatory anxiety

Anticipatory anxiety, although not considered a disorder in itself, is annoying and produces discomfort in the subject who suffers from it. For this reason, there are different techniques to try to control it or reduce the effects it generates. As in any other mental alteration, if we are overwhelmed by the situation and it overcomes us, the The best option is to go to a professional to help us deal with the problem and improve our quality of life. lifetime.

Below we will mention some strategies that can be useful to reduce the discomfort that anticipatory anxiety entails.

1. Relaxation

Relaxation techniques, such as diaphragmatic breathing, they can help both to reduce tension and bodily, physical discomfort, as well as to reduce or control worries. If the subject is relaxed, he will be able to reduce anxiety, as well as the continuous and repeated thought of the possibility of the appearance of negative events.

• You may be interested: "6 easy relaxation techniques to combat stress"

2. Check the concern

One of the most effective strategies is to try to refute concerns. As we said at the beginning, in most cases pathological concerns are associated with a low probability of occurrence. For this reason, if we seek information about how likely it is that our concern will be fulfilled, it will be a direct way to confront negative thinking and reduce the discomfort it causes us.

3. Mindfulness

Mindfulness or full awareness also achieves good results. The technique consists of focusing attention on the present, living in the here and now, without judging the thoughts that come to us. Thus, we see how these strategies can help reduce attention to events or possible events in the future and focus on the present.

• Related article: "What is Mindfulness? The 7 answers to your questions

4. coping with uncertainty

Another notable characteristic of subjects with pathological or anticipatory concerns is the discomfort caused by uncertainty and not being able to know what will happen. The best way to reduce the fear of this lack of knowledge of the future is face it, little by little, and resist the discomfort. We will try to be more flexible, to act without having everything planned, starting with less important to progressively accept not being able to know everything that will happen, tolerating the uncertainty.

5. Distract yourself with other stimulating activities

To reduce negative thoughts or worries we should not try to block its appearance, since in this way we will only be able to increase the influence of worries. It is much more effective to try to distract and change the focus of our attention; that is, if we stay focused on a task, activity, any stimulus other than our worries, it is much easier for them to diminish.