OBSESSIVE WORRY
Why Worry? Worry is an anxious preoccupation with an anticipated negative event. Over the course of evolution, worry helped us adapt by directing awareness to true problems that once identified can be effectively addressed. In this way worry is effective in managing challenges of your everyday life.
Unhealthy Worry For some people, this process breaks down. Their minds become trapped in a endless process of “figuring it out.” They are plagued by thoughts and images of disastrous outcomes that in reality may never come to be. Worriers are particularly challenged by problems that have no clear solution. Instead of accepting and managing these difficult realities, they are viewed as evidence of the futility of even trying to work things out.
Obsessive Thinking Unhealthy worry is part of a broader problem called obsessive thinking. Obsessive thinking is an inability to gain control over recurrent, distressing thoughts, images. These thoughts and images are embedded in a complex network of feelings, sensations, and at times, behavioral rituals and routines. Brain imaging studies indicate that obsessive thinking is associated with a neurological dysfunction of unknown cause that forces thoughts into repetitive loops. Obsessive thinking is like a hamster wheel in your brain, with a parade of different animals entering and exiting over time.
Rumination Obsessive worry is focused on future outcomes. Rumination, another form of obsessive thinking, is the uncontrollable preoccupation with the past. Rumination is experienced as guilt, regret and anger, over perceived mistakes, losses, slights, actions taken or not taken, opportunities forever lost, with irreversible, catastrophic results. Rumination is accompanied by condemning, all-or-none criticism, and the overwhelming belief that if things had been different then existing and future misery could be avoided.
The Damage Done Obsessive thinking intensifies and prolongs distressing emotions. For example, worry reinforces anxious feelings – you literally scare yourself – which, in turn, only leads to more worry. The process can extend into anxious periods lasting hours, days or weeks, at times “spiraling” into panic attacks and emotional “spikes” of anger, guilt and shame. Obsessive thinking limits effective problem solving, and promotes procrastination, avoidance and withdrawal, only resulting in further problems. Obsessive thinking plays a prominent role mood disorders, including dysthymia, major depression, bipolar disorder, and is the defining symptom of Generalized Anxiety Disorder (GAD), Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder (OCD), Panic Disorder, and many other psychological conditions.
Attempts to Control Obsessive Thinking “Stopping” the Thoughts Obsessive thinking is difficult if not impossible to control. If you are prone to obsessive brain patterns, you’ve likely tried forcing the unwanted thoughts out of your mind. Despite its intuitive appeal, evidence shows that this strategy rarely works. In fact, research shows that attempts to “force away” obsessive thoughts may only intensify obsessive thinking.
Rituals Temporarily “Soothing”, “neutralizing” cognitive-behavioral routines often develop as natural attempt to control onslaught obsessive thinking. Research shows that such routines, or “rituals”, only serve to reinforce obsessive thinking.