Can Worrying ever be a Useful Habit ?

A client once asked me if the anxiety he was experiencing and the worrying he was doing could ever serve a useful purpose. I told him that some worrying can indeed be helpful. We go over a problem by worrying a few times in our minds, and then the solution surfaces nicely in time – hopefully a short time. So there can be a benefit to the worrying we do, though this aspect can get lost in medical definitions and labels for anxiety. It gets treated as something to simply ignore or get rid of, as opposed to seeing its potential. Anxiety that’s ignored or suppressed though will certainly get amplified. 

When that happens and people start to feel overwhelmed, the worrying can get a firm grip. It turns into bad worrying. This is repetitive and cyclical as we go over the problem time and time again, often fearing the worst (as you might be doing for yourself), and then the solutions don’t surface either. That is what is most draining, and we know there are things we say to ourselves (in our thoughts and catastrophic thinking) that fuel the fear and anxiety. 

People can start to feel very young, and not in a good way. It can feel for them as if they’re regressing and needing the help of a healthier and more enlightened person. You can probably remember those moments as a distraught child looking for and then welcoming the caring embrace of a responsible and loving parent - as a way of taking all your worries away. 

We can experience this same sense of helplessness as an adult. Even in those moments, it’s likely that if a friend called on you urgently for some advice, you’d be able to draw from your inner well of wisdom to counsel and encourage them. You’d probably be effective too with some good words for a friend in that way. 

When feeling overwhelmed though, it can feel much more difficult to draw from your inner well of wisdom for your own needs. In our counselling together, I will offer you tools for taming the bad, cyclical worrying. I can also help you draw from the inner well of wisdom you already have but that has gotten shrouded in the mist of your fears. The opportunity is here to turn anxiety into a positive energy, bringing relief and hope into your life. 

I offer you the warm invite to give your concerns some healing air in counselling, and to take the chance to consider that anxiety isn’t something to simply manage, it’s something to harness and transform into creative solutions and hopeful emotions.