Thanks for this good post on worry, @merpreb. I agree especially with the comment about needing to determine worry is destructive. That's essentially what my husband kindly impresses on me when I worry: that it's non-productive and not helpful.

The cognitive behavioral therapy process I learned is essentially what is outlined in the steps here: https://www.mayoclinic.org/tests-procedures/cognitive-behavioral-therapy/about/pac-20384610.

Journaling your repetitive thoughts for a couple of days or a week is pretty instructive, I've found. The patterns tell you a lot. Countering I've done is essentially looking at how realistic or accurate my thoughts are. Often, if quite worried or nervous, I am looking at the worst case, most doomsday scenario exclusively or almost so. Then I need to question the reality or chance the thing I was worrying about might actually happen.

In my scenario where I thought I might be in for a $2000 hardwood floor refinishing job since we had a lot of water in a 12x12-inch puddle that had sat on our bedroom floor for a number of hours from a humidifier gone wrong, I'd ask myself what the percentage chance the floor might be ruined and need a refinishing job would realistically be. 40 percent? I'd then reframe my thoughts and whenever I thought about my floor, I'd remind myself to think about that there is a 60 percent chance our floor will be fine and dry up without ruining the floor.

Jump to this post