Worry Control

What is Worrying? Worrying is feeling uneasy or being overly concerned about a situation or problem. With excessive worrying, your mind and body go into overdrive as you constantly focus on “what might happen.”

5 things you have worried about within the last month Activity 5 things you have worried about within the last month Then reflect and ask the students to raise their hands if 1 or more of the things they have written down didn’t end in a disaster, 2 or more, 3, 4, and 5. Take a look around the room..

Recognizing Worry Irritatability Nightmares Confusion Insecurity

Chronic Worriers Chronically anxious about future dangers or threats Consistently make negative predictions about the future Overestimate the probability of bad things happening Can’t stop repeating the same worries over and over Escape worrying by avoiding certain situations Find it hard to use worry constructively to produce solutions to problems

“Just Stop Worrying”! People that say this don’t realize how the human mind works. “I’ll give you a thousand dollars if you can not think of a white bear for a full minute”

What is GAD?

Generalized Anxiety Disorder People Worry about “Worrying” They are aware their worrying is out of proportion Always suspect disaster Wonder why these thoughts are going through head, but can’t help it. Daily life becomes constant state or worry, dread, & fear GAD starts in late teens, early 20’s

Affects Your Body High Anxiety= Physically Ill Fatigue Fast Heartbeat Headaches Nausea Nervous energy Are you an excessive worrier? Perhaps you subconsciously think that if you “worry enough,” you can prevent bad things from happening. But the fact is worrying can affect your body in ways that may surprise you. When worrying becomes excessive, it can lead to feelings of high anxiety and even cause you to be physically ill. The fight or flight response causes the body’s sympathetic nervous system to release stress hormones such as cortisol.

Are there positives to worrying? Come up with 3-5 positive things with worrying

Positives for Worrying Worrying about a test may make you study more Worry can guide you to what's meaningful Sports & Focus Helps predict possible bad outcomes You can demonstrate care and love to others by showing signs of worry Excessive worry or ongoing fear or anxiety is harmful when it becomes so irrational that you can’t focus on reality or think clearly.

Lifestyle Changes Talk to your doctor: Make sure no other problems are fueling anxiety Exercise daily Eat a healthy diet Drink caffeine in moderation Be conscious of your fears & allow yourself time each day Having a strong social network Talk to your doctor to make sure other health problems are not fueling anxiety -Exercise daily. Regular aerobic and strengthening exercise is also a very effective way to train your body to deal with stress under controlled circumstances.  Have a strong social network. Loneliness may be as much a risk factor for disease as having high cholesterol or smoking cigarettes. People who are happily married and/or have large networks of friends not only have greater life expectancies compared with those people who do not, but they also have fewer incidences of just about all types of disease. 

4 Ways to Control Worrying Write down all positive outcomes Appreciate the good things from the day Don’t think about the next day when going to bed, just memories of that day Remind yourself of all the previous times the best action has occurred This process will slowly start to train your mind to look for different kinds of outcomes, the positive ones instead of the worst. This will reduce your worrying. Before you go to bed, take just a couple of minutes and think of 3-5 good things that happened to you that day and be appreciative of them. One thing I’ve read that traps a lot of worriers is that they think about or plan their next day before they go to bed. I can’t urge against this strongly enough. You don’t want to go to bed with your mind focused on foreseen problems of the next day Looking at all the time the event just worked out and there was no reason to worry in the first place helps to re-enforce good outcomes.

Tips for worrying #1: Create a worry period (Take time each day) #2: Is the problem solvable? Or out of your control? #3: Accept uncertainty #4: Challenge anxious thoughts #5: Be aware of how others affect you

Assessment 1. T/F Stress is related to worrying 2. T/F Most of our worries turn out as positive outcomes 3. What are THREE productive ways to deal with worrying? 4. What does GAD stand for?

Stress and the Body Epinephrine, also called adrenaline, is a hormone produced by the adrenal glands that gets secreted when the sympathetic nervous system is stimulated. It works to increase cardiac output and raise blood sugar levels.

Fight or Flight The fight-or-flight response is the body’s reaction to stress. Parasympathetic nervous system is a division of the autonomic nervous system that helps to bring the body back to a relaxed state by slowing heart and breathing rate. Sympathetic nervous system is a division of the autonomic nervous system that acts in opposition to the parasympathetic nervous system, increasing heart rate, breathing, and responding to stress via the fight-or-flight response. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4g25d7_Afmc