Nagging Worries and Racing Thoughts – 4th and Final Part

There are lots of cognitive therapy techniques that are used to combat worries that just can’t be shaken, so I will only mention just a few more of them that are really very easy for most of us to use.

As we all know, anxiety and worry are all about the future. They are about things that have not yet happened and often never will and yet we torture ourselves with the possibilities as if they are certainties. A friend of mine says that he’s “a victim of a thousand disasters that never happened”. And that is precisely what we do to ourselves when we let worry go unchecked.

A very nice lady that I have been seeing for some time worries that the treatment she underwent has permanently damaged her brain because she has brief episodes of not being able to find the words she wants to use or may not be able to write the words in her mind on a piece of paper. These episodes occur once every few months, come on unexpectedly, and leave the same way. There is no doubt that what she fears is possible. But she is also in her 70’s, has lost a great deal of weight, has difficulty staying properly hydrated and taking in sufficient calories to fuel her activities, and takes some medication at bedtime that may be somewhat sedating.

The difficulties she is experiencing are real but “where’s the evidence?” that they are caused by permanent brain damage caused by her treatment. There are a few other possible explanations that may be more likely. Now think of one of your own nagging worries and ask yourself the same question. “Where’s the evidence?” for the conclusions that you have drawn or the awful consequences that you have imagined? Do you have any or is it simply a matter of what might be the case? When we look closely at most of the nagging worries that trouble us we often don’t have any real evidence for the terrible conclusions we’ve come to.

So, in the absence of evidence it’s the possibility of something terrible happening that is often at the heart of the worry. So, the disaster we imagine is possible, but is it likely? What is the probability of it occurring? Could a meteor slam into the earth and destroy us all? Yes, it’s possible, but what is the probability or the likelihood of something like this happening? The difference between possible and probable is very important and is worth doing a little research in order to find out just what the probability might be.

For the lady I spoke about in the previous paragraph, doing some research on her type of cancer, the chemotherapy drugs used, and the type and length of radiation treatments that she underwent in order to see if permanent cognitive changes are often reported could be very helpful. Knowing that such problems are rarely or never reported would allow her to shift her focus. Finding out that they are frequent side effects helps her understand what she’s experiencing and may motivate her to formulate action plans for managing her next episode.