Anxiety
Anxiety is an uncomfortable emotional and physical response generated by worry, intrusive thoughts, overthinking and too much attention on negative thoughts and feelings. Unlike fear, which is the body’s appropriate and useful signal indicating a clearly identifiable and specific threat right now, anxiety is often an unproductive, prolonged state focused on ambiguous threats in the future or repetitive stewing about the past.
Anxiety is what is experienced in the body while the mind is busy worrying. It feels awful—tension, a sense of dread, overwhelm, feeling like something is wrong, hyper-alertness, racing thoughts, can’t sit still, a strong sense you need to do something, but what??
How to address anxiety depends on what’s causing it. Life stressors, relationships, thinking patterns, trauma, world events, spiritual concerns, and other mental health conditions can all play a role. We’ll work to uncover what’s behind your of anxiety and make a plan for how to reduce it.
Unproductive Worry
Worry can be either productive or unproductive. Productive worry happens when there is a problem to be solved, and your brain puts the heightened activity in your body to good use by constructively working through the situation and arriving at a decision or solution. By contrast, unproductive worry doesn’t result in a decision or solution. It covers ground you’ve been over again and again in your mind, stirring up your emotions without having any benefit. It gives the illusion that you are doing something about the perceived problem, when in fact you are stuck in a thinking pattern that leads nowhere. Overthinking and rumination (dwelling excessively on an idea, situation, or choice) are examples of unproductive worry, and they are often connected to a cycle of intrusive thoughts.
Intrusive Thoughts
The intrusive thought cycle consists of a thought that increases anxiety (often a “what if” question) followed by a thought aimed at lowering the anxiety the first thought generated (often a refutation, reassurance, or distraction). The second thought may briefly lower anxiety, but it is usually followed by another anxiety-producing thought that requires another attempt at counter-acting it. It often feels like an argument in your mind between two opposing parties. This thought cycle repeats itself over and over and gets stuck, so that no amount of thinking about the situation is going to result in figuring it out.
If you struggle with a desire for certainty, you are much more susceptible to developing intrusive thought loops. Other indications that you are mired in unproductive worry or thought loops are anticipatory anxiety, chronic indecisiveness, catastrophic thinking, and avoidance.
Approach to Intrusive Thoughts
When intrusive thought loops are at play, it is counterproductive to “talk through” the issue in therapy. Engagement with the content of the thoughts only reinforces them. Instead, one needs a therapist to look at the functional role the thoughts play and implement steps to break the cycle by sidestepping it. If you have tried therapy before for your anxiety, learned and used numerous coping skills, and still find yourself mired in your thoughts, don’t give up hope! I have worked with others who have gained substantial freedom from the struggle by using this approach. I am indebted to Overcoming Unwanted Intrusive Thoughts by Sally Winston and Martin Seif for outlining how to use this approach.
Individual and Relationship Therapy for Adults
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Inver Grove Heights, MN 55076
Sagewood Counseling
Inver Grove Heights, Mendota Heights, Eagan, Woodbury, St. Paul, West St Paul, South St. Paul, Minneapolis, Richfield, Cottage Grove, and other Twin Cities communities.