Five Reasons Why Anxiety Is A Total Waste Of Time
Anxiety is worse than wasted time. Wasted time is just lost time, but anxiety is suffering time. Much worse.
Many people think of fear, anxiety, worry, nervousness as distinctly different. Other people think they are all the same animal. For some purposes, it is important to see the similarities in anxiety, fear, worry, nervousness, and their relation to each other. Usually in counseling, I go with the definition the client makes on each of these in his or her own life. And that's how we talk about them. But for the purposes of this post, fear and anxiety are very different.
Fear is a biological response to a dangerous stimuli. Fear is useful in alerting us to danger and prompting us to keep ourselves safe. When we are safe, the fear dissipates. We would never want to get rid of fear altogether, since it serve this important function.
Anxiety, on the other hand, can be defined as a worry-based emotion that leads us to feel stuck and trapped in feeling vulnerable and out of control. We can feel overwhelmed with terror as a result even if we are not in immediate danger. If this is anxiety, we do want to get rid of it.
Anxiety will can suck the life out of you.
5 Reasons Why Anxiety Is A Total Waste Of Time
Anxiety takes all of the joy out of life. It is a waste of precious days and precious times that could be spent enjoying life. Here are some reasons why anxiety is a waste of time.
1. It hasn't happened yet. Worry is always focused on the future and assumptions of what we think it will be like. Anxiety likes to put videos or images in our heads about how awful something will be or how disastrous we will be at handling it when it comes. These worries are lies, a tactic of anxiety uses to scare us.
2. You are more focused on what is out of control than what you can control. This is energy down the drain than you could use to make a change or do something to help yourself feel better. Anxiety zaps our energy this way. Leaving us too exhausted to fight it sometimes.
3. They are just experiences. Thinking of our life as experience helps us take a step back from the situation. Life gives us experiences, and they are just experiences and we can make meaning around them any way we want. This is foremost how we control our life, by making meaning. We can succumb by deciding that we can't handle things; or we can find our skills and get through it.
4. Anxiety is often a self fulfilling prophecy. If we think we will be anxious someplace and are afraid of it, it gives it more power and it is more likely to come. Anxiety needs us to be afraid of it. So if we are afraid it can take over. When we stop being afraid of anxiety, we will see it fade fast.
5. It was in the past. Sometimes people have anxiety from trauma that happened. Read how to get past your past and remember: There is no danger today. Use affirmations or a wellness recovery action plan or even write a goodbye letter to the fear to get into the present.
What are you going to do today to get rid of your anxiety?
Until next Wednesday, take good care.
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APA Reference
Lobozzo, J.
(2013, June 26). Five Reasons Why Anxiety Is A Total Waste Of Time, HealthyPlace. Retrieved
on 2024, November 17 from https://www.healthyplace.com/blogs/anxiety-schmanxiety/2013/06/5-reasons-why-anxiety-is-a-total-waste-of-time
Author: Jodi Lobozzo Aman, LCSW-R
Very true, especially the self-fulfilling prophecy part! I've noticed in the past that the more I stress and worry about something that might happen, the more likely it is to happen just exactly like I feared.
Yes, Lauren, we create fear. It's good to see it and then we can do somehting different!
xo
Jodi
My blog I posted yesterday describes the ACT concept of thought defusion as a helpful tool for rumination and worry. Really aligned with your helpful post...http://janicemcwilliams.com/2013/07/04/cutting-the-fuse-help-for-ruminators/
This is once more appropriate observation on anxiety as disturbing emotional experience, which one helps to overcome this mental difficulty without any serious consequences. However, it remains a bit contradiction on first and fifth point of this elucidation, because the future and the past are opposite period of time.It is true that anxiety indicates a float fear in expectancy, but the the past events couldn't change the outcome of our frightened experiences. If you mean that the past emotional experiences serve as model of our conduct on the same live events, then we should to face with PTSD, as specific category of psychiatric entity. Anyhow, in real live two things and two experiences aren't identical ones, Therefore, it ought to develope healthy and functional life skills in agreement with concrete environment conditions.I beg pardon for my intentional ntervention.
Sunset,
great advice, thanks for the compliments! xo
Great post. If you can step back and realize that since your mind is powerful enough to generate the symptoms of anxiety, that it is just as powerful and capable of eliminating them as well. Anything you can do to distract yourself from symptom is key.
For Mary, perhaps going to the store with headphones and music would distract you enough to get through the experience. Sorry you are going through that.
Fear and anxiety create chemicals just as dangerous as some drugs. Get help if you think you need it.
I love you Jodi. After reading this my 1st thought was happy. Somebody (you) finally gets it! Jodi understands!
I want to ask for your help & it will be practice for me. Friday is grocery shopping day. I have come to hate this day & I get so anxious that I have panic attacks in the car on the way there & several in the store. My hands are shaking right now. It's hard to talk about & embarrassing. Once in the store I will make at least 2 trips to the bathroom to hide my panic and/or throw up. It takes me anywhere from 3-4 hours to shop for a family of 4. Part of it is due to a physical disability. That is not what I am talking about. It's the end of the month & there are no food stamps left. My husband gets furious with me when the food stamps run out. I don't know if I'm experiencing fear or anxiety here. He will give me money, but I think purposely not enough to punish me for running out of food stamps. That means I will be very anxious when shopping. I will shop with a calculator & have to make hard-sometimes impossible decisions on what to buy for whom. This process takes forever. I have trouble making decisions. I will also be matching coupons with sale items-another thing that takes time. I know I am moving slow & people constantly ask me to move. I feel like I'm in everyone's way. My hands will be shaking, so I will drop things, including coupons all over the floor. Towards the end the cart becomes to heavy & I have trouble pushing it & again feel that I'm in everyone's way. I also think people are mad at me for being in there way. They think bad things about me. I'm ugly, stupid, clumsy & if I ask the store for help bringing the
groceries to the car, I have to wait until someone is available. This draws attention to me & I'm embarrassed. Also no matter how hard I try with the calculator to not go over the money I have, I always do. I don't understand what I'm doing wrong. I usually end up having to put things back & this is so embarrassing. Sorry this is so long. I'm just hoping you can help me.
Sounds worst than horrible to do that! I would love to help, I wish I can take you if i wasn't so far away.
I think it is abusive to make you do that alone, if they know you go through it. Why can't you take the girls, send your husband or at least shop at times of the day with the least crowding. Or go with a friend. This is too much to endure alone.
Financially it is impossible to stay in budget since prices of food is rising and the foodstamps are not. If you are blamed for this, know it is abuse, because it is not your fault food prices are rising. Please don't judge yourself for "failing" an impossible task. He also uses money to keep control. This is abuse, too, my love. You know this, of course, I just wanted to validate you and your experience.
Take the girls next time.
Love,
xo
Jodi
I do go early & if the girls aren't working, they are sleeping & I don't want to bother them. When I get home, again if they are not at work, they help me unpack the car & put things away. I don't have any friends & my husband would let the kids starve rather then go grocery shopping. That is my "job". I wish you could take me out of this too. I'm on the verge of a breakdown. All the money I gave the lawyer is almost gone & nothing has happened besides him getting served!! I don't know what's going to happen to me. I'm so alone, broke & scared.
Mary, Keep breathing. Look for some hope. I know you see it sometimes. Always find it when you feel this overwhelmed, so you can put the next foot in front of the other. Love you in the meantime!
xo Jodi
Hello! I realize this is not my conversation, but my heart wants me to help. Please forgive my intrusion. Here are just thoughts - you choose:
1.) Do you have family? People who can help you shop or with whom you can move in?
2.) Please listen to "Panic Attacks" by Sunrise Guided Visualizations - 99 cents - learn to breathe through these, rather than throwing up.
3.) Buy items for making from scratch, if you can. Beans, rice, pasta, vegetables. Makes the money go further. And so healthy!
4.) Shop at a new store, just to experience a fresh start, without the old triggers.
5.) Remember that you are wonderful! You are a special, loving, caring person who is doing a great job!!!
I agree - Jodi is the best! Please take care, both of you wonderful people! - Amy at Sunrise Guided Visualizations