Anxiety serves a purpose to us all, it allows us to fully consider situations before diving in, it sounds the alarm when something about a situation doesn’t feel right and prompts us to be more alert or adjust our behaviour. In the right doses, anxiety is a very useful indicator in our lives. However, when it runs rampant, it can cause intense distress and distort our perception of reality. In this article we will explore how anxiety lies to us, as the research listed below suggests, up to 91.4% of the time.
Uncontrolled anxiety can cause havoc on a person’s life. When we buy into whatever our anxious thoughts tell us, it can leave us nervous, sleepless and moody. One of the most frustrating things about anxious thoughts is that they very often never come to pass. Why is this? Anxious thinking thrives on uncertainty, in an unknown situation it capitalizes on our insecurities, amplifying our worries and casting doubt on our abilities. But its most potent weapon lies in its ability to distort the truth, convincing us of imminent danger where none exists.
When our anxious minds are running rampant it magnifies the smallest of concerns, blowing them out of proportion until they overshadow everything else. What may have started as a minor inconvenience transforms into a devastating event in the anxious mind. Rationality takes a back seat as anxiety controls our thoughts, convincing us that the worst-case scenario is not only possible but it is inevitable. This is common when stepping out of your comfort zone or pursuing goals.
Another deceitful tactic of anxiety is its manipulation of memories. The anxious mind has a knack for selectively filtering our past experiences, highlighting brief instances of failure or difficulty while conveniently glossing over moments of success and triumph. This distorted narrative reinforces the belief that we are unable to manage challenging situations and perpetuates the cycle of self-doubt. The more we give into our anxious thoughts the more credibility they have in our mind. For example, you strongly dislike your current job but have anxious thoughts that you won’t do well in an interview so you don’t apply to any new jobs; the more you give in to the thoughts, the scarier applying for a job becomes until it turns into ‘evidence’ in your mind, ‘’See, I knew I couldn’t do anything else, I couldn’t even apply for a new job.’’
Finally, anxiety often masquerades as intuition or truth, leading us to believe that its warnings are based on genuine insight. It steers us away from opportunities and experiences that could enrich our lives. In reality, most of anxiety’s ‘truths’ are nothing more than unfounded fears. In a 2020 study conducted at Pennsylvania State University (link below), researchers delved into the realm of GAD (Generalised Anxiety Disorder) and worry, to test the accuracy of people’s worries over 30 days. The study found a staggering 91.4% of worries never came to fruition. And the remaining 8.6% of worries that did come true, had outcomes that were better than expected a third of the time. For nearly a quarter of participants, none of their anxious thoughts came true. Exploring mindfulness techniques, to stay grounded in the present, and using ‘belief experiments’ can help test your own thought patterns and be extremely useful in checking our anxious thoughts.
So, while there is a function to anxiety in normal doses, when we allow it to dictate our lives and actions it can wreak havoc. It can lead us to limit ourselves and our lives unnecessarily based purely on our fears and insecurities. Moreover, anxiety often convinces us that we are alone in our struggles, when of course we are not. If you feel like your anxious thoughts are in control of your life, reach out for help and strategies to manage them.
This article was written by Lauren Hall, fully accredited and qualified Psychotherapist at The DMC Clinic. If you would like to discuss how any of the topics mentioned above are impacting your mental health, please contact The DMC Clinic to arrange an appointment.
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