How worry management can help When you have excessive worry it can affect how you feel physically and what you do as a result. It can feel like you are always on edge. These symptoms can form a vicious cycle of worry and anxiety.
Worry management helps you to break into this vicious cycle. It will help you to feel more in control of your worrying, rather than feeling like it is controlling you. Worry management has a range of techniques recommended to help with GAD. The techniques in this will help you to break the cycle. To be able to manage the symptoms you experience and reduce the impact they have upon your life. They will help you to manage and reduce your worrying thoughts, to learn new ways to manage procrastination and deal with situations that feel uncertain, unpredictable or uncontrollable. The techniques can also help to improve your sleep and the other physical symptoms of GAD. After a few weeks, you should start to notice that your symptoms begin to improve. While everyone has their own personal experience of having worry and GAD, there are shared symptoms. Read through the diagram below which shows these typical symptoms:
Physical symptoms Tension in your muscles Feeling irritable or on edge Feeling tired Problems with your sleep Trouble concentrating Digestive upset Nausea Headaches
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Behaviours
Altered thoughts
Worrying excessively Putting things off (procrastinating) Over preparing Avoiding things that are uncertain, unpredictable or uncontrollable Seeking reassurance
Lots of ‘what if’ type thoughts about things that may happen in the future and about worrying itself For example: ‘What if I get in trouble at work’ ‘What if my worrying keeps getting worse’.
© Marie Chellingsworth (2020). The CBT Resource.
