We all worry from time to time. When things become stressful, you’re facing unexpected change or trying to make a big decision, it’s typical to find yourself ruminating and worrying about what might happen down the track. These occasional worries don’t really have an impact on your life, and they can be an important part of your problem-solving process.

However, worry can become a problem if it’s a daily occurrence. If you regularly find yourself slipping into a whirlwind of worries, it can have a huge impact on your life. If you’ve been struggling to get off that hamster wheel of rumination, you might have noticed some of the following impacts:

Physical

• Muscle tension
• Headaches
• Interrupted sleep (trouble falling asleep or waking up during the night and laying awake for ages)
• Tiredness and fatigue
• Digestive upsets, bloating, nausea, constipation or diarrhea
• Feeling disconnected from your body. Not noticing when you’re cold/hot, hungry/thirsty or when you need to move or go to the bathroom.

Relationships

• Feeling dissatisfied with a relationship that is objectively healthy.
• Obsessing over potential conflicts or things that might go wrong.
• Picking fights with your partner over small things
• Finding it hard to be fully present when you’re with your partner.
• Getting “stuck in your head” or over-thinking your interactions
• Difficulties with trust and jealousy

Mood

• Feeling pessimistic and only seeing the negative things in life
• Heightened emotional responses to small things, being “jumpy” or irritable
• Getting frightened about possible changes or trying new things
• Feeling “stuck”, listless or hopeless

Work

• Difficulty focusing on tasks
• Getting preoccupied with small details of your work, being unable to submit something unless you’re sure that it’s “perfect”
• Preoccupation with the fear of losing your job or making a mistake.
• Forgetting things and struggling to juggle competing demands

As you can see, constant worrying can be detrimental in many areas of your life. It can impact your close relationships and your work, and get in the way of you enjoying your life.

Worrying can also have a negative impact on your physical health. When you’re facing a threat, your sympathetic nervous system gets your body ready to respond to that threat. When your nervous system is activated, you’ll notice things like your breathing becoming more rapid, your heart beating more quickly, muscle tension and sweating. If your nervous system is activated too frequently, or for long periods of time, it can cause health problems. Your nervous system can’t tell the difference between a real threat and an imagined one. It responds in the exact same way whether the threat is one you’ve dreamed up, or one that’s really happening. So when you worry, your nervous system responds as though you’re in danger (even though you’re actually safe).

The good news is, even if you’ve been a lifelong worrier, it is possible to break this cycle. You can learn to manage your worries so that they no longer have control over you, and find more helpful ways of managing concerns and challenges. You can find more calm and peace, while still managing the normal ups and downs that life throws at you.

If you struggle with worrying and anxiety, please get in touch to make an appointment. I can help you to understand your worries, identify the things that tend to make them worse, and teach you ways to manage them.