When Your Brain Won’t Leave Things Alone

What if something goes wrong?

What if I make the wrong decision?

What if they think I’m an idiot?

Why did I say that?

What if this feeling means something is seriously wrong?

Maybe I should check one more time.

Anxiety has a remarkable ability to make uncertainty feel dangerous.

Then we naturally try to feel certain again.

We analyze.

Avoid.

Check.

Prepare.

Ask for reassurance.

Replay.

Control.

Think some more.

Those strategies may reduce anxiety briefly.

But sometimes they also teach our mind:

“That feeling really was dangerous. Good thing we did something to make it go away.”

And the cycle continues.

What We’ll Work On

CBT can help us examine anxious predictions and assumptions.

ACT can help us become less controlled by the need to eliminate anxiety before participating in life.

Together, we may work on questions such as:

What am I predicting?

How likely is that outcome?

What am I doing to prevent uncertainty?

What does that strategy cost me?

Can I allow some anxiety to be present without immediately responding to it?

What would I choose if anxiety weren’t making the decision?

The goal isn’t to guarantee that you’ll never feel anxious.

The goal is for anxiety to have less authority over the life you live.