Anxiety

What we do to ourselves…

Your morning starts like any other day. Nothing significant. Ding, it’s your phone. A text from your best friend Amy. “Need to talk to you later.”

You immediately text back, wondering what’s wrong. Amy counters. “Can’t now. After work.”

“OMG,” you think. “She’s mad at me for something, and she doesn’t want to fight while she’s at work. What did I do? I’m sure I’ve done something, but what is it? Maybe my kids did something to one of her kids. I hate arguing,” you think. And there it is – your life has been spent avoiding an argument.

Your anxious brain continues, “I can’t fight with her. She’s my best friend. I don’t want to lose her. I can’t stand having her upset with me.”

Your mind goes on…and on…and on. For the rest of the afternoon, you are consumed with what you must have done to upset your friend, only the worst possible scenarios, including stupid stuff clear back to college. You know that everyone doesn’t think like this, and you try, but you can’t seem to stop.

And, all for nothing…

Hours pass and with the exception of a few breaks, you’ve worried and been on edge all afternoon. You get in the car and dial Amy immediately. She answers. She’s excited – the exact opposite of the angry Amy you built in your mind.

Amy blurts out, “A group from work is doing a mud run, and we need to sign up tomorrow; wanna do it with us?”

Once again, your anxious mind has wrecked the day. And true to form, it was nothing.

What can you do?

If you are a lifelong worrier or if you find yourself worrying more than you want, you don’t have to stay stuck in the continuous loop of anxious thoughts. I help people turn down the volume of the anxious voice in their head and develop a more productive way of thinking.

If you’ve had enough of feeling held back by your anxiety, text, email me or phone me. We can get you started practicing a different way of thinking.