This is such a common issue and one which sometimes is met with “general” ways of dealing with anxiety such as relaxation, mindfulness or thought challenging.
However, going a little deeper there is a cycle in this kind of anxiety which is:
Think about something going wrong - produces anxiety - try to work through all the possible outcomes and solution - try to find an answer by checking or seeking reassurance - can’t get a 100% answer - still got the anxiety - keep going over and over it - keep checking or researching - still don’t get rid of it - have to start distracting myself - eventually exhausted and demoralised
What we do with this is acknowledge that we can’t usually get 100% certainty about things and trying to do so becomes part of the problem. If we can practice living with and being more accepting the anxiety rather than trying to get rid of it gives us greater control over how we spend our time (e.g. I don’t lose a whole evening checking stuff or distracting) and actually the anxiety starts to reduce too.
Going even deeper, understanding why I get anxious about these things in the first place (is it about fear of failing, rejection or letting people down?) we can also then work specifically on those things.
If you want more you can find a much longer playlist of videos on KZfaq here:
• Worry
There is also a good book on this called “the generalized anxiety workbook” by Robichaud and Dugas
#therapy #mentalhealth #anxiety #worry