Areas › Worry and anxiety › What worry does
For some people the racing heart arrives before any thought at all, and the frightening explanation follows the sensation. If that is you, there is no thought to catch, so start with the body.
Build the physical steadying first, at a quiet time when nothing is happening, so that something is ready to reach for when it does. Slow breathing out, cold water, a walk, whatever you can practise most days. Once the body has somewhere to go, the thinking work becomes possible. Doing it the other way round tends to fail and then feel like your fault.
Qur’an and Sunnah
I plead my grief and sorrow before God (Quran 12:86). The distress is taken somewhere before it is explained or argued with.
قَالَ إِنَّمَآ أَشۡكُواْ بَثِّي وَحُزۡنِيٓ إِلَى ٱللَّهِ وَأَعۡلَمُ مِنَ ٱللَّهِ مَا لَا تَعۡلَمُونَ
He said, ‘I plead my grief and sorrow before God. I have knowledge from God that you do not have
Qur’an 12:86read it in the library
Translation: M.A.S. Abdel Haleem, The Qur'an, Oxford University Press, 2004.
What the research says
Two meta-analyses found cognitive therapy and relaxation therapy performed about as well as each other for generalised anxiety disorder, which is a reason not to assume the thinking work is the essential ingredient. There is a catch, though. A laboratory study found relaxation training can raise anxiety in some people with generalised anxiety disorder or depression, apparently because letting the guard down feels like a drop into being vulnerable. So the body route is well supported and it is not automatically the gentle option.
Siev J, Chambless DL. (2007). Specificity of treatment effects: cognitive therapy and relaxation for generalized anxiety and panic disorders.. Journal of consulting and clinical psychology doi
Kim H, Newman MG. (2019). The paradox of relaxation training: Relaxation induced anxiety and mediation effects of negative contrast sensitivity in generalized anxiety disorder and major depressive disorder.. Journal of affective disorders doi
Strength of evidence: one line of research. A single study, or a theoretical account.
Why it works
When the sensation comes first, you need something that works on the sensation.
When not to
If breathing or relaxation exercises reliably leave you feeling worse, stop practising them alone and take that to a therapist, since it is a known pattern with known ways around it.
This one is still a draft. It is waiting on a scholar and a clinician to read it before it is published.
Near this one
A long, low grade depression often shows up as irritation rather than tears. Someone who complains constantly and is never satisfied may have been low for so long that it now looks like their personality.
Almost everyone says they are a bit addicted to their phone. What separates a heavy habit from a problem is whether it is damaging work, sleep, study or relationships, and whether that has gone on for a while.
A car coming at you and a spider across the room set off the same alarm. Naming which one you are facing, before you act on it, is a skill worth practising.