Maybe Alfred E. Neuman had it all wrong? Recent research argues that not all worry is bad — it's a matter of degree.
Worry — it does a body good. And, the mind as well. A new paper by Kate Sweeny, psychology professor at the University of California, Riverside, argues there's an upside to worrying.
"Despite its negative reputation, not all worry is destructive or even futile," Sweeny said. "It has motivational benefits, and it acts as an emotional buffer."
In her latest article, "The Surprising Upsides of Worry," published in Social and Personality Psychology Compass, Sweeny breaks down the role of worry in motivating preventive and protective behavior, and how it leads people to avoid unpleasant events. Sweeny finds worry is associated with recovery from traumatic events, adaptive preparation and planning, recovery from depression, and partaking in activities that promote health, and prevent illness. Furthermore, people who report greater worry may perform better — in school or at the workplace — seek more information in response to stressful events, and engage in more successful problem solving.
The article notes that worry can act as a motivator. People dislike the feeling of worry and thus become willing to take steps to avoid the a feared outcome and so allay that feeling:
- Worry serves as a cue that the situation is serious and requires action. People use their emotions as a source of information when making judgements and decisions.
- Worrying about a stressor keeps the stressor at the front of one's mind and prompts people toward action.
- The unpleasant feeling of worry motivates people to find ways to reduce their worry.
Worry can also act as a buffer, encouraging us to anticipate a feared outcome and not be so blindsided should it occur:
Worry can also benefit one's emotional state by serving as an emotional bench-mark. Compared to the state of worry, any other feeling is pleasurable by contrast. In other words, the pleasure that comes from a good experience is heightened if preceded by a bad experience.
Worry becomes problematic when one senses that a feared outcome is unavoidable and it becomes a self-fulfilling prophecy leading to a downward spiral into depression.
From my experience, I tend to see possible outcomes that others overlook (hence a career in software test/QA), and must make a conscious effort to look on the possible positive outcomes. I've not mastered it, entirely, but at least am now aware of what is happening when I feel that whirlpool drawing me in and can take steps to avoid it.
I'm curious how my fellow Soylentils deal with worry. Do you find it overwhelming? Are you upbeat and fearless all the time? Some middle ground? What benefits have you perceived from experiencing worry?
(Score: 1, Funny) by Anonymous Coward on Friday April 28 2017, @09:11PM (2 children)
Fuck it, let's go bowling, dude.
(Score: 3, Informative) by archfeld on Friday April 28 2017, @09:48PM (1 child)
The Dude abides...
For the NSA : Explosives, guns, assassination, conspiracy, primers, detonators, initiators, main charge, nuclear charge
(Score: 1, Funny) by Anonymous Coward on Friday April 28 2017, @10:41PM
Shut the fuck up, donnie.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday April 28 2017, @09:27PM (4 children)
"I'm suffering from anxiety over whether you'll prescribe me medical marijuana!"
"Sounds like you need some medical marijuana."
http://www.smbc-comics.com/comic/2009-07-22 [smbc-comics.com]
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday April 28 2017, @09:47PM (2 children)
Please kill yourself. Thanks
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday April 28 2017, @09:51PM (1 child)
Hit it right on the nerve. The subtext of this news is marijuana.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday April 28 2017, @09:54PM
Or perhaps OP is just an easily triggered twit who should go back to his safe space.
(Score: 2) by archfeld on Saturday April 29 2017, @03:32AM
I prefer the recreational type, in a goo form so I can use my lil old vapor machine. Infused butter is nice as well, easy to use, store and you can make anything an edible.
For the NSA : Explosives, guns, assassination, conspiracy, primers, detonators, initiators, main charge, nuclear charge
(Score: 3, Insightful) by archfeld on Friday April 28 2017, @09:46PM (3 children)
Most of the time I am given unrealistic goals, ridiculous time frames, and impossible to follow schedules, but as a member of the team I just have to not be the slowest or the actual logjam. I don't have to make the goal just don't be the one that is left holding the bag.
You don't have to outrun the bear, just a few other 'team' members...
For the NSA : Explosives, guns, assassination, conspiracy, primers, detonators, initiators, main charge, nuclear charge
(Score: 1, Funny) by Anonymous Coward on Friday April 28 2017, @09:54PM
I can relate to that. Our company managers used to give us unrealistic time limits and wanted at least 120% productivity or you get written up. Many times I wanted to shove my foot up his ass, but I didn't want stink toe.
(Score: 1) by Ethanol-fueled on Friday April 28 2017, @09:57PM (1 child)
A common adaptation to working in the tech equivalent of a sausage factory, as well as the medical field, is gallows humor.
If you only knew that your doctor and the nurses were making jokes behind your back and laughing their asses off at having to lancet the boils on your ass.
(Score: 2) by archfeld on Saturday April 29 2017, @03:26AM
I worked in law enforcement for several years, crime scene jokes are horrible. The medical examiners and ID techs are awesome as well.
For the NSA : Explosives, guns, assassination, conspiracy, primers, detonators, initiators, main charge, nuclear charge
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday April 28 2017, @09:49PM (1 child)
Brainfucking.
(Score: 3, Touché) by Hartree on Friday April 28 2017, @09:58PM
Nah, you do it by yourself and to yourself, so it's more like brain masturbation.
(Score: 4, Insightful) by Hartree on Friday April 28 2017, @09:55PM
Humans evolved to be in small groups (like troop baboons). Having a variety of personality types is useful for a group. If you have some that worry , they'll notice the times when something needs to be done. The rest don't have to be under that stress.
Same goes with anxiety and hypervigilance. The rest can relax a little more and tend to the kids because the miserable anxious always glancing around nervously will see the lion before it gets too close.
The key concept here is "kin selection". If I do something that helps those in my small group to have more kids that survive it helps me genetically, as that small group is likely pretty closely related to me and thus share a lot of my gene variants. So, over time there's some pressure to maintain traits that help the group, even if they kinda suck for the one with them.
(Score: 2) by edIII on Friday April 28 2017, @10:03PM
I've found that the feared outcome is entirely unavoidable myself. My country will devolve into a 3rd world hell hole while at the same time the world will be in its death throes. Billions will die, wealth and power will continue to contract, any patches of land that are still desirable will be fought over making the cities and urban areas quite dangerous. The near complete lack of skills our great-grandparents had at surviving will ensure that many will die in the attempt to escape each other.
Now that I've accepted that, it's freed me from spending too much energy into attempting to solve it. I've got a few decades left if I'm lucky, and I'm lucky enough to making good progress on settling in the middle of nowhere in South America with enough self-sufficiency to meet most of my needs without any outside assistance.
It's sad, but humanity took that manifest destiny thing a little too seriously and partied too hard with the planet. Of course, it doesn't help that humanity's favorite pastime is brutal exploitation and oppression of each other.
Good riddance. Leaning into it does actually make me feel better. I have a plan and a direction now.
Technically, lunchtime is at any moment. It's just a wave function.
(Score: 1, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Friday April 28 2017, @10:27PM (4 children)
The "problem" with worrying is often related to balance. The things we "should" be worrying about versus those we actually do can be off kilter.
For example, when the family schedules to meet certain relatives, I often get a sense of anxiety. The anxiety doesn't do anything useful for me. It's an event I cannot practically change. It's just "bad weather" I have to let run its course. I'd rather have my brain worry about something that I have realistic control over.
(Score: -1, Troll) by Ethanol-fueled on Friday April 28 2017, @10:58PM (3 children)
I feel the same way having to walk around Blacks at night, especially because they are super-strong and savage, and play the knockout game.
Even Michael Jackson was afraid of Black men -- Thriller was a personal allegory how he felt being a Black man as he feared them -- and he eventually turned himself White.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday April 28 2017, @11:41PM (2 children)
He did the bleaching and plastic surgery because he wanted to look like Elizabeth Taylor. Did you not read "The Enquirer" for the last 20 years?
(Score: 0, Troll) by Ethanol-fueled on Friday April 28 2017, @11:48PM (1 child)
Huh, that's news to me -- I thought he was going for Peter Pan.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday April 29 2017, @02:07AM
I would've said Tinker Bell myself.
(Score: 1, Interesting) by Anonymous Coward on Friday April 28 2017, @11:35PM
I believe someone[1] suggested that it's darn hard to account for internal events as *causal* events. That's not to say that they aren't, simply that it's hard to prove it. For example, a person who worries they are going to get a parking ticket - after perhaps having gotten several - may "perform better in regards to the situation" but it's hard to know if they events that caused the worrying (the getting tickets) isn't the real cause. The worrying is just a side-effect. And much adaptive behavior doesn't occur with worrying, perhaps even the vast majority of adaptive responding (thus "side effect" - how much don't we worry about and yet we get manage?).
And worrying is often distressing to the person worrying (I believe it's sometimes called "rumination" and is sometimes classed as a "psychiatric symptom", but I'm no doctor).
So I'm not sure there's much use for this analysis. I think most of us would prefer to simply do the right thing without worrying about it. At least I'd like to.
[1] (essentially "worrying" is a hypothetical causal structure with no physical dimensions, so to speak) http://www.yorku.ca/pclassic/Skinner/Theories/ [yorku.ca]
(Score: 1, Touché) by Anonymous Coward on Friday April 28 2017, @11:59PM (2 children)
As Dr. Oz [doctoroz.com] tells us (and Dr. Oz is actually a real doctor with a medical degree and everything!) that the stress hormone Cortisol is to blame!
Order Relacore [relacore.com] now, and reduce those nasty stress hormones while you get rid of that unsightly belly bulge!
"Relacore [someecards.com] is the only way to reduce Cortisol in your bloodstream and get rid of that disgusting belly fat you're tromping around with you fat, disgusting pig!" -- someone who knows [highoctanegrowler.com]
So get off your fat ass and stop worrying about it and do something! And by "something" I mean buy lots of Relacore [relacore.com]!
(Score: 1) by a-zA-Z0-9$_.+!*'(),- on Saturday April 29 2017, @02:38AM (1 child)
I saw HV before his death, being a guest at a kids birthday party.
https://newrepublic.com/article/114112/anonymouth-linguistic-tool-might-have-helped-jk-rowling
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday April 29 2017, @05:22AM
I saw HV before his death, being a guest at a kids birthday party.
Sure thing boss! I remember! I bring you hookers and coca-een-a!
(Score: 2) by AthanasiusKircher on Saturday April 29 2017, @02:59AM
As I get the older, I find I mostly experience anxiety rarely and in bursts only when things really have a potential to get out of hand. Worrying preemptively is unproductive. Of course you should be realistic, and that generally involves preparing for possible negative outcomes in advance. But actively "worrying"? Doesn't generally help.
For those who already occasionally find power in procrastination and last-minute bursts, try procrastinating your anxiety. Better to cram it into a time when a burst of energy motivated by fear can actually help you.
(Score: 2) by Open4D on Friday May 05 2017, @01:59PM
Am I missing something? The article about the paper doesn't seem to be linked, even though it's where at least some of the quoted sections in the submission are taken from.
Here it is: https://eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2017-04/uoc--tuo042717.php [eurekalert.org]
.
And while I'm here, I might as well mention this recent article about 'Superagers' [theguardian.com] which claims that short periods of mental and physical stress are good for you.