How to Stop Worrying: The #1 Skill to Stop Anxiety & Master GAD 14/30

"Our brain is designed to keep us alive, not to make us happy."" 🙂Good point.

I can’t tell you how many times I’ve worried about not worrying 😂

I can’t even tell you, how many times I’ve panic logged onto YouTube and listened to your channel & by the time I’ve watched your videos, I feel instant calm and relief. Thank you for being who you are. Not all of us can afford therapy or are too nervous to try it, but your videos have truly helped me.

4:19 “Your brain subconsciously believes that worrying prevented bad things from happening.” I’ve been trying to overcome this exact false belief ever since I realized it was something I felt. The idea of letting go of certain worries scares me because then if the bad thing happens, I’m unprepared and unable to prevent it. It’s validating to know that this isn’t just me.

I learned the "worry time" habit 40 years ago in Sexual Abuse Group Therapy. I chose 5pm to 5:05pm. Eventually, worrying became detached from emotion, got bored and went away. I still set the time aside, but I found I can take the emotion out of any new worry and figure out what to do about it. It's one of the best life skill to have. When people say that nothing phases me, I say, "Only from 5 to 5:05."

I’ve had anxiety, the debilitating kind. I learned that labeling it generalized anxiety disorder was very counterproductive. Made me feel like I had a life sentence and I was permanently broken without any cure. Therapy, meds didn’t help because I identified as an anxious person. I ended up using the acceptance method and I gave my mind and body the time to recover. Eventually my intensity gradually decreased till I felt like myself again.

You are one of those rare, rare individuals who actually care about people and do this to help. You really are a role model. Smart, ethical, creative, natural, unique, calming, rational but empathetic. Congrats! ❤🎉

Yes, I've noticed this. When I don't worry for a moment, my brain will bring up things to worry about. I actually have urgent problems to worry about, believe me. But the anxiety keeps me from actually solving those problems because I'm afraid to face them. My brain thinks that I'll forget about them if I don't constantly worry and feel on edge, so in the end I stay in the anxiety all the time.

My therapist was great. She explained that worry is trying to solve hypothetical problems with hypothetical variables. This can be exhausting!! She said if the variables are real and now, then go ahead and solve the problem. But if the variables are hypothetical, don't attempt to solve the problem! I've been attempting to solve hypothetical problems for years and years and burned myself out! It's hard to stop this but she has given me some helpful strategies which I have to keep practising so I become better at not worrying.

I remember worrying all the time since I was very young in elementary school. I worried about getting in the wrong school bus line, missing the bus, getting on the wrong bus, missing my stop, not getting a seat, having to sit in the back, missing school, forgetting homework, losing my younger siblings, and the worries have grown the older I've gotten. I worry over things I have no control over and worry that maybe I should have control over them. It's so stressful~ I hope that these techniques can help me cope with being such a longtime worrywart.

Worrying is one of the biggest challenges in my life, boy it takes so much energy, I'm always tired when I'm in that state, thank you very much for this video

I'm a therapist and I love your videos. It's always great to get new analogies to help people understand their thoughts!

When I first started getting help for anxiety, I noticed 3 things. There was an involuntary/physical aspect, things in my past that contributed to it, and a habit that formed over time. When the involuntary part was helped by medication, I was able to see the habit and some underlying causes for the first time. It was like getting prescription glasses to see my anxiety! I also noticed when the involuntary anxiousness popped up, I'd find any justification for it. One time I blamed not making a sandwich fast enough for it and realized wow, I'd find any reasoning for the anxiousness! Eventually I learned to sit with the feeling which was extremely uncomfortable and to not reach for a reason. It broke the cycle of feeling anxious - justifying it, feeling anxious - justifying it again. I just wanted to say to anyone that needs to hear it, because it's overwhelming to deal with all aspects of anxiety at once. If you can give yourself some grace, take it one part at a time, you can make some big changes.

Going through a huge anxiety attack attack a week ago. I’ve barely slept. Thats what I worry about. Sleeping again. But this is teaching me to try to let go of that. After falling asleep nearly 30seconds after my brain would shoot awake. Hopefully with good sleep hygiene and schedule I can get my sleeping on track.

I found out later in life that I had General Anxiety Disorder (GAD). When the doctor told me, I was actually relieved...because for much of my life I was blaming my self for worrying too much. I was on a mission then to become less anxious. Went to therapy, learned about boundaries...the hardest part was overcoming the anger I was having toward my family for putting me through experiences and environments that conditioned me for anxiety. "Don't worry. Take it easy"...looking back, I couldn't believe they said this while at the same time doing...well, I won't go there. Any way, therapy and things like mindfulness and self discovery have helped, but i take steps back at times unfortunately, the books 30 Days to Reduce Stress by Harper Daniels, Awareness by DeMello, and The Body Keeps the Score by Kolk...I like those. Journaling has also been a life saver when I get the motivation to do it.

This seems really promising. I just set a reminder for every day, after school @2:40 and I labeled it “Ready. Set. WORRY! 🏁

Ok Im 66 years old but Rock.I will share this with a few people close to me. I will work on cognitive diffusion. Very cool.

It's so terribly difficult to explain to people how our brain often subconsciously believes worrying helps prevent disasters. I've had someone tell me it's impossible considering our brains are best designed to support us in a healthy way and they cannot miscalculate something that can have debilitating effects on our lives. It's extremely difficult to explain to people who agree that our brains are primarily equipped for survival but are unable to grasp this toxic loop that our brains end up engaging in for our survival that worrying prevents negative events from happening. Thank you for articulating this!

It has been 3 days of me doing this and it has already helped. In fact, when it comes to worry time, I get bored of worrying and have to make myself worry. It just shows how meaningless the worrying thought is, especially because as I’m willingly worrying, I can hear another voice in my head saying “You have no control over that, so let it go”, or “You can walk away from this thing if you want”, or “You’re not actually worried about that” I can’t wait to see how it progresses 3 weeks from now :) Thank you for this awesome exercise.

“Our brain is designed to keep us alive, not make us happy” is so powerful, and not something I’ve consciously realized before.