Are You Worrying Yourself to Death?

It is exhausting to live in fear, and worse than that … it keeps you from living.

“How are you feeling?”

“I am worried.”

Worry is not an emotion. It is your brain on steroids, ruminating and racing along. Going over the same things. Over and over. And over.

Doubt can lead to checking and rechecking whether or not doors are locked. Cleaning baseboards at all hours of the night. Buying things only in certain numbers. Counting everything in your head that you see, without having the conscious intent of thinking about numbers.

“I’m so OCD” has become a “funny” thing to say in our culture.

Not amusing for someone who has those disorders.

The folks who have them are pretty miserable, unless they can keep their symptoms to a dull roar. It’s hard to want to give them up. Because the belief is so rock solid that those rituals, those worries are keeping their world safe. Serving the function of standing in the way of disaster.

“If I worry about it, I can prevent it from happening.”

It is rational to believe that if you are alert. If you think. If you are educated and not naive, then you can often foresee what might happen. Avoid trouble.

Put on sunscreen and you won’t get burned. Air up your tires and your car will be safer. Put money into savings and it’s there for an emergency.

To believe that you can foolproof your life? Or the life of your children?

Fewer of us would ever die of cancer. Or have a heart attack. Because those of us with brains would be doing exactly what would offer a life with absolute safety.

But that doesn’t exist.

Bad things happen to good, cautious people. Happy productive people. People who…

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