It Might Not Matter "Why" We Are Anxious

At my most anxious, I spent a LOT of time asking “why”.

If only I understood the reason for my anxiety - if I could understand it, explain it - then I could solve it.

But this was just a distraction. In fact, it made things worse.

Every time I wondered why, my brain came up with a new possibility:

• Perhaps it’s nuclear war?
• Or you’ve secretly got cancer?
• Maybe it’s some buried trauma you’ll never dig up?
• Or is it that thing you said to someone the other day?
• Perhaps it’s an upcoming deadline…
• Or death. It might be death.

You see what happened? I instantly came up with hundreds more reasons to worry. Asking “why” only ADDED to my anxiety.

Instead, I tried to just accept it: “Okay, I feel anxious. Doesn’t matter why, I just do.”

And then I focused on fixing it, calming down, doing something else.

Then, later, when the acute anxiety had faded, I could spend some time looking into the root cause.

This isn’t a foolproof plan, and it may not be true for everyone. But if you fall into the same endless anxious rabbit hole of “why”, then it might be helpful for you.