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The Constructive Worrier   by Rick Davidson

Maladaptive Features of Non productive Worry. Maladaptive worry worry that's not directed toward a solution to some problem or does not involve creating a positive enjoyable image of ourselves in action has many obvious maladaptive features. In the first place, worry tends to sap our energy and produce a state of resources and his energy; he thus is unable to use them in productive work or recreation.

Appetite may diminish in the chronic worrier. Worriers often are too thin. Perhaps a normal weight level could be reached if the person would learn to worry adaptively; food would taste better and the digestive system would work more efficiently.

Nonproductive worry also leads to sleep problems. Not only does the nonproductive worrier tend to establish negative mental habits once he gets into bed, a time in which worry of all forms ought to be relinquished, he interrupts his sleep and relaxation by thinking the same thoughts he's been thinking all day. Pretty soon the bed may come to be associated, not with restfulness and relaxation, but with worry and concern.

Many psychosomatic disorders are also the result of worry. Tooth decay, ulcers, headaches, backaches, neck aches, digestive problems, even diseases such as asthma and cancer can be caused by nonproductive worry.

One of the worst features about nonproductive worry is the state of helplessness and passivity that the worrier tends to experience. If the worry session is not devoted to finding solutions to a problem or to creating positive mental images if it is simply devoted to anxious experience of pain that may come because of some real or imagined event in the future then the person is simply producing in his own eyes a self-image of helplessness and passivity He is telling himself that nothing can be done about the problem. He is establishing a habit of not dealing actively with problems.

The Constructive Worrier. The solution for people who worry nonproductively does not lie in their heeding the usual advice: "Don't worry." Not to worry would require that these people give up one of their greatest resources: rich imagination. It would require them to turn back the flood of mental energy an impossible task. The best solution over the long term is not to stop worrying but to become a more constructive worrier, a better brooder. The worrier needs to change the content of what he worries about; he does not need to cease "worrying."

Imagination is the raw product of creativity and problem-solving ability. Without imagination we could not solve advanced problems; with imagination we have the potential for highly creative endeavors. Among worriers, the raw products of creativity imagination, abstract thinking, mental alertness have been well put to use; they are highly developed. The only problem is that they have been put to the wrong use. So my advice to worriers (and the advice that I have taken) is don't stop worrying; just change the content of your thoughts when you worry. Don't brood about how people have mistreated you or what bad thing may come upon you or your loved ones (unless by so brooding you can more efficiently grapple with that bad thing); this is negative, unproductive brooding. Instead, focus upon solutions to problems, creative endeavors, self-concept-enhancing exercises.

The pages of articles listing outstanding achievements and achievers are replete with the names of individuals who successfully utilized their tendency to brood and worry (i.e., their imagination). Isaac Asimov stands out as a highly successful chronic worrier. Asimov has been called "The Human Writing Machine." He has written two hundred articles and over a thousand magazine and newspaper articles. It's estimated that he writes about twelve articles and forty magazine articles every year in addition to the numerous speeches and lectures that he gives. His typical day begins at 8:00 a.m., at which time he sits down at his typewriter and types steadily at the rate of ninety words per minute until approximately ten o'clock at night.

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