Losing Sleep Worrying? Try these 2 Strategies for Handling Your Worries

By: Fiona Demers, MC, CCC, CCS

Have you ever had sleepless nights where your brain feels like it is stuck in an endless loop of worrying? Does it feel like even your worries have worries somedays?

Our brains are wired to look for danger and while all this worrying might have been very helpful back when we were cave people, now that sabre-tooth tigers are no longer chasing us it is not so helpful anymore. Unfortunately, we often get stuck in worrying about something rather than problem-solving.

If you think about your worries, you will probably realize that all that time spent worrying never changes the outcome. In fact, the reality is that the act of worrying often leads to us waiting longer to take action.

If you feel like you would like to get a handle on these worries here are a couple of simple ideas to try:

• Set a time to worry – try scheduling a 30 minute “worry” time into your day when you are allowed to worry (try not to do this right before bed). Any worries that come up in the meantime postpone until the scheduled time. This has the benefit of proving to ourselves that we can in fact control our worrying and the added bonus that often the things we thought were a big deal no longer seem worth worrying about by that time. (Hoffman, 2020).
• Replace don’t erase the thought – Pittman and Karle (2015) point out that the harder we try to not think about something the more likely we are to think about that thing. Instead, tell yourself “STOP” and try and replace that thought with a coping thought. For example, changing “I can’t handle this” to something like “this isn’t easy but I will get through it.” With repeated practice thoughts like this can become habit.

If you are interested in learning more strategies to cope with worries, reach out to our experienced therapists at Repiphany Counselling.

Sources

• Hofmann, S. G. (2020). The anxiety skills workbook: Simple CBT and mindfulness strategies for overcoming anxiety, fear, and worry. Oakland, CA: New Harbinger Publications, Inc.
• Pittman, C. M., & Karle, E. M. (2015). Rewire your anxious brain: How to use the neuroscience of fear to end anxiety, panic & worry. Oakland, CA: New Harbinger Publications, Inc.