Are you worried about what tomorrow may bring? You’re not alone.
In recent years, we’ve navigated a major pandemic, political turmoil, global unrest, school shootings, and rapid, unending societal change. We all want to know how to stop fearing the future.
Although anxiety appears to be the new malady du jour, much of it is natural and normal. Sometimes, it’s even protective.
From an evolutionary standpoint, anxiety is an effective survival mechanism. After all, it saved early man from getting too close to cliffs, which is why we’re here today!
But anxiety and fear of the future become problematic when they hinder you from living your life now.
When We Worry
Today, many people believe they have no control over their worries, often to the detriment of their quality of life. Some are their worst critics or have anticipatory anxiety over even the remotest possibilities. Most of what we worry about never comes true.
A small case in point: My young daughter starred in her first play recently. Before the show, who worried most about her performance? My wife and I. For a whole week, we obsessed that she might forget some of the 500 lines she’d memorized.
Meanwhile, my daughter wasn’t worried at all.
She delivered an outstanding performance, leaving us to wonder why we spent so much time in stress mode.
The quality of life for Americans is far superior to that of the king of England 200 years ago and vastly superior to his subjects. Many of us know where our meals come from, have sufficient clothing, enjoy roofs over our heads, access heating and air conditioning, use reliable transportation, and receive effective medications.
So why is the general population so anxious? Over the centuries, have we maladapted our stress response, so we now exaggerate small worries and feel pressured by what we can’t control? Can we learn how to stop fearing the future?
Physical Effects of Anxiety
Anxiety levels in Indiana are high — 32.9% of adults in the state showed significant symptoms of anxiety or depression in 2023. This statistic is slightly higher than the national average of 32.3%.
At its most basic level, anxiety increases the stress hormone cortisol and triggers norepinephrine and adrenaline in our bodies. This hormone rush places us in a heightened state, with an elevated heart rate and heavy breathing.
Consider how being in that state all the time impacts your emotions. You don’t think or reason clearly when adrenaline and cortisol levels are high. Even insignificant situations may set you off — perhaps you squabble with coworkers over trivial matters.
You aren’t primed to relax, calmly process what you see and hear, or draw logical conclusions. It may affect your performance and relationships.
Excessive cortisol also generates extra pounds that are virtually impossible to lose, contributing to an epidemic of overweight, overwrought Americans.
Tips to Manage Anxiety
If anxieties disable your daily life, discuss the situation with your direct primary care doctor. But in the meantime, we have a few tips that may help you manage anticipatory anxiety.
First, follow conventional wisdom and count to 10. Take time to think, chill out, and overcome your emotional response to a situation. Let your heart rate come down a bit.
Next, do what you can:
- Focus on maintaining your breathing. Doing so makes it easier to control your response to the situation.
- Work on your mindset — how you think about or process the situation. By slowing down and regaining control over your body and emotions, you’ll find better ways to handle a fraught scenario.
How to Stop Worrying About the Future
Although it sounds counterintuitive, caring for others helps you take better care of yourself. Focusing on others releases your mind from unnecessary and anticipatory anxiety, helping you find independence and purpose.
Ask an 80-year-old to define the best part of their life. Often, they’ll say it was raising their kids. They don’t recall the crying, fighting, dirty diapers, or sleepless nights; they remember the joy and happiness of caring for another human being. And joy and happiness are the opposite of anxiety.
Having a purpose in life — focusing on your mission — keeps you healthier, helps you achieve your goals, and allows you to worry less about what you can’t control.
Release Stress
Anxiety can be pathologic, resulting from a physical or mental disorder beyond an individual’s control. That’s when professional help and prescribed medications play a vital role.
If you prefer alternatives to medication, here are a few suggestions that may help:
Practice good sleep hygiene: Sleep is your body’s defense system. During rapid eye movement (REM) sleep, we escape the fight-or-flight hormones for a while, so the mind and body have a placid canvas to dream and work through fears and anxieties. Quality REM sleep helps us recover from the day’s anxieties.
(In fact, for people who’ve experienced terrifying or anxiety-inducing events, therapists apply eye movement desensitization and reprocessing, or EMDR, a technique that mimics the patient’s REM-sleep eye movements, allowing them to “relive” and discuss the incident with decreased anxiety.)
With too little sleep, you can’t cleanse the previous day’s emotions, so small matters may set you off. Allow yourself enough hours of sleep to pass into the deepest slumber and critical, healing REM sleep.
Pursue supportive relationships: We’re social beings. Speaking with someone who understands your thoughts and feelings releases serotonin, the happiness hormone.
Regularly talking with people you care about may help you avoid the need for antidepressants. Women excel at this; men can benefit from more of it.
Find a caring primary care doctor: As a direct primary care physician, I devote time to sit down with patients and learn about their lifestyles, hopes, desires, worries, and concerns. Our care model allows me to track their progress holistically and recommend exercises, breathing techniques, or more intensive stress-management therapies.
Many individuals, distracted by the mind’s chatter, don’t realize their level of anxiety. When we communicate, I recognize stages of grief that may spiral into depression and reassure the patient that their apprehension is common and perfectly predictable.
How to Stop Worrying About the Future: Find Your Lighthouse
In 2023, 25.4% of Indiana adults with anxiety or depression symptoms felt they needed counseling or therapy but weren’t receiving it. Are you one of these adults concerned about how to stop fearing the future?
If anticipatory anxiety strikes — or, more importantly, persists — your Priority Physicians will provide guardrails to get you back to your best self. Consider us your lighthouse.
If you’re a ship in rough waters, we’ll point you away from danger. If you’re rowing to the shoreline for help, we’re ready to offer it. Reach out anytime.
