What Drives Worry—and How to Worry Less

Worry comes with no apparent benefits, and yet it can be hard to stop.

It makes sense that you want things you care about to turn out well. But the future is always uncertain, and you don’t have ultimate control over whether bad things happen. This uncertainty about a situation that matters to you is a perfect set-up for worry. Your mind keeps turning things over, imagining every “what-if” and how you might handle it.

Part of what makes worry so persistent is that it’s self-reinforcing. Each time you worry about something that doesn’t wind up happening, your mind connects worry with harm prevention, at least at an unconscious level:

• I worried.

• Nothing bad happened.

• Therefore worrying keeps me safe.

Your brain doesn’t realize that worrying wasn’t what prevented the bad outcome. So the takeaway is, “Good thing I worried! I’d better keep doing that.”

Beliefs That Drive Worry

In addition to the self-perpetuation of worry, there are five common beliefs—often unspoken—that make worry a tough habit to break.

1. Worry prevents bad surprises.