To worry is the desire to control something to avoid an undesired outcome. Your anxiety will go up in relation to the amount of your waking hours you are “what-iffing”. The pattern is unfortunately a wheel of never ending anxiety with the following sequence of trying to control something, worrying about it, not able to control it, feeling highly anxious, often losing self-esteem with feelings of lack of control,and then starting on a new worry cycle that leaves never ending emotional wreckage in its wake.
Anxiety that enhances low self-esteem can overwhelm you emotionally when “what-iffing” about things you cannot control. These would include such things as the economy, climate change, nuclear arms/war,the weather,world famine, the behavior of others,etc. in an endless list that can grow daily. Unfortunately,outcomes for persons afflicted with the “what-iffing anxiety syndrome” are low self-esteem because they have no control over so many things they worry about. They then see themselves as inadequate persons or even bad and flawed human beings. They often try to micromanage themselves and unfortunate persons they interact with as their “what-iffing anxiety syndrome” overwhelms them emotionally.
Strategies to overcome the “what-iffing anxiety syndrome” would include clear recognition of what you can and cannot control. The person must focus emotional and intellectual energies on distinguishing between them. Do not wear other people down emotionally who care for you with your trying to micromanage them. Do not micromanage yourself with unreasonable worries. Make better choices on what you are going to worry about. With resulting better decision making, you can be happy with far less negative and worrisome thoughts in your head. A further positive and effective strategy is to set aside 10 to 20 minutes a day for worrying. When you begin to worry at other times of the day, you need to stop it and remind yourself your worrying time begins at a later time. None of these strategies are easy to do but are important for a person to overcome the horrible psychological damage caused by the “what-ifing anxiety syndrome”. A quote from the serenity prayer gives great wisdom to persons suffering from the “what-iffing anxiety syndrome”. It goes as follows: GOD GRANT ME THE SERENITY TO ACCEPT THE THINGS I CANNOT CHANGE,THE COURAGE TO CHANGE THE THINGS I CAN,AND THE WISDOM TO KNOW THE DIFFERENCE.