worry

There are a lot of us that spend too much time worrying. According to The National Institute on Mental Health, approximately 40 million American adults ages 18 and older, or about 18.1 percent of people in this age group in a given year, have an anxiety disorder. Anxiety prevents us from being happy, can cause physical ailments, and keeps us from taking healthy risks that may improve the quality of our lives.

Worry may be a trait that is passed on genetically from your family or it may be an outcome of your environment. One or both of your parents may suffer from intense anxiety and you learn to be anxious because it is modeled for you as a way of living. The worry is usually driven by a need to have a guaranteed outcome. Of course there are very few situations that result in a sure-fire conclusion. Therefore the worrying does not seem to have any purpose or any positive effects in one’s life.