Courses › Worry that will not switch off
Worry and anxiety
Worry that will not switch off
A false alarm, a habit of thinking, and a religious accusation that has no text behind it.
One thing before anything else. This course teaches that the strength of a feeling tells you nothing about the size of a danger. That is about a false alarm, and it is not about a symptom. Chest pain, fainting, or breathlessness that a doctor has not looked at goes to a doctor first, and nothing here should be used to talk yourself out of that. Getting it checked is how anybody finds out which one it was. If worry is taking an hour or more out of most days, if you have stopped going places because of it, or if this has run for months and is not lifting, then it has outgrown reading, and lesson six is about who to see. And if you are having thoughts of ending your life, tell someone today and contact your doctor or an emergency service.
What this course teaches
Cognitive behavioural therapy for worry
The claim is that worry is kept going by what you do about it rather than by what you worry about. Catching worry as it arrives and postponing it to a set time, then testing a feared prediction rather than arguing with it, are the two moves. You are not trying to stop the thoughts; you are changing what happens next.
Why this one
This is the treatment with the largest trial base for anxiety, and the honest size of it is moderate rather than transformative. Worry postponement in particular rests on one small early trial, so it is offered here as worth trying rather than as settled.
What this course will not do
Exposure work. It is the strongest thing there is for panic and social anxiety, and it is a structured protocol that wants a person alongside you. This course explains what it is and points you to somebody who runs it.
Six short lessons on worry that runs all day, on the surge that arrives out of nowhere, and on the fear of what people are thinking. It explains why a false alarm feels exactly like a real one, why worrying feels like work when it is not, and it takes apart the claim that being anxious says something about your faith. One change is taught in lesson four, and it is small enough to do this week.
Who this is for
Anyone whose worry has stopped switching off, anyone who has had the surge and thought they were dying, and anyone who has started avoiding places or people because of it. It assumes no clinical background and no training in the sacred sciences.
What this is not
This course does not run exposure work on you, and you should not build it for yourself from a page on the internet. Exposure based therapy is the treatment with the strongest evidence behind it for most anxiety disorders, and it belongs with a trained therapist who knows your situation. This course gives no fatwa and no diagnosis, and it replaces neither a scholar nor a clinician. If you have had chest pain, fainting, or breathlessness that a doctor has not looked at, that goes to a doctor first and not to a course.
The lessons
6- Where you left off. Three things wearing one nameWorry, panic and the fear of being judged are not the same thing, and knowing which one you have changes what helps.7 min
- The false alarmYour body cannot tell a real threat from a false one, and it was never built to.7 min
- Anxiety is not weak imanThe Qur'an describes the Companions in open fear and does not scold them for it.7 min
- Give worry an appointmentWorry feels like preparation. Here is one thing you can do with it that is not arguing with it.7 min
- What feeds it, and what to stop addingFour ordinary things that keep the alarm sensitive, and the one you can change tonight.6 min
- When to stop reading and see someonePlain markers, what a first appointment is actually like, and what the treatment involves.6 min
What this course is built on
- Qur'an 2:155 to 157, 2:286, 9:40, 13:28, 20:67 to 68, 33:10 to 11, 65:3, 94:5 to 6. Translation throughout: M.A.S. Abdel Haleem, The Qur'an, Oxford University Press, 2004. 13:28, 2:286, 65:3 and 94:5 to 6 are each commonly used in ways the course deliberately avoids. The scholar reviewer settles the permissible range of use.
- Newman MG, Llera SJ (2011). A novel theory of experiential avoidance in generalized anxiety disorder: a review and synthesis of research supporting a contrast avoidance model of worry. Clinical Psychology Review, 31(3), 371 to 382. Mowrer's two factor account of avoidance and Borkovec's avoidance theory of worry are described in the lesson without being cited to a specific paper.
- Sahih al-Bukhari 1117, 3276, 5678, 6369; Sahih Muslim 134, 2664; Sunan Abi Dawud 1319; Sunan Ibn Majah 2045; Jami' at-Tirmidhi 2516. Only reports graded sound or good are used. Each report inside a lesson links to its full entry with its grading. The widely quoted narration about tying the camel is not used, because its collection, number and grading were not confirmed.
- Springer KS, Levy HC, Tolin DF (2018). Remission in CBT for adult anxiety disorders: a meta-analysis. Clinical Psychology Review, 61, 1 to 8. Cited for the direction of its finding only. No remission percentage is published here because none was read off the paper.
- Abu Zayd al-Balkhi, Masalih al-Abdan wa al-Anfus, second part, on panic and dread and on intrusive thought; English rendering by Malik Badri, Sustenance of the Soul, IIIT, 2013. Al-Ghazali, Ihya Ulum al-Din, Book 21 on the marvels of the heart and Book 33 on fear and hope. Al-Ghazali book numbering confirmed against the ghazali.org listing. Al-Balkhi chapter divisions are taken from the secondary literature and await a reviewer checking the Arabic edition.
- Mayo-Wilson E, Dias S, Mavranezouli I, Kew K, Clark DM, and others (2014). Psychological and pharmacological interventions for social anxiety disorder in adults: a systematic review and network meta-analysis. The Lancet Psychiatry, 1(5), 368 to 376. Background for the social anxiety strand. Individual cognitive behavioural therapy was the most effective intervention in the network.