Lesson 2 of 6 · The false alarm
Worry sits slightly differently
Panic and avoidance run on that loop. Worry runs on something adjacent, and it is worth separating them.
Worry is mostly verbal. It is sentences, not pictures. And oddly, it flattens the physical surge rather than producing it. That is why worrying can feel like the responsible thing to be doing. It feels like work.
What it is actually doing is keeping you at a low steady hum so that nothing ever hits you suddenly. The thing being avoided is the drop, not the bad feeling. Which is why worry is so hard to put down. It is doing a job for you, badly.
What the research says
Worrying before something frightening flattened the body's response to it. Worry really does damp the surge, which is exactly why it feels like useful work and is so hard to put down.
A period of worry before a frightening image flattened the heart response to that image. Worry does damp the surge, which is the part that makes it feel like work.
Borkovec TD, Hu S (1990). The effect of worry on cardiovascular response to phobic imagery. Behaviour Research and Therapy, 28(1), 69 to 73 doi
Worry appears to hold you at a steady low level of feeling bad so that nothing arrives suddenly. What it is protecting you from is the drop, not the distress, which is why it can run for years without making anything better.
Tested against the older account that worry suppresses feeling. What the results support instead is that worry holds a person at a steady low level of bad feeling so that nothing arrives suddenly. The drop is what is being avoided.
Llera SJ, Newman MG (2014). Rethinking the role of worry in generalized anxiety disorder: evidence supporting a model of emotional contrast avoidance. Behavior Therapy, 45(3), 283 to 299 doi