Lesson 2 of 6 · The loop between debt and the mind
Two beliefs holding it in place
People stuck in this almost always hold two beliefs at the same time, and they pull against each other, which is why it is so hard to put down.
The first is that the worrying is dangerous, or that it is out of your control, or that it is going to make you ill.
The second is that the worrying is necessary. That it is the responsible thing to do. That if you stopped, something would be missed, and that a person who was not worrying about this would be a person who did not care.
Hold both and you cannot move. Stopping feels reckless and continuing feels harmful.
Lesson four does not ask you to argue with either belief. It does something duller and more useful, which is to give the worry a time and a place so that it stops running the other twenty three hours.
What the research says
On this account what keeps worry running is not what you worry about but what you believe about worrying: that it is uncontrollable and harmful, and at the same time that it is necessary. Holding both at once is what keeps you in it.
The metacognitive account holds that what keeps worry running is not its content but the beliefs a person holds about worrying itself, on both sides at once: that it is uncontrollable and harmful, and that it is necessary and responsible. The paper assesses meta-worry, which is worry about worrying, against generalised anxiety disorder as it was then defined. It is a model with an assessment behind it rather than a trial, so treat it as a well supported account rather than as a result.
Wells A (2005). The metacognitive model of GAD: assessment of meta-worry and relationship with DSM-IV generalized anxiety disorder. Cognitive Therapy and Research, 29(1), 107 to 121 doi