1The mind that runs ahead into everything that could go wrong is the same mind that plans well, sees round corners and has things ready in time. One trait, pointed in two directions.
If you have been told all your life that you overthink, it is worth saying plainly that this trait has served you. The aim is not to flatten it. It is to give it a job with an end point: think it through, write down what you will actually do, then hand the rest over. Planning has a finish line. Worry does not, which is the whole difference.
Islamic evidence
No leaf falls without His knowledge (Quran 6:59). Nothing you stop tracking is thereby dropped.
“He has the keys to the unseen: no one knows them but Him. He knows all that is in the land and sea. No leaf falls without His knowledge, nor is there a single grain in the darkness of the earth, or anything, fresh or withered, that is not written in a clear…”
Qur'an 6:59
Psychological evidence
A controlled trial in 26 people with generalised anxiety disorder tested a package aimed at, among other things, beliefs about worry and how people approach problems, and it produced clinical improvement. Beliefs about worry being useful were treated as part of the target rather than as nonsense to be argued away. The sample was very small, so take it as promising rather than conclusive.
Robert Ladouceur; Michel J. Dugas; Mark H. Freeston; Éliane Léger; Fabien Gagnon; Nicole Thibodeau (2000). Journal of Consulting and Clinical Psychology · doi
Review detail
Why it works. The same forward looking mind either prepares and stops or keeps circling, and giving it a finishing point decides which.
Feedback
none yet2When you assess a young person, take a reading of the adults as well: what they understand about the world their child lives in, and how comfortable they are in it.
A good deal of what arrives as the presenting problem is really a mismatch. A parent reads something ordinary as alarming, or something serious as nothing much, and the conflict that follows becomes the reason for the appointment. Ask what they know about how their child spends time online, without making it a test, and treat the gaps as part of the work rather than as a failing.
Islamic evidence
I have knowledge from God that you do not have (Quran 12:86). A reminder that someone in the room usually knows something about their own world that the others do not.
“He said, ‘I plead my grief and sorrow before God. I have knowledge from God that you do not have”
Qur'an 12:86
Psychological evidence
In a secondary analysis of a randomised trial with 83 patients, how secure someone was in close relationships predicted which of two treatment packages worked better for them. The relationships around a person shape what their treatment needs to include. It was a small secondary analysis in adults, so it argues for asking rather than telling you what to do with the answer.
Newman MG, Castonguay LG, Jacobson NC, Moore GA. (2015). Journal of consulting and clinical psychology · doi
Review detail
Why it works. Misreadings at home create the conflict that then gets brought to you.