1When something feels unbearable to risk, follow it downwards. If that did happen, what would it mean, and what would happen after that?
Keep asking gently, and stop when you reach something that is a statement about the person rather than about the situation, such as it would prove I cannot manage anything. That is the sentence doing the work, and while it stays unspoken there is nothing to be done with it. Written out in daylight it is usually far less convincing than it was underneath.
Islamic evidence
I will tell you the meaning of the things you could not bear with patiently (Quran 18:78). The meaning of an event is not obvious while it is happening, which is exactly why the meaning you have assumed is worth checking.
“He said, ‘This is where you and I part company. I will tell you the meaning of the things you could not bear with patiently”
Qur'an 18:78
Psychological evidence
In patients carrying a range of anxiety and depressive diagnoses, discomfort with not knowing was raised across the board, and how far it fell during treatment tracked how much their symptoms improved. That suggests it is a working part of the problem rather than a by-product of it. It is still a relationship observed over the course of treatment, so it does not prove that lowering it is what causes the improvement.
James F. Boswell; Johanna Thompson‐Hollands; Todd J. Farchione; David H. Barlow (2013). Journal of Clinical Psychology · doi
Review detail
Why it works. You cannot examine a conclusion you have never actually put into words.