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Areas › Worry and anxiety › What worry does
Say it plainly to yourself: this is dangerous, or this is uncomfortable. Both are true of different things and the second does not require you to leave. The alarm was built out of experience, which means new experience can teach it something else, but only if you stay long enough for the lesson to happen.
God is enough for me: there is no god but Him; I put my trust in Him (Quran 9:129). A short line to hold while you stay put and let the alarm learn.
التوبة
فَإِن تَوَلَّوۡاْ فَقُلۡ حَسۡبِيَ ٱللَّهُ لَآ إِلَٰهَ إِلَّا هُوَۖ عَلَيۡهِ تَوَكَّلۡتُۖ وَهُوَ رَبُّ ٱلۡعَرۡشِ ٱلۡعَظِيمِ
If they turn away, [Prophet], say ,‘God is enough for me: there is no god but Him; I put my trust in Him; He is the Lord of the Mighty Throne.’
Qur’an 9:129read it in the library
Translation: M.A.S. Abdel Haleem, The Qur'an, Oxford University Press, 2004.
A randomised clinical trial tested a tightly focused treatment in which adults with generalised anxiety disorder ran small behavioural experiments to check their beliefs about uncertainty, and it helped them. Testing a fear rather than reasoning with it has direct support. It was one trial of one specific package, so read it as a good sign rather than the last word.
Dugas MJ, Sexton KA, Hebert EA, Bouchard S, Gouin JP, Shafran R. (2022). Behavioral Experiments for Intolerance of Uncertainty: A Randomized Clinical Trial for Adults With Generalized Anxiety Disorder.. Behavior therapy doi
Strength of evidence: one line of research. A single study, or a theoretical account.
The alarm updates from what actually happens, so it needs you to stay and find out.
Once the surge is up it takes something like a quarter of an hour to drop, and nothing sensible said inside that window will land. Give it the time first.
Plenty of people carry a piece of a condition without ever having the whole of it, and the piece still costs them something. Not meeting the threshold is not the same as being fine.
There is a small gap between something happening and the story you tell yourself about it. That gap is the cheapest place to step in.