Anxiety what if thoughts

Identifying and Curbing Worry-filled “What If” Thoughts

‘‘What if’’ thoughts are natural, but sometimes it’s hard to turn them off. There are steps you can take to calm your mind and lessen your anxious thoughts.

Wondering “What if?” isn’t always a problem, but sometimes you might follow these thoughts down an anxiety-filled rabbit hole. When this happens, it can be difficult to focus on daily life and tasks. You even might find these thoughts keep you up at night.

If you find yourself worrying about things that might happen, rest assured there are ways to stop poring over what-ifs and start putting your mind at ease.

“What if” thoughts can be about almost anything.

Common “what if” thoughts often center on financial concerns, relationships, health, or the future. Sometimes, these thoughts can be about anxiety itself.

Examples

What if I lose my job?
What if I can’t pay my bills?
What if my partner breaks up with me?
What if my headache means I have cancer?
What if I end up alone?
What if I have a panic attack?
What if I mess up at work or school?

What-if thoughts can sometimes serve a purpose. They could prepare us for dangerous situations or keep us on task. But intrusive thoughts may start to take up too much space in your mind and overstay their utility.

When are they problematic?

If worried-filled thoughts distract you constantly or interfere with productivity and relationships, these ruminations could be a symptom of an anxiety disorder.

Symptoms of generalized anxiety disorder (GAD) and panic disorder can involve intrusive thoughts like the “what ifs” but also include:

not being able to stop worrying or being nervous
knowing you worry too much
having a hard time relaxing or concentrating
trouble falling asleep
constantly feeling on edge

Anxiety can also take a toll on your body, and you may notice physical symptoms like:

having a hard time staying asleep
being tired all the time
unexplained pain
headaches, muscle aches, stomachaches
sweating a lot for no reason
breathlessness
needing to go the bathroom often

If you notice you have some of these symptoms, in addition to your worrisome thoughts, you may want to think about talking with a doctor or a therapist. They can help provide resources and strategies to reframe ruminations.

In the meantime, you can try these approaches to keep your worries in check and stop wondering “what if.”

You can reserve self-criticisms about your thoughts and instead make notes of whatever crosses your mind. Research from 2018 shows that writing down your thoughts can help lower anxiety.

It may be tempting to accept “what if” thoughts as inevitable truths, but they aren’t.

Thoughts are just that — they come and they go, as present moment awareness principles explain. What you do with those thoughts is what gives them power.

You may be able to better manage ruminations if you identify them as they come and allow them to pass.

Once you can call out a “what if” thought, it can help to take a moment to see if you can pinpoint the source of the unwanted thought.

You might ask yourself:

What’s going on right now that may have caused me to think this?
How do I feel about what’s going on?
Am I safe right now? Is there something that makes me feel unsafe?

Over time, you may realize your anxious thoughts are spurred in specific situations, like before a meeting with your boss or doctor’s appointment.

If you know ahead of time your anxiety could be triggered by a particular scenario, you can go into the situation prepared with anxiety reduction strategies.

Therapy can be a powerful tool against worrisome thoughts. It can teach you how to transform your thoughts, behaviors, and reactions so you can maintain mental wellness.

Online therapy or a support group can also help you manage anxiety.

Remember, you’re not alone, no matter how you choose to deal with your “what if” worries.

At one time, as many as 6 million people in the United States reported having intrusive thoughts.

We all have troubling “what if” ruminations from time to time.

Sometimes, anxiety can be difficult to recognize, and it can be hard to break a worry cycle. There are several approaches you can try to manage anxiety and turn the noise of the “what if” thoughts down.

Identifying and Curbing Worry-filled “What If” Thoughts

‘‘What if’’ thoughts are natural, but sometimes it’s hard to turn them off. There are steps you can take to calm your mind and lessen your anxious thoughts.

If you find yourself worrying about things that might happen, rest assured there are ways to stop poring over what-ifs and start putting your mind at ease.

“What if” thoughts can be about almost anything.

Common “what if” thoughts often center on financial concerns, relationships, health, or the future. Sometimes, these thoughts can be about anxiety itself.

Examples

What if I lose my job?
What if I can’t pay my bills?
What if my partner breaks up with me?
What if my headache means I have cancer?
What if I end up alone?
What if I have a panic attack?
What if I mess up at work or school?

When are they problematic?

If worried-filled thoughts distract you constantly or interfere with productivity and relationships, these ruminations could be a symptom of an anxiety disorder.

Symptoms of generalized anxiety disorder (GAD) and panic disorder can involve intrusive thoughts like the “what ifs” but also include:

not being able to stop worrying or being nervous
knowing you worry too much
having a hard time relaxing or concentrating
trouble falling asleep
constantly feeling on edge

Anxiety can also take a toll on your body, and you may notice physical symptoms like:

having a hard time staying asleep
being tired all the time
unexplained pain
headaches, muscle aches, stomachaches
sweating a lot for no reason
breathlessness
needing to go the bathroom often

In the meantime, you can try these approaches to keep your worries in check and stop wondering “what if.”

You can reserve self-criticisms about your thoughts and instead make notes of whatever crosses your mind. Research from 2018 shows that writing down your thoughts can help lower anxiety.

It may be tempting to accept “what if” thoughts as inevitable truths, but they aren’t.

Thoughts are just that — they come and they go, as present moment awareness principles explain. What you do with those thoughts is what gives them power.

You may be able to better manage ruminations if you identify them as they come and allow them to pass.

Once you can call out a “what if” thought, it can help to take a moment to see if you can pinpoint the source of the unwanted thought.

You might ask yourself:

What’s going on right now that may have caused me to think this?
How do I feel about what’s going on?
Am I safe right now? Is there something that makes me feel unsafe?

Over time, you may realize your anxious thoughts are spurred in specific situations, like before a meeting with your boss or doctor’s appointment.

If you know ahead of time your anxiety could be triggered by a particular scenario, you can go into the situation prepared with anxiety reduction strategies.

Therapy can be a powerful tool against worrisome thoughts. It can teach you how to transform your thoughts, behaviors, and reactions so you can maintain mental wellness.

Online therapy or a support group can also help you manage anxiety.

Remember, you’re not alone, no matter how you choose to deal with your “what if” worries.

At one time, as many as 6 million people in the United States reported having intrusive thoughts.

We all have troubling “what if” ruminations from time to time.

Obsessive thoughts - how it works and principles of self-help

Obsessive thoughts - how it works and principles of self-help

What supports obsessive thoughts/images?

Traumatic experience (accident, death/injury of a person, participation in hostilities, other events that caused strong emotional experiences, usually negative). Otherwise, such a phenomenon is called psychopathological re-experiencing, or flashback. A bit of a separate topic, because. can occur in any person not because of his personal qualities, inclinations, response characteristics that predispose him to the emergence of stable obsessive thoughts, but because of the severity of the experience. Such phenomena can often pass quickly enough with the use of certain psychotherapeutic techniques, for example, EMDH.
Excessive control, the desire to control what is impossible to control. During a boring conversation, the mind of any person begins to wander. Just because you can think purposefully doesn't mean you can control your thinking. There are thoughts of insight, and there are uncontrollable thoughts of the opposite plan that are unpleasant to us, frighten us, cause horror, disgust, shame, etc. It's like trying to control dreams - just let them dream. And if such thoughts are comparable for you to nightmares from which you wake up in a sweat, then, of course, it is simply impossible not to do anything, however, fighting them with direct confrontation is the same as cutting off the heads of the Lernean Hydra (the mythical many-headed hydra, - if you cut her head, then two new heads immediately grew in its place). Because the more attention you give to such thoughts, the more meaningful they become. The more you try to control them and fight them, the more attention and importance you yourself give them.
Giving excessive attention and importance to these thoughts which we have already touched upon in the previous paragraph. They seem to become overvalued if you constantly fight them. But what if they are like horror and a nightmare? We will talk about this further.
Fear that thoughts can become actions. The logic is this: if my thoughts do not obey me, then where is the guarantee that my actions will not become uncontrolled? In fact, it rather depends on the innate temperament - the type of reaction of the nervous system. There are people with predominant impulsiveness - they first react, act, and then cognitive processing takes place, then thoughts. And there are people who will think everything over, sometimes it’s too late to do it, but they thought everything through. And it's like two separate railway tracks, which are laid in such a way that one does not pass into the other. If you think obsessive thoughts while others act impulsively, then you can not disturb yourself in vain: it is as if you are walking on a different railway track, you have a different type of response of the nervous system. (In obsessive-compulsive disorder, both obsessive thoughts and compulsive actions occur, but actions are performed to prove that obsessive thoughts are erroneous, far-fetched, they are not actions confirming these thoughts and arise as an apotheosis of direct opposition to obsessive thoughts. For example, a person who has obsessive thoughts about a fire in the house because the iron is not turned off, can check several times before leaving and after leaving the house whether the iron is plugged in. He will not impulsively start a fire in the house, which obsessive thoughts scare him, but will do the opposite). You decide what actions to take, guided by your own will, mood, personal preferences, and also depending on your personality type. And if you have all this, then where will it disappear, and what kind of cow can lick all these characteristics of yours with its tongue so that they don’t remain, and you begin to be guided by behavior incomprehensibly by what? You just struggle with obsessive thoughts, and they fight back - they scare you, including impossible things. Well, how impossible - very unlikely. This can happen in acute psychosis, when consciousness, perception, often memory become clouded, then the behavior behind them all becomes inadequate, but these are rare phenomena and are in no way associated with obsessive thoughts, they can rather be associated with a long history of alcohol, with schizophrenia , dementia, etc.
Self-flagellation about the fact that "others would not have thought of it", a judgment that thoughts allegedly speak about a person's character or about his intentions. Character is shown in the way you lead your life. It is about what you decide to do or not do. Thoughts are just flashes in your mind. It is not you who decides whether thoughts arise or not. Your character is not shown in any way if there is no place for making a decision. A thought is not a fact or a statement about you as a person. Character is the decisions you make in life, not something that randomly pops into your mind.
The belief that the more you think about something, the more likely it is to happen. The belief that thoughts are material. Here, certain features of perception play against a person. It is more true, I think, to say that the more you think about something, the more likely you are to notice and remember that it happened. And if the way we think does not happen, then our psyche tends to forget it as a failure, as a mismatch, as a failed connection (the synthesis of the two parts failed), as something unimportant. The brain analyzes and synthesizes, this is its job. What has not succumbed to synthesis does not deserve special attention. Therefore, we tend to remember those moments when our thoughts became reality, and many thoughts that cannot be connected with reality simply go unnoticed and unappreciated, and can emerge even after a long time if the brain finds for one of such old, abandoned thoughts communication in the real world. Therefore, people tend to remember those few forebodings that were justified (because they had personal significance), forgetting about the numerous cases when all doubts and fears were not justified in any way by subsequent events. Thoughts themselves are often based on guesses about the world around us and how it works, on our previous personal experience, etc. Thoughts rather influence whether we will try to do something, whether we will be afraid of what something to do, etc. They affect our attitude towards reality and our response rather than changes in reality per se.
The conviction that every thought is worthy of attention, and that repeated thoughts are of particular importance. Our consciousness and brain function in general can be compared to cable TV. And sometimes our attention to our inner world can for a moment switch to one of the unnecessary, uninteresting, not characteristic of us or even alien to us channels - this moment can become an obsessive thought if we give it significance and start fighting it. Especially if you also believe that all thoughts are worth paying attention to, and that there are no and should not be useless channels in the mind. Then your attention may be absorbed by meaningless nonsense. If you begin to act impartially towards such useless thoughts, and not fight them just because they are, and if in the end you admit that they have no meaning, then in time they will simply disappear.

Regarding the greater importance of repetitive thoughts - we have already discussed this feature of perception, that thoughts are the more often repeated, the more importance we attach to them - both in a positive context (we think about something with interest), and in a negative one (obsessive thoughts ). However, in a positive context, we do not make a problem out of it, and in a negative one, we can make a big problem over time if we try. It is as if a whole searchlight is directed at this thought - as soon as its significance increases - if this thought is tacitly declared a problem. However, if the issue is already declared, i.e. in fact, you feel that this is a problem for you, then just saying that this is not a problem can be tantamount to a waste of time. We need consistent actions, an analysis of our feelings and experiences.

Strengthening the “importance of thought” on a sensory level. Here's how it works: When you're frightened or surprised or in danger, the area of the brain responsible for the alarm signals (amygdala/amygdala) sends signals of danger. In a stressful situation, the biological systems of the body are activated, supporting a clear strategy of behavior: “fight/flight/freeze”. Such a reaction occurs automatically, regardless of whether a false threat exists or a real one. The amygdala is not "specially smart". And it can't tell a real threat from a false signal. She just reacts to the trigger - real/imaginary - in the only way she can. She sends out an alarm. If you are frightened by a thought, and the amygdala automatically gives out a signal of danger, then the emotional reaction will be the same as in real danger. Feelings in the body appear such that the thought may seem dangerous or very important. But neurons in the cerebral cortex analyze and are able to distinguish a real threat from an apparent one. The cortex is responsible for rational thinking and judgment. The problem is that the impulses from the higher brain arrive about half a second later than the first automatic alarm. Therefore, the feeling of danger arises before the cerebral cortex has the opportunity to intervene. And we tend to consider the first impulse to be true and true, so we can no longer listen to the second, devalue it, wind ourselves up and worsen our life out of the blue.

For lovers of a deeper understanding of the work of the brain - a paragraph about the peculiarities of the response of the amygdala, which in general we have already discussed in the previous paragraph. The amygdala (tonsil) can only be in two states - active or passive. Since the purpose is to warn you, the amygdala is activated at the slightest hint of a possible threat. Her job is to protect you, not to take care of your comfort, so she would rather give a thousand false signals and cause as many panic attacks when there is no problem than miss even one real danger. Initially, it was supposed to provide primitive survival. She reacts very quickly, trying to protect you from any possible threat. The amygdala learns to be afraid: loud noises and loss of support are two innate fear triggers. Children begin to use protective behavior near a hot stove, a socket, a sharp knife much later. The amygdala in people with obsessive thoughts has learned to "ring the alarm bell" because of certain thoughts. Now imagine if someone came up behind you and scared you with a loud sound, the startle reaction starts instantly. But then, turning around and realizing that this is such a stupid joke and nothing terrible happened, your fear passes. In this example, I will talk about two neural pathways to the amygdala. Loud sound comes from the ear through different structures, transforming into nerve impulses. Reaching the thalamus (the "control panel" in the brain), they are sent to the amygdala (one way) and to the cortex, where the signal that something may be wrong is analyzed, compared with additional factors, and the result is also sent to the amygdala (one more way). This path is about half a second longer. This means that you get scared before you know the reason, and this is due to the neurophysiology of the brain. Your reaction in such a case is swift, automatic and unavoidable. The first fright passes quickly if the amygdala receives a message from the cerebral cortex that the trigger was not a threat. Assuming that the first fright attack is a reaction to the obsessive thought that you could jump off the balcony, then you might think: “Does this mean that I have suicidal tendencies that I did not know about?” or “How can you be sure it won’t happen?” etc. Thus, you would give a signal to the amygdala to continue to sound the alarm (to catch up with yourself a secondary fear, which can also increase the feeling of danger several times from the original).

Fixing unnecessary associative connections in the brain. Our thinking creates many associations: "up-down", "north-south", "more-less", etc. So in general, nerves that react simultaneously - as if soldered together, are associated with each other (the concept of conditioning). Overcoming intrusive thoughts involves creating new associations that eliminate fear.

Anxious thinking - a change in the state of consciousness when the amygdala is activated. Its characteristics:

Merging thoughts and actions, imagination and experience of the situation. Questions like “What if…?” no longer look like conjectures, but are perceived as a reliable vision of the future. Thoughts seem to be predictions. "Fear has big eyes".
All risks seem unreasonable. Anxious thinking requires absolute guarantees that the nightmares you may have thought will not happen. Everything else is cause for continued concern. Uncertainty is unbearable. Any uncertainty is perceived as a threat. And to complete this picture of the post-apocalypse, it should be noted that the brain during anxious thinking is in a functional mode of increased sensitivity to the threat.
Thoughts tend to become intrusive. They seem to get stuck in the mind.

Some Exercises

Now imagine opening the following email: “Congratulations! Your lucky day has come. Your distant relative, who headed the diamond corporation in Chicago, died, leaving you a legacy of 14 billion dollars. To receive the inheritance, please follow the link below and provide us with your bank details for money transfer. Once again, let me congratulate you from the bottom of my heart."

Will you send this letter to spam or will you study and think in detail about its content, why it was sent to you, why now, etc.? If you just spam it, then why don't you do the same with intrusive thoughts?

An exercise explaining the mechanism of engagement.

Please answer how strong emotional connotation do the words “cut” and “transfer” have for you (from 1 to 10)?
Delete the letters from each word so that "beat" and "betray" remain. How powerful are these words?
Now go back to the words "hack" and "transfer". Has their emotional perception changed?

If it has changed in the direction of strengthening, then you have become emotionally involved, because the words have emotional associations with other words that you cannot yet ignore. These words may already seem negative, speaking of danger, unpleasant. But words are just words. They don't have any color until you start to interpret them, and then it becomes very easy to get involved in the process.

Solving the problem

Alternative methods to what will be offered here may help someone, and they may even make someone worse. For example, prayer can reduce anxiety, but it can also increase involvement in those intrusive thoughts that a person wants to forget. Yoga and meditation can be used by a person who is intrinsically motivated to reduce the tendency to get "stuck in the mind" and get involved in thoughts, or maybe motivated to learn to control thoughts. In the latter case, the condition is likely to worsen.

This article suggests the following: acceptance of these thoughts. One should actively allow thoughts to emerge, not wanting them to disappear, because. it helps to realize that they are not important. Concentrate not on the result of a false alarm given by an overly cautious amygdala, but on how your thoughts are not an alarm signal to the amygdala.

You should also practice allowing reasonable uncertainty in your life. Certainty is a feeling, not a fact. If you continue to reassure yourself, then you can never get used to the fact that there is uncertainty in life, and constantly worry about this. Try to focus on the present as well. if you think about the future, you think about more uncertainty than if you think about the present. Yet too much uncertainty is hardly a good atmosphere for the absence of anxiety. Therefore, accept the uncertainty that cannot be reduced in a natural way, and if the uncertainty can be reduced without sacrificing anything, then do it. For example, focus on the present rather than the future. What do you hear, what do you feel, is it cold now or hot? These are simple questions for yourself in a more definite present that is and exists.

Feeling the need to do something urgently (panic) when obsessive thoughts arise - also arises from an attempt to deal with uncertainty. Panic sensations indicate discomfort, not danger, and discomfort should be tolerated if it proves to the brain that this discomfort is not dangerous. Actively and in a panic try to do something - like putting out a fire, fanning the flame. It happens that passivity is much more effective than effort. It's like peeling off a crust from a wound - supposedly it will pass faster, heal faster. Sometimes you just need to understand how to wait for the right time so as not to interfere with natural processes to fade away on their own.

False response of the brain makes one consider the thought dangerous and stay away from it, and in order to retrain the amygdala, one must evoke a reaction in it and then show that in this case there is no danger. So she will be retrained. And if you stay away from these thoughts, then they will be associated with danger, and with a decrease in cortical control (during stress, discomfort, in some situation reminiscent of these thoughts, etc.), they will be able to arise again and remind themselves through panic and a sense of danger that the amygdala will turn on. The amygdala learns not to be afraid only when the fear response is activated. To compromise and evoke in your mind not the most terrible thoughts of those that periodically torment you means forgetting that any thoughts are just thoughts. The best results come from regular practice in a variety of situations and conditions.

Intrusive thoughts seem so frightening because the anxious type of thinking wins and the thought begins to look extremely plausible. You can compare the tormenting obsessive thoughts with a fairy-tale city, where the road of fear is the central one. If you use the method suggested here to dispel these intrusive thoughts, you can imagine that you are building a freeway next to the road of fear in this city. As a result, the built motorway will be used more and more often, because. this is energy-efficient (the brain exists according to the laws of conservation of energy, and if we offer a less energy-consuming option for solving a problem, in particular, dealing with obsessive thoughts, then this option is most likely to take root). But the path of fear has not disappeared either. Fear may arise even after many years, during times of stress or extreme fatigue, etc., but this does not mean that your achievements will be lost in an instant. The achievement is that the freeway is used much more often. This achievement is still with you, even if one or more cars drove along the old road. It is important to understand this in order not to destroy your own achievements, accepting for the truth that supposedly everything has returned to what it started. If you allow this fear into yourself, then this can indeed happen, but this can all become so only because you agreed with the amygdala's false signal of danger and also confirmed the almost emergency situation in the city with this thought that “everything comes back”, or “everything came back”, or “it didn’t work out for me again”, well, or “this method didn’t work either”. If you switch to the fact that nothing terrible has happened, these are just thoughts and you are able to endure these thoughts, then further on, based on its properties, the brain will continue to use and strengthen new mechanisms that are not associated with fear. This will become possible because you will remove the imaginary danger mode, and the brain will no longer need to solve the primary task - to survive.

Here is an example of a possible internal dialogue: (after the dialogue, the division of the replicas into certain colors is deciphered, but I recommend that you just read first, then familiarize yourself with what the colors mean and read it again) *

- What if this does not work? What if I lose control of myself so much that I actually do what I fear?

- Don't be stupid, drop all these thoughts. This has happened so many times already, and not once did thoughts turn into actions.

- Please don't react to these thoughts. These are just thoughts.

- No, it will drive me crazy someday!

- You shouldn't even answer these thoughts.

- It really can happen, what will you do then?

- It's just an obsessive thought. Thought is just a thought.

- Oh, I might have a nervous breakdown right now from all this!

- However, I accept these thoughts and allow them to manifest. I have already tried other methods of struggle, you should not return to them.

- WHAT IF I CAN'T CONTROL MYSELF?

- I know that some other obsessive thought may follow.

- I don't think I can take it anymore!

- Let the time pass.

- I'm so worried about all this. What if I never settle down?

- I relax and observe.

- What if I actually do it?

- It's not even worth answering this question.

- Not sure if I can control myself.

- I allow thoughts to manifest.

- (softly) This has been going on for so long. What if it never stops?

- I accept thoughts

- (even more subtly) I'm not sure I can control myself.

- You see, it works - so with these thoughts you need to keep it up.

(to “devalue” these obsessive thoughts to yourself, you can somehow ridicule them during such an internal dialogue, for example, sing obsessive thoughts to a certain motive of a song).

*Red indicates thoughts that are a direct signal for the amygdala to continue to turn on the mode of alarm, danger and emergency. The orange color indicates the thoughts of the internal dialogue, which make the “red” thoughts important, significant, those whose important essence should be listened to and, based on this essence, try to somehow influence them, if at all possible. Blue color indicates thoughts that are a signal for the amygdala to calm down.

Based on the book Getting Rid of Intrusive Thoughts - A Guide to Overcoming Stress and Anxiety. Sally M. Winston, Martin N. Safe

PS: Anxiety (and the thoughts, images, actions, states that it causes) can be a facade reaction, behind which other feelings can stand. Then this self-help described here may not be enough. For example, new emotional states that have arisen can also cause discomfort and you may feel confused about how to help yourself. In this case, it is better to contact a specialist.

How anxiety distorts the perception of reality

Bobby Azarian
BBC Future

January 17, 2017

Image copyright Thinkstock

Anxiety tendencies can have a profound effect on how we perceive the world. BBC Future 's columnist wondered if a new treatment could help relieve constant anxiety.

All sorts of disturbing thoughts are rushing through your head, your pulse quickens and your breathing gets out of hand. Anxiety gives way to fear, and then you suddenly panic.

You feel confused and overexcited. If these symptoms are familiar to you, then know that you are not alone.

Chemophobia: a false fear that prevents you from seeing real dangers
Fear of mathematics - where does it come from?
What every big boss secretly fears
Birds that fear death

Actresses Jennifer Lawrence and Emma Stone, musician Brian Wilson of the Beach Boys and singer Taylor Swift, artist Vincent van Gogh and poet Emily Dickinson suffered from paralyzing anxiety attacks .

Everyone knows that anxiety affects the emotional state of a person and prevents him from interacting with the outside world.

However, few people know about the impact that anxiety has on our attention in everyday life. Because of it, the priorities of attention are shifted, which entails a change in the information entering the brain and, consequently, our perception of reality.

This can have far-reaching consequences. By influencing attention, anxiety can shape a person's worldview and value system in a certain and predictable way. It can also affect our beliefs without our knowledge.

To avoid the distortion of reality caused by anxiety, you first need to understand the mechanisms that regulate attention and how to control them.

According to a metaphor inspired by the work of the talented and progressive 19th century American psychologist William James, our visual attention system is much like a searchlight "scanning" the world around us.

This "spotlight of attention" is a limited area of space that is the focus of attention at a certain moment. What gets into it, the brain consciously processes, but what remains outside it does not.

Looking at the world around, a person focuses on the subject that he would like to examine better. Our brain is not able to process in detail an object, text or environment if they are not in the center of attention.

Image copyright, iStock

Image caption,

Our mind works like a searchlight, helping us notice important details

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The example of a man reading a book in a crowded train car can be used to understand how this works. His eyes move across the page from left to right, line by line. At the same time, the "spotlight of attention" moves from word to word.

The word on which a person focuses attention is clearly perceived by his consciousness, while the words that lie outside the "spotlight of attention" seem blurry and mostly illegible.

Such localization is necessary because the simultaneous perception of all visual information about the environment would lead to "overload" of the brain, which is a system with limited resources, like a computer.

"Spotlight" allows the brain to focus only on the important, ignoring all unnecessary information. Thanks to this, we are able to perceive the reality around us.

In most cases, we consciously choose where to focus our attention, but this process is not always under our voluntary control.

At the same time, not all objects and phenomena surrounding us are perceived by us in the same way. So, for example, a bright flash of light or a sharp movement where it should not be, automatically attracts our attention, and it moves to the point where they arose.

Few people like it when something abruptly distracts their attention, but this does not happen by chance. The involuntary switching of attention is necessary in order to immediately notify a person about what is vital for his survival.

For an ancient man, the reason for automatic switching of attention could be a prey running by, or, if less lucky, an approaching danger - a predator or a dangerous enemy, for example.

Image copyright, iStock

Image caption,

Without the "attention spotlight" we wouldn't be able to read because it helps us focus on a few words while ignoring the rest.

Snakes, spiders, angry or frightening faces, threatening postures, and weapon-like objects are all capable of drawing our attention. We can say that visual attention prioritizes threats in the interests of self-defense.

Undoubtedly, this function helps a person to survive, but anxiety can make a system for quickly and effectively detecting threats hypersensitive, as a result of which the "spotlight of attention" begins to work to the detriment of a person.

So, for example, you can lose some control over your own attention, because it focuses too quickly on what the brain perceives as a danger, regardless of whether it really is or not.

And when a person focuses only on danger, negative information takes over his consciousness.

To understand exactly how anxiety can completely change a person's worldview, changing the priorities of attention, think about what it is like for a person with a high level of anxiety to travel by train through a densely populated metropolitan area.

Imagine that you are standing on a crowded subway platform, looking out into the crowd around you. Your attention is automatically attracted to people with an unfriendly expression, while you simply ignore cheerful faces.

As a result, you feel that everyone around you is a little upset, and your mood deteriorates.

While you are waiting for your stop on the train, you notice that a large man in a hooded sweatshirt sitting next to you is suddenly thrusting his hand into his pocket, as if trying to get a weapon.

Luckily, he takes out a mobile phone from his pocket, but the whole situation makes you wonder what would happen if it was a gun.

As a result, you become even more convinced that the subway is a dangerous place, full of dubious characters and irritated people.

Image copyright, iStock

Image caption,

We have evolved the ability to spot potentially dangerous objects in our environment, such as spiders, which can be poisonous

Now imagine that this happens all the time. Due to the fact that the threat is a priority, we filter out all the good and perceive only the bad. The cognitive system is overwhelmed with excitement and fear.

This causes anxiety to have too much of an effect on how we evaluate our environment. In fact, to anxious people, the world literally seems to be a frightening and dysfunctional place.

These radical changes in perception can shape a person's worldview, including their political and ideological beliefs.

For example, a 2009 study showed that anxiety can affect a person's attention in such a way that all people from the Middle East begin to seem dangerous to him. This undoubtedly influences his political views regarding immigration.

As part of the experiment, the researchers asked participants from Western countries with different levels of anxiety to take a computer test. It consisted of pressing a key in response to visual stimuli appearing on the screen.

First, the subjects saw a word flashing on the screen, and then two faces - an Arab and a European, on each of which a dot from the sight could appear.

The results showed that people with high anxiety responded more quickly to the dots that appeared on the faces of people with an Arab appearance if they were previously shown a word associated with terrorism - for example, "bomb".

This means that when an anxious person was made to think about terrorism, the faces of people from the Middle East were at the center of his visual attention, which indicates the expectation of danger.

Research findings explain why people with high levels of anxiety often side with politicians who promise to protect the country by banning immigration and imposing tough national security measures.

This is confirmed by the results of another study conducted in 2012 by a group of scientists from the University of Nebraska at Lincoln.

They found that people who pay more attention to negative images tend to lean towards the right politically.

In one experiment, researchers showed liberal and conservative participants computer-generated collages of pictures with positive and negative connotations.

At the same time, they tracked the subjects' eye movements to understand what they were paying attention to.

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If a person is prone to anxiety, the whole world may seem dangerous to him

They found that those whose attention was immediately and permanently attracted to unpleasant and repulsive images - for example, traffic accidents, dead bodies and open wounds - more often identified themselves as conservatives.

The authors of the study find it logical that people who are more alert and receptive to threats often support center-right politicians who promise to protect society from external threats by strengthening military power and national security, introducing tougher penalties for criminals and discouraging immigration.

In its extreme manifestations, anxiety can have a serious negative impact on human health, but you can change the situation by training your attention.

What's more, today this can be done with convenient computer programs and even smartphone apps.

The most popular form of training is Attention Bias Modification Training (ABMT for short), also commonly known as Cognitive Bias Modification (CBM for short).

It can include different tasks united by one goal. In standard training, patients see pictures with positive and negative images on the computer screen. As a rule, these are happy and gloomy faces, replacing each other hundreds of times.

Since anxiety is related to focusing on negative stimuli, patients are asked to select positive images by pressing a key or screen.

By doing this over and over, and ideally for several days or weeks in a row, they get into the habit of paying attention not to the threat and negative information, but to what is positive.

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Can we find a way to correct this skewed threat perception and get rid of anxiety?

Dozens of studies have confirmed the effectiveness of this method. Of particular interest is one published in the Journal of the Association for Psychological Sciences, Clinical Psychological Science.

It showed that a 25-45 minute session of ABMT therapy played on a mobile phone reduced threat alertness, subjective anxiety, and observed stress sensitivity.

Patients suffering from anxiety disorders who are unable to receive treatment at the clinic can now also receive psychological help with just a few minutes of an exciting mobile game on the way to work.

However, some scientists are skeptical about ABMT. In some recent studies, the effectiveness of this type of therapy has been called into question.

Scientists have shown that single sessions of ABMT are no more beneficial than other cognitive-based treatments for anxiety disorders, such as cognitive behavioral therapy, and in some cases even placebo.

Scientist, professor, and licensed psychologist Per Carlbring of Stockholm University acknowledges that these criticisms are valid, but notes that mindfulness training should not be abandoned entirely.

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