WORRY WART

I had lunch with a work friend today and one of the topics of conversation was "worry".

Worry is an emotion in which a person feels anxious or concerned about a real or imagined issue, ranging from personal issues such as health or finances to broader issues such as environmental pollution and social or technological change. Most people experience short-lived episodes of worry in their lives without incident; indeed, a moderate amount of worrying may even have positive effects, if it prompts people to take precautions (e.g., fastening their seat belt or buying fire insurance) or avoid risky behaviours (e.g., promiscuous sexual relations or cliff diving). However, about one in four people, have chronic worry, an anxiety disorder which requires professional treatment. Chronic worry can cause heart attacks, high blood pressure, ulcers, gastrointestinal problems, muscular aches and pains, skin rashes, eczema, respiratory problems and asthma. From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.

I'm a skilled "worrier". There are issues that no matter how hard I try, I just cant get my mind around or remember x, y or z. But when it comes to worrying, well I can analyse everything to the nth degree and then do it all again backwards and upside down and inside out. There's quite an art to it. You just wake for whatever reason during the night and let your brain click into gear. No, let me rephrase that - experience your brain kicking into gear. (Its involuntary, like your heartbeat). Then you go through infinite scenarios, with an infinfite number of outcomes, an infinite number of time. The worry process from go to woe can be anywhere from 2 - 5 hours. I wonder how many calories all that brain activity is burning?

So in talking to my friend today, and she being very sympathetic and giving advice on how to cope, I assured her that very soon I'd reach the end of my worry quotient. My brain would realise that the issue had been worried to exhaustion and then I could park it until the next stage where another bout of worrying would be justified. Aaah bring on the calm between the storms.

In the meantime when I'm not worrying (coz its really just a middle-of-the-night-thing) I'm keeping up my training and eating well. The MM has done a little stall but the Whoosh Fairy cant be too far away.

:-) Magda