The participants also recorded how likely they thought their worries were going to happen according to their gut feeling and according to what they think logically.
For the few worries that did come true, they rated one third of them as turning out better than they expected. So, still not worth worrying about!
They were also VERY inaccurate at predicting how many of their worries would come true! Both their gut feelings and their logical thinking about their worries were leading them straight down to anxiety town.
Well, it's a small study and it needs to be replicated to make really strong assertions.
But what we can say is that it is worth going through this process yourself to see how many of your worries are not really worth worrying about!
Which leads me to another result of the study...
When participants found out that most of their worries were untrue, it helped them decrease their worries.
Why am I telling you all this?
Well duh 😉
Do you want to spend less time worrying so you can spend more time on literally anything else??
Reference:
LaFreniere, L.S. & Newman, M.G. (2020). Exposing Worry’s Deceit: Percentage of Untrue Worries in Generalized Anxiety Disorder Treatment, Behavior Therapy 51(3), 413-423.
