When most of our stress is based off of.....NOTHING

Therapy is a place to explore, unpack and discover yourself. Often in discussing what is bringing somebody in - it is due to some type of event (or series of events) that they’ve been through or an acute circumstance that are finding themselves in. We then take the time to assess how the person is processing said events/experiences and explore if there are healthier or different ways to process them (in a nutshell)

However other times in therapy, the content isn’t about anything that has happened or is currently happening but rather about stress created by your own mind. We then take the time to learn to evaluate why your brain is stressing about the concept that doesn’t exist and learn to redirect your brain to healthier, less mentally uncomfortable directions.

Here are the 3 primary examples of when your stress is based off of….nothing

1) Worrying about something you cannot control: In short, this speaks to our tendency to put mental real estate into something that we cannot do anything about anyways. While it’s not healthy to deflect or deny our emotions about circumstances that we can’t control; it’s also not healthy to worry about it as if there is something we can do about it!

2) Worrying about something that isn’t happening yet or may never happen: In other words, worrying about negative outcomes that take place in your future. This is fruitless for two reasons 1) if the outcome is already set, then what is worrying about it going to do? Then your just in emotional turmoil now AND when the event happens (and see above about not being able to do anything about it anyways! 2) Often the negative outcome doesn’t ever occur! We then have wasted our time and headspace on negative thinking that didn’t even result in a negative outcome.

3) Worrying about assumptions we have made without evidence to support it: This often occurs when we interpret somebody else’s behavior or overthink how we may be being perceived by others. We are very good at inaccurately assessing other people’s intentions/thoughts/perceptions and in doing so we’ll worry or feel bad about something that we are assuming without evidence!

If you find that you struggle with any of these 3 types of worrying, therapy might be able to help! Philadelphia therapist Noam Dinovitz can be reached at 484 424 7722 or Noam@Dinovitzcounseling.com