Anticipatory Anxiety, targets anticipatory anxiety as a component of most anxiety conditions—including phobias, social anxiety, and panic. It drives the compulsions and ruminations that define OCD. The worry about the future, the fear that bad things can happen or that you might be unable to accomplish what you set out to do. It can be the haunting dread of the return of an unwanted thought. Or terror while waiting for a medical test result and imagining the worst. This book is the third in a self-help trilogy, beginning with Overcoming Unwanted Intrusive Thoughts, followed by Needing to Know for Sure.
Anticipatory anxiety may also manifest as physical symptoms such as hyperventilation, insomnia, or just the constant parade of worries that is GAD. Anticipatory anxiety is a warning sign that you are about to make difficult decisions. It’s how our bodies and minds feel when they buy into anxious and catastrophic thinking.
This discomfort is accompanied by the strong urge to avoid the imagined problem. We mistakenly interpret anticipatory anxiety as red flags that indicate danger or a credible prediction about failures, mistakes, or regrets. It make up a story about a catastrophic event and buy into it. We then try to find a way to prevent that from happening. This can often involve spending hours, days, or weeks planning escape routes, analyzing “why,” or worrying about our lack of confidence. We need help deciding whether or not to take a specific course of action.
Anticipatory anxiety, also known as the avoidance layer, is the third layer of fear. We can fear something like “I’m afraid of giving talks.”It can also be afraid of something: “I’m afraid I’ll get so anxious that I will freeze or faint and humiliate myself.” It can also afraid to be afraid: “I’m so scared of the misery that I’ll feel waiting for next month and constantly visualizing it, I think I need to cancel it.”
Anticipatory anxiety may include anxiety, panic, disgust, anger, shame, regrets, humiliation, or any other undesirable emotion. Fear of unfavorable feelings or consequences from a feared loss, failure, or disaster can lead to the urge to avoid it.
Anticipatory anxiety can develop weeks or even months ahead of your appointment if you feel like you might experience a panic attack while trapped in an MRI machine. You might feel that you won’t be able “to stand it” if something goes wrong with your decision or that you could die if your mind ignores an unusual sensation. This will cause you to shift your focus to safety and avoid reasonable risks. You may also believe you can “lose control” and do crazy things against your will. This could lead to you spending a lot of time convincing yourself that it is impossible.
An overactive imagination or automatically conditioned reactions to memories can lead to anticipatory anxiety. Anxiety sensitivity or the fear of anxious manifestations can cause anxiety. It can also arise from a depressed or withdrawn mood. It can also rooted in belief systems about one’s inability to deal with new challenges or novelty. People with sticky minds are more likely to experience anticipatory anxiety.
Anticipatory anxiety, like all anxiety forms, can be treated by focusing on the factors that cause it. Too much thinking will not solve the problem. There are many components to the path to recovery: a shift of metacognitive perspective, an attitude change towards one’s mind and experience, an abandonment or reduction of avoidance behaviors, and self-talk that can inadvertently increase anticipatory anxiety. You should also gently redirect your attention to the present sensory experience without trying to overcome anxiety.
Metacognitive change requires a greater understanding of anxious thoughts, their meanings, and what they can or can’t do. Thoughts are not facts and warnings. Worrying can misinterpreted as love, loyalty, or effective planning. This perspective reveals that anxious thoughts are only thoughts.
A person understanding that obsessive thoughts arising from imagination or memory cannot solved by reassurance or check leads to a willingness for uncomfortable thoughts to pass without any discussion, dispute, or entanglement with the content.
It is encouraged to shift from a struggle to accept anxiety towards acceptance. It is encouraged that people give up their need to certain and stop making harsh self-judgments about themselves which can lead to continued distress. The antidote to avoidance is commitment-undertaken without guarantees and with curiosity and good humor.
We encourage a willingness not to control the future and instead allow what appears in the image to be allowed while focusing on and moving forward in the present.
DANCE stands for integrating metacognitive and behavioral shifts that promote resilience and growth in the face of anticipatory anxiety.
- Discern you are experiencing anticipatory anxiousness and want to disentangle.
- Accept doubts and discomforts
- No struggling or avoiding, reassuring or overthinking
- Commit to continue with action or choice
- Embrace the past as it is and continue
You will find flexibility, new challenges, and excitement when you learn the steps of this DANCE.