Working with Your Worries

Everyone worries at times, and it’s quite normal to worry in response to stressful life circumstances. These could include financial or relationship problems, exams, or people in our lives being unwell. But if your worries and fears are constant and overwhelming, this can cause distress and can get in the way of you being able to do the things you want to do. If this sounds familiar, it might be helpful to understand why we worry and to learn about some techniques you can use to manage these feelings.

Working with Your Worries is associated with:

Coping with Worries about Going Out, Dealing with Stress, Health Anxiety, Managing Emotions

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Learn

Tell me more

Daylight

Daylight is your expert guide through worry and anxiety, whenever and wherever you need it.

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What is Generalised Anxiety?

This a self-help booklet designed to help you manage difficulties with worry by using strategies to manage the thoughts, behaviours and feelings associated with worry.

Self-Assess

Tools for self-assessing

Do you sometimes think you worry too much?

If your worries often feel overwhelming or uncontrollable, then you may have a problem with worry. This can sometimes be called generalised anxiety.

If you’re having this sort of problem, you might recognise some of the common experiences described below.

How your body might feel

Faster or shallow breathing
Increased heart rate
Tense or tight in your muscles, headaches
Restless, unable to relax
You may notice pains when worrying more
Trembling
Dry mouth
Sweating
Nauseousness
Exhaustion

Thoughts you might have

“This is going to be a disaster”
“Something terrible is going to happen, I know it”
“What will I do if that happens?”
“I’m not going to be able to cope”
“This is my fault”

Feelings you might have

Upset and sadness
Feeling keyed up or on edge
Overwhelmed
Anticipation and dread
Irritable

Things you might do

Ask people around you for reassurance
Try to stop worrying or stop your worried thoughts
Pacing
Staying busy e.g. doing things around the house
Avoiding uncertain situations
Trying to control what’s going on around you as much as possible
Have difficulty sleeping

If these sound familiar to you, you can find out more about worry in the ‘Learn’ section above. You’ll also find some tips and strategies for managing your worries in the ‘Manage’ section below.

Manage

Ways to manage

Sleepio

Sleepio is a 6 week online program designed by sleep experts and based on cognitive and behavioural techniques.

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Self-Help Strategies for Generalised Anxiety Disorder (GAD)

No matter what type of anxiety problem you are struggling with, it is important that you understand certain facts about anxiety. Here you can download a PDF guide from Anxiety Canada.

The Worry Tree

A diagram that outlines ways to deal with worry.

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VIDEO: Reframing Anxiety

This is a video from The Social by BBC Scotland. Esther De La Ford explains what anxiety is and how to manage it. She talks about ‘reframing anxiety’ to navigate it.

Tips on Managing Change in Our Lives

We all have to cope and manage with change in our lives for lots of reasons. Here are some tips and thoughts on navigating through a period of change.

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VIDEO: Tips for Dealing with Panic Attacks and Anxiety

This is a video from The Social by BBC Scotland. Caragh shares her experiences and gives examples of exercises that help her manage anxiety and panic attacks.

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Tolerating Uncertainty

Dealing with uncertainty is an unavoidable part of daily life. Because we can’t see the future, we can never be certain about what exactly is going to happen day to day. Research has found that people vary in their ability to tolerate uncertainty. That is, some people are okay with having a lot of uncertainty in their lives, and other people cannot stand even a small amount of uncertainty.

Relaxation

If you feel tense a lot of the time, you can try learning some relaxation skills, as these should be helpful.

Tools to Help You Manage Your Worries

There are lots of things that can help you manage your worries.

Computerised Cognitive Behavioural Therapy

Cognitive Behavioural Therapy – CBT – is a psychological therapy based on the relationships between what we think, what we do and how we feel. CBT teaches you how to recognise and tackle problems in the here and now, rather than in the past.

Support

Local support and resources

In time, you might find that your ability to manage your worries improves on its own, with support from the people in your life, or with tools to help you cope.

However, if things don’t improve or you’re having difficulties with your mental health, please make sure you contact your GP to ask for support.

The organisations below may also be helpful:

iThrive (previously Edspace): an online space for mental health and wellbeing in Edinburgh. https://ithriveedinburgh.org.uk/
The Silverline: a free confidential helpline providing information, friendship and advice for older people. Phone: 0800 470 80 90 (free to call, open 24/7, 365 days per year). https://www.thesilverline.org.uk/
Breathing Space: free and confidential phone service if you are feeling low, anxious or depressed. Phone: 0800 83 85 87 (free to call, Mon-Thur 6pm-2am; Friday-Mon 6pm-6am) https://breathingspace.scot/
The Samaritans: emotional support for anyone in emotional distress. Phone: 116 123 (free to call, open 24/7, 365 days per year) https://www.samaritans.org/
SAMH: offers support and information about mental health problems. Phone: 0344 800 0550 https://www.samh.org.uk/
Managing loneliness. https://www.nhs.uk/conditions/stress-anxiety-depression/loneliness-in-older-people/

Domestic Abuse Support

National Domestic Abuse helpline: 0808 200 246 (free to call, open 24/7) https://www.nationaldahelpline.org.uk/
Scottish Woman’s Aid: Tel 0800 027 1234 https://womensaid.scot/
Abused Men In Scotland (AMIS): Tel 0808 800 0024 (free to call, open Mon-Fri 9am-4pm) https://amis.org.uk/

The Wellbeing Lothian website has been developed to provide information, self-help resources and links to help you manage your mental health and wellbeing.

We want to help you make changes in your own lives and point you in a direction to start doing so. This is Wellbeing Lothian’s aim.

Learn More about Wellbeing Lothian

This website is not intended in any way to replace the advice of a clinician. Specific advice should be sought in specific situations from a properly qualified health worker.

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East Lothian Health & Social Care Partnership
West Lothian Health & Social Care Partnership

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