- About Anxiety in Adults
- Social Anxiety Program
- Excessive Worry Program
- How to get help
EXCESSIVE WORRY PROGRAM
What is Excessive Worry?
Many terms or labels are used to describe excessive worry, including stress, anxiety or generalized anxiety disorder, to name a few. People who experience excessive worry tend to worry about a range of future negative events, and find these worries distressing and hard to control. If you worry like this you might find that you try to avoid worrying thoughts and things that trigger your worry or seek reassurance from other people.
People with excessive worry often find that they feel uncomfortable with new situations or with situations they can't completely control. They can also doubt their ability to cope with difficult situations should they arise. Over time chronic worriers can develop a restricted and unfulfilling lifestyle, and worry can begin to affect relationships, work and enjoyment of leisure activities. As a result, individuals with excessive worry often suffer from low self-esteem.
The types of common anxiety symptoms associated with worry that people might experience include:
- Feelings of restlessness
- Feelings of fatigue
- Concentration difficulties
- Irritability
- Muscle tension
- Sleep problems
Typical situations that people can worry about include:
- Finances
- Work/study
- Health of self or others
- Relationships
- Family
- Safety concerns
- Community/world events
- Worry itself
People with excessive worry also experience negative thoughts like:
- "What if something bad happened?"
- "I must always be in control of events in my world."
- "If something bad were to happen, I wouldn't be able to cope."
- "I must always be in control of myself.'"
- "It is terrible if I can't be certain of what will happen in the future."
- "If my feelings are too intense I can't stand it."
- "Worrying is a sign that something is wrong with me."
- "I can't control my worry."
HOW COMMON IS EXCESSIVE WORRY?
The recent national mental health survey has revealed that over 520,000 adult Australians suffer from significant worry problems each year. Unfortunately, only a small number of sufferers receives help.
As for many anxiety disorders, often people with excessive worry feel that there is nothing they can do about it, or they may simply not know where to go. As a result, excessive worry can be life-long if not treated effectively and can also lead to depression. On the positive side, excessive worry can be treated, with sufferers often experiencing a significant improvement within a relatively short period of time.
About Our Research into Excessive Worry
All treatments that we offer for Excessive Worry aim to teach people ways of managing their worry through practical and common sense strategies. Most of our programs are delivered in a group format, and encourage participants to take an active role in their improvement and to engage in practice exercises outside of the sessions for full benefits.
Participating in our research programs allows you access to cutting edge treatment for anxiety, at a lower cost than that charged by private psychologists. We can keep costs down because we are funded by the Australian Government to conduct research into social anxiety. Therefore, participants are asked to assist us by filling in questionnaires and coming in for assessments, even after their treatment has finished. This is because our studies often investigate the long-term effectiveness of the treatments we provide.
Groups usually involve attending 12 group sessions over 12 weeks at Macquarie University. The groups consist of approximately 6 adults, all of whom experience excessive worry, and one or two therapists. The therapists teach proactive ways of coping with worry, with an emphasis on learning practical skills in order to help manage stress and anxiety.
