6. Managing Worry

Here you'll find all the worksheets and information you'll need to accompany your learning for Session 6 of our Building Resilience with Long-Term Physical Health Conditions webinars.

 

What we learned this week

How our worries tend to fall into 2 categories

This week, we introduced the worry tree, which helps us to split our worries into two types: 

• Practical worries: Worries about things we could do something about right now, but we're not sure what the best thing to do is
• Hypothetical worries: Worries about things we can't do anything about right now, often because they are outside of our control, or haven't happened yet.

It's important to note that both types of worry are natural and valid. When we say "hypothetical" we don't mean that it's not a real problem, we mean that when we worry about this problem we're 'hypothesising' because we can't know what might happen. 

The aim of this week's session is to help us manage each type of worry in the most helpful way for our wellbeing. 

 

How to use the worry tree

The worry tree is a tool we can use in the moment to choose which technique to use. 

Ask yourself, "Can I do anything about this, right now?"

• If yes: This is a practical worry, and we can use a problem-solving technique to manage it. 
• If no: This is a hypothetical worry, and we can use the Worry Time technique to manage it.

Resource: There's also an app called Worry Tree, that you can use to help with this.

 

Keeping a Worry Diary

We explored how keeping a diary of what's on your mind can help us to become more aware of our worries, to be able to start using the 'worry tree' effectively. 

Resource: Worry Diary worksheet.

 

Problem Solving for Practical Worries

We looked at how, although we all spend a lot of time problem-solving in our daily lives, the fight-or-flight response can make it harder for us to think things through as clearly as we usually would. 

So these steps are likely to seem obvious at first, but we find it's helpful to work through this guide in the moment, to prevent us from jumping to conclusions, taking rash action, or putting things off. 

1. Define the problem clearly
2. Weigh up the pros and cons of solving it
3. Think of all the options you could try
4. Narrow it down to a few, and weigh up their pros & cons
5. Choose the solution that seems best
6. Plan how to implement it
7. Do your plan
8. Review how it went

Resource: Watch our problem solving video to recap this technique.

 

Worry Time for Hypothetical Worries

We looked at how our worries can snowball throughout the day and become overwhelming. When we try not to think about what's been on our mind, we find that impossible - but instead, this technique helps us to delay thinking about our worries, to a time that we choose.

1. Plan in worry time as part of your daily routine
2. Throughout the day, write worries in your worry diary
3. Use the worry tree to take action with the problems you can solve, and pin hypothetical worries for worry time.
4. Use relaxation or distraction techniques to move forward with your day
5. At worry time, think about each worry on your list in turn
6. Mark the end of worry time
7. Begin your new list for tomorrow's worry time

Resources:

• Watch our managing worry video to recap this technique. 
• Headspace, free mindfulness exercises to help you clear your mind
• 7 Grounding Techniques to use when you're feeling anxious
• 3 Relaxation Techniques from Mind 
• Worry Tree, an app to help you use the Worry Time technique
• A detailed guide to managing worry when you have a long-term physical health condition

 

Actions

These are the actions we suggest to help you put into practice what you've learned this week:

• Try keeping a worry diary, and using the worry tree
  Tip: Sometimes a worry can be in both categories. It's ok to use problem solving on just the parts of a problem you can do something about, and use worry time for the parts you can't. 
   
• Try filling in the Maintaining Progress guide 
  Tip: Keep this somewhere that you'll remember, so that you can use it whenever it's helpful in the future.

 

How to keep up the good work

Maintaining Recovery

Well done for completing our Building Resilience course. Be sure to reward yourself for the time and effort you've put into attending. You may find out Maintaining Progress guide helpful in putting what you've learned into practice, and keeping up the good work as you move forward.

The guide will help you to see which of the skills and techniques you've learned here works best for you in managing your physical and mental wellbeing.

It can also help you plan what you could do if you experience a setback. We hope the techniques you've learned with us will help you feel equipped to face life's challenges, but sometimes we all find ourselves off course. Remember it's OK to take a break and pick up where you left off. You'll never be back to square one because you've learned so much along the way. 

Resource: Maintaining Progress Plan

 

The Recovery College

If you've enjoyed our Building Resilience course, you may also find the Recovery College helpful. They teach a wide range of courses to help you understand your mental wellbeing, continue your recovery and stay well. 

NHS Talking Therapies Hampshire patients can access Recovery College courses for free until 2 years after your treatment, and if there's a friend or family member that has been supporting you, they can access courses for free in their own right too.  

Resource: The Recovery College

 

How was your experience of Building Resilience? 

Our Building Resilience with Long Term Conditions course is newly launched, so we’re very keen to hear what your experience was like, and if there’s anything we can do to improve. We have just three quick questions to ask, so please click here to take our quick survey, and help us to ensure we’re providing the best possible support.  

 

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