Reassurance

[i love tea]

Hi guys, I just wanted to share an interesting article that was in the Guardian magazine yesterday. You should be able to find it at http://m.guardian.co.uk/lifeandstyle/2012/jun/15/happiness-is-being-a-loser-burkeman?cat=lifeandstyle&type=article

The quote that made me think the most was:

'Consider how we normally seek to assuage worries about the future: we seek reassurance, looking to persuade ourselves that everything will be all right in the end. But reassurance is a double-edged sword. In*the short term, it can be wonderful, but like all forms of optimism, it requires constant maintenance: offer reassurance to a friend who is*in the grip of anxiety, and you'll often find that, a few days later, he'll be back for more. Worse, reassurance can actually exacerbate anxiety: when you reassure your friend that the worst-case scenario he fears probably won't occur, you inadvertently reinforce his belief that it would be*catastrophic if it did. You are tightening the coil of his anxiety, not loosening it.'

That certainly rings true with me and my quest for reassurance. I found the rest of the article interesting and helpful too. See what you think...

Take care xx

[saab]

Interesting article. As Shakespeare says, there is neither good nor bad but "thinking makes it so ". Stuff just happens, but we put values and judgements on it. We turn an idle thought into an obssessive worry, when really it 's just like a cloud passing over the sky.

I have read in a couple of cbt books that asking for and giving reassurance for health anxiety does not help - you can never give enough. What we really need is to learn to accept uncertainty.

[I'mdave27]

The trouble is we can't accept uncertainty otherwise we wouldn't have these problems.