Naming and Taming Worry and Anxiety

By Debbie Hampton

Guest Writer for Wake Up World

While worry and anxiety can both make you miserable, they are two distinct concepts occurring in different parts of your brain. You can have worry without anxiety, and anxiety without worry, but one often triggers the other, and they tend to be bosom buddies, unfortunately.

Worrying is thought-based, occurs in the mind, and involves your thinking brain, the prefrontal cortex, interacting with the limbic system, which controls basic emotions and instincts. The same circuits in your brain that perform planning and problem solving allow worrying. When these parts are busy worrying, you can’t use them for better things. Worry keeps you from focusing on and putting energy into what’s important, can make it harder to connect with others, and is just flat-out exhausting!