Managing Anticipatory Anxiety
Managing anticipatory anxiety may not always be easy but learning how to can greatly reduce excessive worrying. In general, the term anticipation refers to having a future expectation or hope for something that has not yet occurred. It is having a sense of what is going to happen in the future.
For example, a student anticipating that the professor will check their homework, will most likely complete their reading assignment. In this situation, anticipating what will happen beforehand proves beneficial as it leads to preparedness.
However, there are circumstances in which anticipation is not useful. This includes life events and situations in which a person lacks control and may not be able to prepare.
For example, consider a situation such as getting on an airplane. In this scenario, a person naturally lacks control and must rely on the expertise of the pilot.
Likewise, consider going on a job interview. Getting a job offer is not fully based on one’s interview performance and skills. There are several other variables that the employer must consider in making the decision that the job candidate is not privy to.
These unknowns and uncontrollable variables can cause stress and anticipation for the interviewee. In both of these situations, there is no sure way to fully prepare or guarantee a positive outcome. It is often these ambiguous and uncontrollable situations that tend to produce anticipatory anxiety.
What is Anticipatory Anxiety?
Anticipatory anxiety is thinking about a life event or situation that hasn’t happened yet and feeling nervous or concerned about the outcome.
It is usually associated with negative thoughts, anxiety, and worrying behaviors. In addition, the mind becomes increasingly preoccupied which can lead to overthinking and rumination. For many people, the fear of the unknown triggers the process of anticipatory anxiety.
Anticipatory Anxiety Symptoms & Signs
Anticipatory anxiety symptoms include:
- Anxiety, nervousness, feeling on edge
- Difficulty with concentration and distractibility
- Frequent or excessive worrying about the upcoming event or situation
- Muscle tension (ex.- headaches, stomachaches, chest tightness, etc.)
- Increased tiredness or fatigue
- Feeling as if something awful might happen
Other signs to look out for include changes to thoughts, emotions, and behaviors.
Difficulty Controlling Negative Thoughts
Negative thoughts centered around the outcome of the event can be hard to control. This is because the mind asks and tries to answer curious questions such as, “What is going to happen?” and “What… if…” thoughts.
For example, “What if…I don’t get the job?” or “What if…I go to the party and no one talks to me?
When dealing with anticipatory anxiety, the answers to these questions are commonly negative in nature, which fuels stress and worry.
Another thought process to look out for is imagining worst case scenarios. These are situations in which the anticipated outcomes are viewed as intensely catastrophic.
Thoughts about worst case scenarios are challenging because the belief that something awful will happen is hard to shake.
The mind repeatedly thinks about and ruminates about the upcoming event in an effort to prevent the worst case scenario from coming true.
While seemingly wise, ruminating behaviors tend to increase stress rather than reduce it. Likewise, it also increases the difficulty of managing anticipatory anxiety.
Unpleasant or Uncomfortable Feelings
Feelings of nervousness, dread, fear, concern, embarrassment, irritability, helplessness, and confusion are associated with anxiety.
The challenge with anxiety-related feelings is that feeling nervous about something is not always an indication that something is bad for you. Nor does it mean that something bad is going to happen.
But thenticipation of the upcoming event can make this confusing. For example, confusion can arise from the difficulty of deciphering between a “gut warning” and anxious feelings.
Are you supposed to avoid the situation altogether because you feel uncomfortable? Is the unpleasantness a sign not to move forward?
For example, if you feel anxious about the job interview, does this mean to cancel it? Not usually. More likely, this is a sign of anxiety. And being mindful and noticing the unpleasant feelings can help to recognize when to manage the worrying and practice relaxation.
Behavioral Signs
Mental Preparation
One of the behavioral signs of anticipatory anxiety is mental preparation. This means that the mind creates mental images and possible outcomes of the scenario to “mentally” prepare for a situation.
Mental preparation differs from regular thoughts in that it is a mental action geared towards gaining a sense of confidence or control. It is especially common when physical preparation isn’t possible.
Examples of mental preparation in anticipatory anxiety include forecasting, planning, analyzing, and rehearsing what can happen in any given situation.
Mental preparation is a great skill to use in a lot of situations. For example, a person with a fear of public speaking may benefit from visualizing the stage and mentally rehearsing their speech.
They might plan to arrive early, sit close to the stage, keep the audience engaged, keep track of time, etc. It helps the person to feel confident, knowledgable, and at ease. This is a good strategy that proves beneficial.
What happens with anticipatory anxiety is that the mind becomes overly consumed and obsessed with preparation. Sometimes a person will overly rehearse and plan to prevent anything from going wrong.
In these circumstances, mental preparation becomes a way to prevent anxiety, embarrassment, and creates a false sense of control. In certain situations, too much mental preparation will increase anxiety instead of reduce it.
Avoidance
Avoidance is another behavioral sign that you are dealing with anticipatory anxiety. In general, avoidant behaviors are behaviors that temporarily reduce feelings of discomfort and stress.
Avoidance can present itself in many ways. For example, rescheduling a medical visit to a future date due to fear of hearing the results. Another example is avoiding having an important conversation with someone to reduce fear of confrontation.
Likewise, procrastination is another avoidance strategy because it involves delaying getting started or completing a task to reduce discomfort.
How Long Does Anticipatory Anxiety Last?
The length of time will vary. However, for most people it typically lasts until the anticipated situation or event is over.
Usually with anticipatory anxiety, there is a stark difference in the before and the after. Before the situation, there may be an increased period of tension, nervousness and worry.
But, afterwards, there is usually a sense of relief and decrease in anxiety. For example, consider a person with fear and anticipation about an upcoming meeting at work.
The feelings of nervousness associated with anticipating the meeting can start days or weeks before the actual meeting date. This is very stressful and puts the nervous system into overdrive, creating anxiety. The symptoms and signs discussed above may start to occur.
For example, feeling on edge, increased tiredness, excessive worrying, thinking worst case scenarios, etc. Because this is very uncomfortable, it can be helpful to learn how to stop anticipatory anxiety.
How to Stop Anticipatory Anxiety
Cognitive Refocusing
Consciouslyshifting your mind from one thought to another is called cognitive refocusing. This is a technique used in Cognitive Behavior Therapy.
The intention of this strategy is to help the mind focus on positive, helpful thoughts that can help regulate the nervous system.
To help focus your mind on other more helpful thoughts, first tune into what your current thoughts are. What are you saying to yourself? Specifically, what are you saying about the situation or moment you are anticipating?
For example:
- “I just want to get it over with so I can relax”.
- “I wish I could just know the answer already so I can move on”.
- “I hate not knowing what is going to happen”.
Most of these anticipatory thoughts in the above example focus on the end point of the situation. Wanting for the situation or event to pass and be over so that the anxiety will reduce is normal.
However, just getting the event or situation over with does not always automatically lead to anxiety reduction. Moreover, it can be very uncomfortable to deal with anxiety until that time comes.
For this reason, managing anticipatory anxiety with refocusing techniques is often useful. For example, instead of focusing on “knowing the answer already so I can move on”.
Try instead to shift the focus, “I don’t know the answer yet but I’m sure I will know what to do soon enough”. This is a more neutral statement, with less expectations and limitations on yourself. The goal is to shift your mind from a state of fear to a state of confidence.
Stay Present Minded
Staying in the present moment can be a helpful strategy in learning how to stop anticipatory anxiety.
When you catch yourself thinking about future situations and scenarios, practice bringing attention back to what you are currently doing.
A trick to bringing your mind back to the present moment is to focus on your external surroundings. Utilize your five senses.
What sounds do you hear? What room or location are you in? Can you focus on what you currently see around you? Is there something that you can physically touch, such as the floor, table, chair, article of clothing, etc? How does it feel?
Once the mind reverts to the present moment, try to re-engage and stay present-minded with what you are currently doing.
This will help reduce the chances that your mind will wander into scary thoughts you don’t want to have about the future situation.
For example, a parent reading bedtime stories with their young child may be physically present in the room. But, their thoughts are riddled with worry about tomorrow’s busy day.
Using the five senses, a parent may be able to stay present-minded with their child. Listening to their child’s laughter or reaction to the story, sensation of touching and holding the book as they read, etc.
Develop a Healthy Sleep Routine & Schedule
Maintaining overall healthy behaviors and routines over the long-term makes dealing with anticipatory anxiety much easier.
The role of sleep on mental health and wellness can never be overstated. It is simply vital to our existence. And getting a good night’s rest is associated with better health outcomes overall.
Since anxiety symptoms can easily cause disturbance in sleep, it is especially important to protect one’s bedtime routine.
If you don’t currently have a specific sleep schedule, it will first be helpful to track your current sleep habits. Take note of when you first start getting ready for bed and the time you get into bed.
Then pay attention to such things as: What time do you fall asleep? Do you wake up in the middle of the night? If so, when and how long do you stay awake before falling back asleep? What time do you wake up in the morning? Do you feel rested in the mornings?
Observing sleep over a period of days can help to recognize any patterns in your sleep habits. This will inform you if you need to alter your sleep routine. Ideally, you want to have enough hours slept so that you feel rested and energized throughout the day.
Moreover, good sleep helps the brain with emotion regulation. Therefore, prioritizing sleep makes is a good strategy for managing anticipatory anxiety and daily inconveniences and stressors.
Reduce or Avoid Substance Abuse
Many people utilize substances such as alcohol or cannabis to reduce jitters, worrying, or emotional distress.
In fact, many people intend a desirable outcome from substance use. But instead of taking the edge off, it can actually make anxiety much worse. Sometimes causing more severe or prolonged symptoms such as panic attacks.
Unfortunately, substance use does not allow the nervous system to learn new and helpful ways to regulate itself.
Therefore, managing anticipatory anxiety also entails reducing or avoiding substances so that they are not present to influence the mind and body.
Stay Socially Connected
Motivate yourself to stay connected. This can be with your friends, family, community members, colleagues, etc.
Spending time with people that are positive and supportive provide opportunities to forget about anticipated life events. Engage in conversations that are unrelated to your current worries.
Usethe time socializing as a refreshing break from overthinking. In fact, participating in social activities helps to reduce the production of the stress hormone, cortisol.
And the less stressed you feel, the less likely you are to feel anticipatory anxiety symptoms. Try to enjoy the presence of people you care about and have a good time.
Breathing Exercises
Activating the parasympathetic nervous system will help with managing anticipatory anxiety and discomfort associated with the symptoms. This is because the parasympathetic nervous system is the part of the nervous system that helps you to calm down and relax.
Breathing exercises are a highly helpful and cost-effective way to target and regulate the nervous system. There are many different ways to practice breathing exercises. And the best way is the one that works for you.
The idea here is to reduce stress in the mind and body and get to a calmer state.
Therapy for Managing Anticipatory Anxiety in Rockland County New York
Therapy for anxiety is available for New York State residents. Schedule an appointment should you find that this resonates with you and you would like support.
