Misfit Minute - Anxiety
The psychology behind anxiety and rejection therapy.
Anxious Annie
Due to the rising levels of anxiety in school children, the science behind what causes it has become incredibly interesting of late. Some perspectives I found interesting are:
Anxiety is heavily correlated with the personality trait neuroticism - a word more commonly used as a slur for the Karens of the world.
Scoring extremely low in neuroticism is just as bad as extremely high - there are things you should be worried about - just not everything.
Anxiety and your emotions are you - not the world
At the end of the day, we choose how to interpret the world and people’s intentions - it’s how we perceive it that causes anxiety.
99% of the things anxious people worry about never happen how they predict.
Think of all the times something was not as bad as you thought it would be
Anxiety is basically a form of thought used to work through scenarios
Make a plan or form a solution to your worries.
Take on the challenge, that anxiety is cautioning you against, voluntarily
Fear of rejection? Get rejected….
Staying in the anxiety boat, I had never heard of rejection therapy until this week. It is a form of cognitive behavioural therapy that involves purposefully getting rejected to develop resilience. Here are the main ideas:
Set a 100-day challenge to actively seek something that should guarantee a rejection
Ask for a 50% discount when paying a bill, or ask to borrow a stranger’s car for the day.
This desensitises you to the fear of rejection and becomes comfortable with it
Repeated exposure reframes rejection and that it is not a reflection of yourself (most of the time)
It can also help you earn to negotiate under pressure and build your own confidence.
Recommendation
- Kids Who Get Smartphones Earlier Become Adults With Worse Mental Health