The way to overcome intolerance of uncertainty is through behavioral exposure to uncertainty using tolerating uncertainty experiments. Challenging your worry predictions and what your anxiety is telling you is going to happen. There are two ways to do these tolerating uncertainty experiments. The first is by planning to do something you are uncertain about and consciously thinking about what the worry is telling you is going to happen. The worry is your prediction of what is going to happen. Then you do the experiment and collect the data - what actually happened when you did the tolerating uncertainty experiment? Based on what happened, you come up with a conclusion about the validity or accuracy of your worry prediction. The other way to build tolerance for uncertainty is to take advantage of naturally occurring opportunities to tolerate uncertainty by constantly thinking about the following questions: If I were more tolerant for uncertainty, what would I do in this situation?
What you will find over time with these experiments is that your worry is not a very good predictor of what is going to happen. And the more you do these experiments, the more experience you have with uncertainty and get to see that it rarely turns out negatively, as your worry predicted.
You can download a worksheet to record your tolerating uncertainty experiments here: http://cbt.raminader.com/ytdocs/iu%20experiment%20worksheet.pdf
For more information about excessive worry and Generalized Anxiety Disorder, see my long form video: https://tinyurl.com/y4yqthap
#GAD #Worry #CBT
Videos in the worry management series:
Overcoming Worry 1: Defining Worry: 3 features of worry and 2 types of worry - https://tinyurl.com/y2ox4z9n
Overcoming Worry 2: Understanding a model of worry and worry awareness training - https://tinyurl.com/y5awco8l
Overcoming Worry & Anxiety 3: The Role of Intolerance of Uncertainty in Worry - https://tinyurl.com/y6ohak2y
Overcoming Worry & Anxiety 4: Manifestations of Intolerance of Uncertainty - https://youtu.be/kxZhnoO23iM
Overcoming Worry & Anxiety 5: Two Ways to Build Tolerance for Uncertainty - https://youtu.be/UL8ayC0Fe9Y
Overcoming Worry & Anxiety 6: Five Myths about Worry - https://youtu.be/Ss-lybWi5wE
Overcoming Worry & Anxiety 7: Challenging Worry Myths - https://youtu.be/x0c4Am9gj4I
Overcoming Worry & Anxiety 8: What do you do when you hate dealing with problems? - https://youtu.be/CwnlOXtnn58
Overcoming Worry & Anxiety 9: Problem-Solving Skills to Defeat Worry - https://youtu.be/hyWDgTiVVfY
Overcoming Worry & Anxiety 10: Why we worry about things that haven’t happened - https://youtu.be/n2u3jpGl81Q
Overcoming Worry & Anxiety 11: The most surprising tool to help you worry less - https://youtu.be/mkYxVWlwuk0
Overcoming Worry & Anxiety 12 - A Worry Management Recipe - https://youtu.be/nr68o7eBmBQ
Overcoming Worry & Anxiety 13 - Dealing with Complex Worries - https://youtu.be/rXeISzGK71Q
Overcoming Worry & Anxiety 14 - Maintaining Progress and Preventing Worry Relapse - https://youtu.be/KRk9aRjr0XI
For more information about Dr. Rami Nader, visit: https://tinyurl.com/y3eu5dfw
For more information about Dr. Michel Dugas' work on Generalized Anxiety Disorder and an excellent workbook, visit: https://tinyurl.com/yxf78mnt
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