Continued from Part 1:

If a person worries because he has a clear reason to worry and is justified in worrying, there is little I can do for them.  Medicine can make the worry better temporarily.  Sometimes medicine helps reduce some of the obsessional aspects of worry.  Yet if a person feels justified in their worry because of a real stress, their worry will trump medicine.

As such, I have a protocol I like to give patients.  If they will implement it, they??l genuinely feel better. Unfortunately, a lot of people don?? implement my protocol. Some even say they can?? implement it, although with the examples I?? going to give, it?? clear that they can.

What I want to try to teach today are two things. First, I want you to look at worry from a different perspective. Secondly, I want you to differentiate worry from problem-solving.

I??l offer anyone reading this a dinner for two at the best restaurant on the Western Slope of Colorado if they can tell me any other time in life when they engage in a behavior that doesn?? work, makes them sick, and yet they continue to do it anyway.  Thus far, I haven?? given away that dinner.

I??l ask people if they?? eat moldy meatloaf in their refrigerator if they??e hungry.  The answer is always no. Why?  Again, we do instantaneous mental experiments based on life experience. We look at the meatloaf and say, ??f I eat that, it?? going to make me sick.??Despite this logic, people still engage in worry that doesn?? work, makes them sick, all while defending their right to do so because they feel justified in their worry.

To make my point stronger, let me ask you this: Have you ever peed in your soup?  Now, most people give me a funny look and wonder why I?? ask such a silly question. Not surprisingly, no patient has ever peed in their soup. Why not? Two reasons. First, it doesn?? matter how much salt you think the soup needs, your urine isn?? going to help the taste. Secondly, for the sake of argument, let?? say it??l make you sick.

People look at me funny when I ask that question because it?? a behavior they?? never consider doing. It doesn?? work, and it?? going to make them sick. My point is–anyone who has the skill to do that mental experiment has demonstrated their ability not to worry.

How do I get a patient to make that final step–to choose not to worry? The difference is made in looking at the justification for worry, the antecedents, and the stresses which occur due to worry. What I?? asking you to do is make a real, conscious change in your behavior. Do a mental experiment and ask whether worry is going to help. If it doesn?? put money on the table, solve the problem at hand, or doesn?? make someone else change their behavior, I ask you to make the analogy of why you??e going to engage in worry when you wouldn?? pee in your soup!

If you think of it from that perspective, it?? a pretty easy process.  Now, it??l take time to break this old habit of worry, but it can happen, and often times very quickly. I?? very pleased with patients who??e come back after practicing this protocol and discovered how easy it was to stop worrying when the focus was not on whether they have the right to worry, but whether the worry produces a result worth making them sick. I always say that if a person says worry helps and they??e willing to get sick because of it, God bless them. I??e yet to have anyone come back and say that works.

The second part of the protocol is making the discrimination between worry and problem-solving. I?? basing my protocol on one developed by a young psychiatrist named Mike Serber in the 1960’s. It?? the only treatment, procedure, or medication that I??e used in 40 years, and has always been successful when people use it. Most people, however, don?? do it. I had one person who journaled about worry, which is not the protocol I asked them to do, and it didn?? work. I??e never had anyone do this protocol and not have it work.

If you stop engaging in behaviors that don?? work and make you sick, and you use a problem-solving protocol, you will get better.

If you are suffering from treatment-resistant depression…if your anti-depressants aren’t working, or are giving you unwanted side effects, consider TMS Therapy as an alternative. With offices in Colorado, Idaho, Utah, Washington and Wyoming, we’re here to help.

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