During anxiety, keep calm and carry on

Healthy tips

Now, a Northwestern Medicine psychologist Mark Reinecke’s book Little Ways to Keep Calm and Carry On: Twenty Lessons for Managing Worry, Anxiety and Fear, offers an easy to understand strategy, based on recent psychological research and cognitive behavioural therapy, to reduce anxiety and live a happier, less fretful life.

“We live in an age of anxiety, whether it is economic worries or potential terrorist threats, or how you are going to care for your aging mother,” said Reinecke.

“There are a whole range of things that come at us as a society that make us feel more anxious than at any time in our recent history,” he added.

One chapter in his book discusses the realistic assessment of whether a bad thing will happen.

“You should prepare for the most likely scenario, not the worst case, because it is statistically very unlikely,” advised Reinecke.

“You should ask what is the probability of a bad event happening, how will you cope, are you able to protect yourself?” He suggests whitewater rafting as a metaphor for effective coping.

“When you are thrown from the boat, you cover your head, protect what is important and go with the flow. You let the current take you to a calm eddy on the side of the river,” Reinecke said.

We tend to overestimate the likelihood of bad things happening and underestimate our ability to cope.