STG Health Services

Anxiety Care

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Anxiety & Panic Care  /  Chronic worry & overthinking

Chronic Worry & Overthinking

When your mind is constantly trying to prevent the next problem, thinking harder can eventually become part of the problem.

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How treatment works

Worry is not always unhelpful.

Thinking ahead, planning and solving real problems are important.

The difficulty begins when your mind starts treating uncertainty itself as something that must be eliminated.

The result can be hours of mental effort without a greater sense of confidence.

You may find yourself

  • thinking through every possible outcome;
  • repeatedly researching decisions;
  • asking other people what they think you should do;
  • checking information several times;
  • delaying decisions until you feel certain;
  • preparing for every possible scenario;
  • replaying conversations;
  • worrying about whether you have worried enough;
  • finding another question as soon as one concern is resolved.

How this pattern works

Why worry keeps going

Treatment helps you examine whether every uncertain situation actually needs to be solved before you can move forward.

The worry cycle

↺ repeats
  • Something feels uncertain
  • “I need to figure this out.”
  • Worry / research / reassurance / checking
  • Temporary relief
  • Uncertainty returns

More worry

Treatment

Notice → Test → Approach → Learn → Generalize

Rather than relieving anxiety in the moment, treatment interrupts the loop: you notice the prediction, test it against what actually happens, approach what has been avoided, and let real experience update what your mind expects.

Solvable problem or uncertainty?

One important treatment skill is distinguishing between the two.

A current problem

Something exists now and there is a practical action you can take.

“I need to pay this bill tomorrow.”

A problem that can be acted on.

A hypothetical problem

Your mind is trying to solve something that may happen in the future but cannot currently be known.

“What if something goes wrong financially next year?”

May lead to endless mental problem-solving without a definite answer.

Treatment may include

The direction is set with your clinician after the first session, based on what is keeping your worry going.

  • understanding your worry cycle;
  • identifying certainty-seeking behaviours;
  • reducing repeated reassurance;
  • reducing excessive checking or research;
  • learning to distinguish problem-solving from hypothetical worry;
  • behavioural experiments with uncertainty;
  • making decisions without perfect confidence;
  • changing beliefs about what worry does for you;
  • returning attention to meaningful activities.

Differential

ADHD or worry?

Both ADHD and chronic anxiety can interfere with concentration, decisions and task completion. Both can occur together.

Read: ADHD, OCD, sleep or anxiety?

A useful clinical distinction is whether these difficulties:

  • have been present since childhood across many situations;
  • occur even when you are relatively calm;

or whether they primarily increase when your mind is occupied by worry and threat.

Related STG services: SaskADHD · SaskSleep · SaskOCD

You do not have to solve every uncertain possibility before moving forward.

Tell us what has been happening. Your clinician will help clarify the pattern and the treatment direction.

Anxiety screening & clinical review

$40

Complete a structured screening for anxiety-related symptoms and receive:

  • a clinician review of your results;
  • a brief written screening summary;
  • a short follow-up call to discuss recommendations.
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A non-refundable $40 screening fee applies after submission unless the screening is covered through an approved funding arrangement such as NIHB. This is a screening and clinical review service, not a formal diagnostic assessment.