Monday, August 29, 2011

Are you a worrier?

Some people are just natural born worriers. They worry about anything and everything and while they don't necessarily like being a worrier they just can't help themselves.

I am one of those people.

I know it's bad to be a worrier, bad for my health and even worse for my sanity. I also know that it goes against God's Word (read here if you don't know what I'm talking about). Unfortunately knowing this hasn't stopped me from being a worrywart.

There are times when my worries are just little pricks of discomfort that hit me throughout the day. Other times I lay awake at night torturing myself with "what if" thoughts. I have big worries and small worries, legitimate worries and outrageous one.  Yes, I have so many worries I have categories for them!

Category one, the fluff and relatively unimportant stuff to worry about - what will I do if I get my hair cut and end up looking like a freak? What will I do if the paint color I just picked out makes my walls look like the inside of a harem? What will I do if I'm doomed to remain fat for the rest of my life?

Category two consists of things with legitimate concerns such as - how am I going to pay for _insert any one of a thousand things here _?  What are we gonna do when this ancient 100lb dog dies, where and how are we going to bury him? How will we live when we're too old to work, social security doesn't exist, and our retirement fund has dried up?

Category three centers around all those things which are totally out of my control and may or may not ever happen - What if this terrible storm blows all the trees over in our backyard and some of them land on our house? What if someone in my family gets sick or injured? What will happen if we suffer financial disaster?

And finally there's 
Category four, the outrageous "where is this coming from stuff?" -  What if I left the garage door open when I left this morning and I come home to find the pets roaming the neighborhood and strangers taking up residence inside? What happens if there really are people on other planets and they decide to take over the Earth? How will I survive if my computer dies and I no longer have access to the internet?

For the record, I don't worry all the time. There are days when I feel like I don't have a care in the world. And then, WHAM! The worry creeps in and I find myself filled with angst, fretting over some significant or insignificant "something." Today is a good example .... 

Yesterday was a good day. I watched a really great sermon online, had a nice lunch out with my husband, spent the better part of the day enjoying my day of "rest," enjoyed a surprise call from my youngest son, and went to bed without a care in the world.

Why then, did I find myself in the wee hours of the morning, wide awake, suffering from a Category Four worry?

What will we do if we get bed bugs in our house?

What? Bed bugs? Where'd that come from and why was I torturing myself with these thoughts at 3:30 in the morning? Maybe the only thing I really need to worry about is .... am I losing my mind? 

6 comments:

  1. Ooo topic after my own heart (they all seem to be, are we somehow oddly related in a past life-is there such thing as a past life? Who was I in my past life?-oh oops) Anyways-my biggest problem is I worry in the middle of the night. I'm pretty good throughout the day but I have pretty bad insomnia and usually from 3-5am I am awake and thinking about such things as...

    #1. What is on sale at the grocery store so I can figure out what we are having to eat next Tuesday.

    #2. I wish "fill in name of client" would pay us soon so I can make payroll.

    #3. Did I just hear a cat puke?

    #4. Boy we need some rain on the garden, but I hope the windows don't leak.

    You know, stuff like that.

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  2. oh yeah, cat puking is a good one! Did I hear the cat puke? What did the cat puke up and most importantly, Where did the cat puke and will I forget and step in it tomorrow morning?

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  3. and yes Janet,it's entirely possible we're sisters from a previous life!

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  4. Did the cat puke on the carpet or the laminate...did the cat puke because it was eating the cactus again?

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  5. Very entertaining, but sad.
    I have found myself worrying at times, though I am not an avid worry wart. It's a bad cycle that feeds on itself and builds more worry.
    I being a man am always trying to provide advice and fix things because...well I am a man.
    What you really want is someone just to listen, give you your voice and not provide any advice. I hear you...but if you want to feel better, read How to stop worrying and start living by he late great Dale Carnegie. Ignore that last comment if you just needed to be heard. I have just recently realized you have this blog and it is very entertaining and well written. Worry not sister, it's all going to be allright, even if the cat pukes on the carpe or the laminate. I am such a man ;-) I said it and saved you the typing. This is Joel BTW. I posted anonymously because I don't have any of that other stuff that I am aware of)

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  6. Part of it is your age. We were raised to be worries. It started with Momie and Mother perfected it. So, don't beat yourself up. Know where it comes from and try and take control of it. It will eat you alive and ruin your health. Besides, you can worry about everything under the sun; but, in the long run God has the last word. So sit back and let him take care of your worries. You know this.

    PS Joel We don't need a man in our live to tell our troubles to unles you are speaking of God

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