People worry as a tool, as a mental strategy to get rid of uncertainty and to somehow control things that they cannot control, and once you realize how hopeless that really is ... that’s liberating ... and you’re going to focus on things in the present moment that you really can enjoy ... .
Eighty five percent of the things that people worry about actually have a positive outcome. So they’re worried all these things that turn out to be okay.
And then about seventy eight percent of the things that actually have a negative outcome, worriers say ‘I actually handled that better than I thought I would’.
So worriers are really good at handling real problems when they really occur; the only problem is that they’re generating eighty five problems that never occur.
Robert L. Leahy PhD
American Institute for Cognitive Therapy
Director, American Institute for Cognitive Therapy
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