Perceived functions of worry among generalized anxiety disorder subjects: Distraction from more emotionally distressing topics?

Borkovec, T. D.; Roemer, Lizabeth

doi:10.1016/0005-7916(94)00064-s

Cited by 415 publications

(306 citation statements)

References 7 publications

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“…To explain inconsistent findings in the literature on anxiety and cognitive function, Eysenck and Calvo (1992;Eysenck, Derakshan, Santos, & Calvo, 2007) proposed a processing efficiency theory. According to this theory, anxious arousal may lead to worry and ruminative thoughts intended to dispel dysphoric feelings (Borkovec & Roemer, 1995). This threat-related thinking is believed to intrude on normal cognition by taking up valuable working memory resources.…”

Section: Anxiety-cognition Interaction In the Brainmentioning

confidence: 99%

Anxiety and cognitive efficiency: Differential modulation of transient and sustained neural activity during a working memory task

Fales

Burgess

Schaefer

et al. 2008

Cognitive, Affective, & Behavioral Neuroscience

189

149

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Section: Anxiety-cognition Interaction In the Brainmentioning

confidence: 99%

Anxiety and cognitive efficiency: Differential modulation of transient and sustained neural activity during a working memory task

Fales

Burgess

Schaefer

et al. 2008

Cognitive, Affective, & Behavioral Neuroscience

189

149

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

“…Worry is defined as thoughts that are motivated by the avoidance of emotionally negative imagery and of concomitant aversive somatic sensations (Borkovec & Inz, 1990). According to this conceptualization, although worry is initiated in order to avoid imagery of future catastrophe and of current anxiety sensations, it quickly becomes aversive and is experienced as increasingly uncontrollable (Borkovec & Roemer, 1995). An important difference between worries and the type of unwanted thoughts in OCD and PTSD discussed above is that they are ego-syntonic (consistent with the individual's self-image) and hence the motivation to suppress them is not obvious.…”

Section: Anxiety Disordersmentioning

confidence: 99%

Hidden Complications of Thought Suppression

Najmi¹,

Wegner²

2009

International Journal of Cognitive Therapy

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Although the suppression of thoughts may seem to be an effective solution, this strategy can lead to an exacerbation of the very thought that one is attempting to suppress. This ironic effect is the most obvious unwanted outcome of suppression and has now been investigated empirically for more than two decades. However, the fact that suppression is an effortful process implies that, even when suppression does not lead to an ironic rebound of the unwanted thought, it puts an insidious cognitive load on the individual attempting to suppress. Moreover, whether or not suppression leads to an exacerbation of the unwanted thought, it is rarely successful, and hence adds to the individual's distress. In this article we describe the phenomenon of suppression and consider how it might complicate a range of emotional disorders. Taken together, studies on thought suppression in psychopathology present a more nuanced picture now than was emerging in the early years of its investigation. Some evidence is consistent with the idea that the counterproductive effects of suppression are causally implicated in the disorder, but for the most part a more parsimonious conclusion is that thought suppression acts as a complication of the disorder. In certain disorders, suppression complicates the disorder by leading to an ironic rebound of the unwanted thoughts. In all disorders, the cost of undertaking suppression is a persistent cognitive load, which, in turn undermines the ability to suppress, and hence sets off a cycle of failed expectations and distress. Hidden Complications 1Much to his annoyance, a thought popped into his mind. It was very clear and very distinct, and he had now come to recognize these thoughts for what they were. His instinct was to resist them. They were the preordained promptings from the dark and locked off parts of his mind. He sat still and ignored the thought furiously. It nagged at him. He ignored it. It nagged at him. He ignored it. It nagged at him. He gave in to it. Douglas Adams, The Restaurant at the End of the Universe (1980, p. 172) Sometimes science fiction can remind us of science fact. In the case of this fantasy novel by Douglas Adams, the fact of which we are reminded is the insistent and inevitable return of an unwanted thought. Thoughts we put out of mind seem to come back with a vengeance that makes us wonder whether we may have gone mad. Now as it happens, the hypothesis that recurrent unwanted intrusive thoughts might be associated with psychopathology has occurred to many psychologists over the years (Clark, 2005;Rachman & De Silva, 1978). This paper reviews research on how the suppression of such unwanted thoughts is related to psychological disorder.The experience of mental disorder is often associated with painful thoughts and feelings and thus will commonly motivate suppression as a reaction (Najmi & Wegner, in press;Wegner, 1989). Most early research on intrusive and obsessive thoughts operated under the assumption that suppression is always reactive in this way, and so ...

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“…The highest rated reasons for worrying given by both GAD and nonanxious individuals are that (a) it helps them discover ways of avoiding negative future events and (b) it prepares them for the worst if they cannot avoid it (Borkovec & Roemer, 1995). Eysenck (1992) has presented a cognitive model of worry process that captures these phenomena.…”

Section: Worry As An Attempt To Avoid Negative Events or To Prepare Fmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Because very few things about which people worry actually turn out bad, the majority of worry is eventually negatively reinforced by the nonoccurrence of the feared events. This environmental contingency may well be the foundation for reports by people that they worry because it feels as if the worrying makes the occurrence of the feared event less likely, even though they admit that no logical connection exists (Borkovec & Roemer, 1995).…”

Section: Worry As An Attempt To Avoid Negative Events or To Prepare Fmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Borkovec¹,

Ray²,

Stöber³

1998

Cognitive Therapy and Research

669

192

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Research on worry during the past 15 years has revealed a remarkable amount of knowledge about this pervasive human phenomenon. Worry involves a predominance of verbal thought activity, functions as a type of cognitive avoidance, and inhibits emotional processing. Worry also produces not only anxious experience but depressive affect as well. Recent evidence suggests that the very private experience of worry is developmentally connected to enmeshed childhood relationships with the primary caregiver and is currently associated with significant interpersonal problems, especially those involving tendency to be overly nurturing to others. At the physiological level, worry is characterized peripherally by parasympathetic deficiency and autonomic rigidity and centrally by left-frontal activation.

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Perceived functions of worry among generalized anxiety disorder subjects: Distraction from more emotionally distressing topics?

Cited by 415 publications

References 7 publications

Anxiety and cognitive efficiency: Differential modulation of transient and sustained neural activity during a working memory task

Anxiety and cognitive efficiency: Differential modulation of transient and sustained neural activity during a working memory task

Hidden Complications of Thought Suppression

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