For the last few weeks we’ve been talking about the very real medical dangers of worry. For injured or disabled workers, worry can add an additional and very significant burden on the body. In this post, we’ll talk about some of the ways that worry can be treated or even avoided.

Much of the time treatments are simply medications that increase GABA. Cognitive therapy is prescribed depending upon insurance coverage. Addressing the physical and mental effects of excessive worry can aid in recovery from an injury or disability and can increase levels of success in vocational retraining efforts. In rare cases, worry and anxiety can become permanent fixtures in a person’s life, and the effects of this condition can result in ratable permanent impairment. But, the greater part of lay and scientific literature lists non-medicine tips to reduce worry, fear and anxiety to a more modulated level, thereby providing some relief from this constant invader that often creates unproductive and hurtful periods in life.

Here, summarized, are six tips cited in the literature to help manage worry without medication:

• Separate out toxic worry from good worry: Good worry amounts to planning. Toxic worry is unnecessary, repetitive, unproductive, paralyzing, frightening, and in general, life-defeating.
• Get the facts rather than letting your imagination run away. Analyze the problem and take corrective action.
• Develop connectedness in as many ways as you can: family, social, information and ideas, organizations and institutions. Never worry alone.
• Touch and be touched: in addition to massage therapy, seek out hugs and laughter – being around children or family can help.
• Be good to yourself. Exercise, eat well, get enough sleep, meditate, do yoga and be aware of over consumption of substances detrimental to your health, such as alcohol.
• Sing, read, cry, do what you love, look for what’s good in life and don’t sweat the small stuff.