One Reason Why You Might Feel Anxious All Day

Psychologist Rebecca Cox discusses her new research on excessive worrying and prolonged anxiety.

By Mark Travers, Ph.D. | February 23, 2022

A new study published in Personality and Individual Differences shows how worrying affects anxiety throughout the day, especially in individuals with high levels of worry-proneness.

I recently spoke with Rebecca C. Cox, corresponding author for the research from Vanderbilt University to understand the worry-anxiety relationship better. Here is a summary of our discussion.

Why do we worry and how is it linked to anxiety? At what point does worrying become a cause for concern?

Worry isn't necessarily a bad thing. At healthy levels, worry can help us anticipate threats and prepare for the future. If we didn't worry at all, we would be less likely to engage in adaptive behaviors, like studying for tests or gathering emergency supplies when a storm is coming.

Worry can become a cause for concern if the frequency and/or intensity of the worry is disproportionate to the source of the worry. If I'm so worried about an upcoming test that I can't focus on studying, or I'm so frequently worried about storms that I don't leave my house, then worry has crossed into a problematic range.

Essentially, worry has likely reached a clinical level if it is interfering with the goals and values of daily life.

What was the methodology you followed for your study? What were your key findings?

Previous worry research has found that for those with generalized anxiety disorder, worry may function to keep anxiety at a high, but predictable level in order to avoid experiencing an unexpected shift in emotion. We wanted to investigate this on a daily level.

We used a method called ecological momentary assessment, which involves measuring outcomes in real-time while participants are going about their lives. We asked participants to respond to survey prompts in the morning, afternoon, and evening to indicate how anxious they felt "right now." We then looked at whether the trajectory of momentary anxiety across the day differed depending on one's level of worry-proneness.

We found that anxiety levels decreased across the day for low or average worriers. This is consistent with previous research finding that anxiety tends to decline from morning to evening. In contrast, we found that anxiety stayed high and stable throughout the day in high worriers. This is consistent with the theory that problematic worry functions to keep the level of anxiety high but constant.

In your opinion, what might a day in the life of a worry-prone individual look like (with regards to their mental state)?

Our findings and the findings of others suggest that worry-prone individuals experience a consistently high level of anxiety, whereas individuals who are less worry-prone experience an overall reduction in anxiety throughout the day that is likely punctuated by the occasional anxiety spike.

Do you have any words of wisdom for someone struggling with high levels of worry-proneness?

High levels of worry-proneness and generalized anxiety disorder are both common and treatable. Those looking for treatment can find providers of evidence-based psychotherapy from reputable organizations such as the Association for Behavioral and Cognitive Therapies and the Anxiety and Depression Association of America.

Healthy lifestyle factors may also help with worry, like prioritizing sleep and exercising regularly.

We can also decrease worry's power by accepting the uncertainty in life. When we are worrying about something we have little or no control over, inserting some "maybe" thinking can be a powerful challenge to worry.

Maybe I will fail that exam, maybe a terrible storm will hit….maybe, maybe not. Accepting and tolerating that uncertainty can help us to stop attempting to control the future by worrying.

Where do you see the research on worry-proneness and anxiety going in the future?

I think one of the exciting implications of this study and similar others is that attempting to avoid unexpected shifts in emotion may be a hallmark of worry proneness and generalized anxiety disorder, which suggests that exposure to emotional contrasts could be a novel treatment target.

I also think "real world" methods like ecological momentary assessment hold a great deal of promise for generating new insight into anxiety and worry. The ability to assess anxiety and worry and their correlates in real-time in participants' daily lives through smartphone and wearable technology gives researchers a unique perspective and may reveal patterns or associations that can't be observed in a laboratory setting.