雙語閱讀：教你十一招對抗憂慮

摘要:憂慮很少帶給我們動力—“我們會一遍遍地擔心，而沒有什麼解決辦法，而且擔心的通常是未來最壞的情形，” 賈森·莫澤博士這樣解釋道，他現在密歇根州立大學心理學部門任助理教授，已經開展了諸多關於憂慮的調研。

Worry is, sadly, an inevitability of life. Bad things are bound to happen, and the natural human reaction is to think about the negative consequences that could potentially arise.

However, worry is rarely productive -- "it's something we do over and over again, without much resolution, and it's typically of the worst-case scenario of the future," explains Jason Moser, Ph.D., an assistant professor in the Department of Psychology at Michigan State University, who has conducted studies on worry.

可惜的是，憂慮是生活中無法避免的。不好的事情定然會發生，而人類的本能反應就是去考慮可能由之帶來的負面後果。

教你十一招對抗憂慮

然而，憂慮很少帶給我們動力—“我們會一遍遍地擔心，而沒有什麼解決辦法，而且擔心的通常是未來最壞的情形，” 賈森·莫澤博士這樣解釋道，他現在密歇根州立大學心理學部門任助理教授，已經開展了諸多關於憂慮的調研。

"There’s always an element of uncertainty, always an element of catastrophe," he tells HuffPost. Unlike fear, which has a more pin-pointable source (like a spider on the wall), people worry over "an amorphous, future uncertain threat -- something bad that might happen."

“總有不確定元素，總有災難性的可能，” 賈森·莫澤博士在《赫芬頓郵報》講道。憂慮和恐懼不同，恐懼是有具體原因的(比如牆上的蜘蛛)，而人們擔心的卻是“無形的，未來不確定的威脅—可能發生的不好的事情”。

While the research isn't clear on the extent to which people are predisposed to worry, it is clear that there are some personality types that are more linked to worrying than others. Neuroticism seems to be tied to worrying, for instance, as is general intolerance of uncertainty, Moser says. And while everyone worries from time to time, it is possible to worry so much that it starts to have a noticeable impact on your daily life.

研究並沒有清晰地表明哪些人更容易憂慮，但明確地發現了一些特定的個性特點更容易導致憂慮。比如神經過敏，通常很難接受不確定的結果，就易導致憂慮，莫澤博士講道。而且每個人都會時不時地憂慮，這些憂慮達到一定程度就會開始明顯地影響日常生活。

But even if you are a worrier, you're not doomed -- there are a number of effective strategies that worriers can use to stop the cycle. Moser and Christine Purdon, Ph.D., a licensed psychologist, professor and executive director of the Centre for Mental Health Research at the University of Waterloo, shared some of the most effective habits and strategies for squelching worry, as well as some common traits shared by people who aren't bogged down by it:

但是，即使你是個容易憂慮的人，這也並非無可救藥——有很多有效策略可以讓憂慮者停止這個惡性循環。莫澤博士和克里斯蒂·博登博士(專業認證心理學家，現爲滑鐵盧大學的心理健康研究中心教授和執行主任)在本文分享了一些能夠有效消除憂慮的習慣和策略，以及擺脫憂慮的人羣的共有特徵。

　　They focus on the present.

活在當下

Perhaps one of the biggest differences between worriers and non-worriers is the ability to stay in the present, and not get bogged down by things that have yet to happen. Purdon calls it a "worry chain" -- the idea that one worry will spur a "what if," which spurs another worry and another "what if," and so on. Non-worriers are able to look at a problem and recognize what solution needs to be implemented, "but a worrier isn't able to get that kind of distance," she explains. "The mind goes a lot faster."

活在當下，不被尚未發生的事情困擾，這種能力也許就是衡量一個人是否容易憂慮的最主要區別。博登博士稱之爲“憂慮連鎖”—就是一種擔心會激發另一個“假如 “，再激發下一個“假如”，如此產生連鎖效應。不易憂慮的人能夠去看待難題並且找出需要的解決方法，“但是易憂慮的人卻無法達到那種程度，”她解釋道， “他們的思緒轉得很快。”

For instance, say your son comes home with a bad grade. If you're a worrier, you might then worry that this will cause your son to fail the class, which will then impair him from getting into college. However, if you're a non-worrier, you'll realize that the immediate issue at hand is just that your son needs to study harder in this particular class -- and that's that. "I'm able to say, 'He usually does really well, he's smart, he’s dedicated, he’ll be fine; this is a blip, not a pattern,'" Purdon says. Whereas when worriers become anxious, their "intentional focus narrows to threat cues. They can get themselves very anxious very quickly."

比如，你的兒子考試考砸回到家。如果你是個容易憂慮的人，你可能會擔心這會導致孩子最後掛科，可能會影響他上大學。然而，如果你是樂天派，你會意識到當下之急就是小孩需要在這門課上多用點兒功——僅此而已。“我可以說，‘他一直做得很不錯，聰明又用功，他沒問題的;這只是個小挫折，不是常態，” 博登講道，然而，當憂慮者焦慮起來時，他們會“有意識地將注意力縮小到那些威脅性因素上，然後很快讓自己不安起來。”

　　They practice mindfulness

學會專注

Because staying in the present is so fundamental to squashing worry, practicing mindfulness can help you to steer focus away from a hypothetical issue that could develop down the road. "It keeps you in the here and now and it helps you be more aware of your thoughts," Purdon says.

因爲活在當下對於消除憂慮是如此重要，學會專注能幫助你將注意力從假設性的問題上轉移開來，從而不再繼續往下想。“專注的力量能夠讓你留在此時此刻，也讓你更能注意到自己的想法，” 博登博士講道。

And therapy, such as cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT) and acceptance and commitment therapy, can also help worriers stop the negative cycle, since they focus "on the idea of not wrestling and disconfirming the worries, but getting people to focus on their life and values and focus on the present moment so they can make decisions," Moser adds.

一些專業療法，比如認知行爲治療和接受與投入療法，也能幫助憂慮者阻止這種惡性循環，因爲這些療法的核心是“不去對抗和否定憂慮，而是引導人們專注於他們自己的生活和價值，以及當下的情境，以便做決定。” 莫澤博士講道。

　　Their brains actually function differently in a worry-inducing event

憂慮來襲時，讓大腦慢下來減壓

Moser recently had a study come out in the Journal of Abnormal Psychology, showing that the brains of worriers and non-worriers actually work differently in a stressful event. For the study, Moser and his colleagues had 71 female study participants answer surveys that indicated whether they were generally positive thinkers or negative thinkers/worriers. Then, the participants looked at negative images -- such as a woman having a knife held to her throat by a masked man -- as their brain activity was monitored and recorded.

莫澤近來在《變態心理學雜誌》發表的一項研究表示，憂慮者和樂天派在面對緊急事件時，大腦的工作方式是不同的。爲了這項研究，莫澤博士和他的同事找來了71 位女士去回答調研問題，這些問題能夠反映她們是普遍意義上的積極思考者還是消極憂慮者。之後，參與者會被安排去看負面圖片——比如一個女子被蒙面人用刀指着喉嚨——與此同時參與者的大腦活動會被監測和記錄下來。

Moser found that the brains of the positive thinkers were less active than those of the negative thinkers/worriers. In fact, "the worriers actually showed a paradoxical backfiring effect in their brains when asked to decrease their negative emotions,” he explained in a statement. “This suggests they have a really hard time putting a positive spin on difficult situations and actually make their negative emotions worse even when they are asked to think positively.”

莫澤發現積極思考者的大腦比消極憂慮者的活動量少。事實上，“憂慮者在被要求減少負面情緒的時候竟然產生了矛盾的逆反效應，”他在一項陳述中解釋道。“這表明對憂慮者而言，在困難的情境下積極思考非常困難，在被要求去積極思考時，他們的負面情緒甚至更糟。”

　　They're more willing to take chances

勇敢嘗試

While worriers have a hard time making decisions -- they take a long time because they can become crippled by all the potential negative outcomes -- non-worriers are more willing to test out solutions to a problem even if a bad outcome is possible, Moser says. In that same vein, non-worriers are also more flexible in the way they think about things, so they don't get stuck in a negative thinking rut.

憂慮者通常很難做出決定——之所以花很多時間是因爲所有可能的負面結果都能把他們擊垮——樂天派則更願意去嘗試諸多解決方式，即使冒着失敗的可能，莫澤講道。如此一來，樂天派能更加靈活地思考問題，因而不會陷在負面的思維套路中。

　　They have a sense of perspective

置身事外，客觀看待

Non-worriers are able to distance themselves from a situation in order to gain perspective. However, worriers can increase their perspective, Moser explains. One method for doing this is thinking of all the worst possible scenarios, and then evaluating how likely each of them is to really happen. For example: If a worrier is concerned about losing her job, she may jump to the worst-case scenario, which is that she will end up living under a bridge, homeless and alone. But Moser says that talking a worrier through a scenario like this helps her understand how unlikely that outcome is to happen.

樂天派能夠在特定的情境中讓自己置身事外從而可以去客觀看待。其實，憂慮者也可以提高客觀看待問題的能力，莫澤博士解釋道。一種應對方式是去設想所有最糟糕的可能結果，然後評估每種結果真正發生的機率到底有多大。比如，如果一個憂慮者擔心自己丟掉工作，她可以思維跳躍設想最壞的情景——最終無家可歸，孤身寄居橋下。莫澤講到，向憂慮者談及這樣一個情形能夠幫助她認識到這種結果出現的機率是多麼小。

Moser suggests another simple strategy to gain perspective: Using your own name instead of "I" when referring to your emotions. For instance, saying "I'm going to fail" is harsh and doesn't allow any distance between you and the thing you're worried about. But "if you talk about yourself in the third person, you can take better perspective," Moser says.

莫澤也提到另一種客觀看待問題的方法：提及自己的感受時，用你的名字而不是“我”去指代，舉個例子，說“我會失敗”聽起來很殘酷，這會讓你和自己所擔心的事情聽起來很近。然而，“如果你站在另外一個人的角度去談論自己，你就可以做到更加客觀，” 莫澤講道。

　　They get to the root of their worry

設想最壞的情形，找出憂慮的根源

The problem with worrying is that it can spin out of control until the thing you're worried about is 10 steps removed from your immediate issue. That's why it's so important to figure out what the real problem is in order to stop the worry cycle.

憂慮的問題就在於它會一發不可收拾，直到你擔心的事情排到你眼下急需解決的問題10步以外。這就是爲什麼找出真正的癥結所在並停止憂慮循環如此重要。

"When I work with worriers, I try to work on them with problem identification, and to help them be comfortable doing that," Purdon says. "Yes, there are some problems that could lead to something else, but [let's] not worry about that right now because it's not happening right now."

“和憂慮者一起工作的時候，我嘗試引導他們找出問題，並且讓他們習慣於這麼做，” 博登講道。“是的，有些問題的確可以引發其他問題，但是先別去管它們，因爲現在還沒發生。”

It's important to move from problem-generation, which is what worriers are prone to do, to problem-solving. "Worriers think what they're doing is constructive -- that by anticipating [the future problems], it's helpful in some way," Purdon says. "It's reasonable, to some extent, to do that, but they can't stop themselves once they get started."

讓憂慮者從“產生問題”向“解決問題”轉移是非常重要的。“憂慮者認爲他們未雨綢繆的做法在某些方面是非常有益的，” 博登博士講道。“從某種程度上說這樣做是有道理的，但是憂慮者一旦開始就停不下來了。”

　　They don't stop worrying -- they just designate time for it

安排專門的時間，讓自己擔心個夠

"One of the reasons why people engage their worry is they think, 'This is an issue I must sort out now, I have to anticipate and plan against these outcomes.' It grabs attention off what they need to be attending to, whether it be job, spouse, kids, whatever," Purdon explains. So, she recommends using a strategy called the "worry chair." It works like this -- reserve a 15-minute time during the day where you can just think and ponder over your worries on your own. Don't worry outside those 15 minutes, and make sure that you're spending your worry session in the same spot (hence the term "worry chair"!) each day.

“人們花時間憂慮的原因之一就是他們會去思考，‘這個問題我必須現在想清楚，我要先預估並且爲這些可能的結果進行計劃和準備。’這樣的思考將他們的注意力從原本應該專注的事物(無論是工作，配偶，孩子或者其他)上分散開來，” 博登解釋道。因此，她推薦採用一種名爲“憂慮椅”的方式。具體如下——白天預留出15分鐘時間，讓自己可以全部用來考慮和衡量自己擔心的事情。這15分鐘以外的時間，不要有任何擔心，同時保證你每天都在同一個地方度過自己的憂慮時間(這就是“憂慮椅”的說法!)。

"What that means is when you're worried during the day, you can say, 'I'll think about that later. I can switch my attention off that and go on to other things,'" Purdon says. "And what they find is, 'I'm not even worried about that anymore.' But giving them permission to worry about it, but later, allows them to switch the attention away from the thought."

“這樣做的意義在於當你白天憂慮的時候，你可以告訴自己，‘這個晚點再去想，我可以轉移自己的注意力接着幹其他事情，’” 博登博士講道。“然後他們會發現，‘我甚至已經不再爲那件事擔心啦。’但是允許他們去擔心，只是晚點兒，可以讓他們將注意力從擔心的想法中轉移開來。”

　　They have confidence they can handle whatever comes at them

相信自己：發生任何事情，都能應對

"People with high worry not only generate ideas about what could go wrong, they also lack confidence in their ability to cope with what could go wrong," Purdon explains, adding that this is ironic considering worriers actually perform quite well in a crisis since they've spent so much time thinking about the worst-case scenarios and have normal coping abilities. Non-worriers, on the other hand, possess the confidence that if something were to happen, they'll just ... handle it.

“容易憂慮的人不但會有各種想法認爲事情會出錯，而且缺乏對自己應對能力的自信，” 博登也同時講到，由於憂慮者其實能夠很好地處理危機，這一點是有些諷刺的，因爲他們早已花了很多時間去設想最壞的可能並且有了正常的應對能力。從另一個方面來講，樂天派自信地認爲如果有事情發生，他們只需要……處理它。

　　They have the ability to see positive outcomes in seemingly bleak situations

即便事實黯淡，也能看到積極的結果

Take the graphic image Moser used in his Journal of Abnormal Psychology study, described earlier. If you were to look at an image of a woman being held at knifepoint by a masked man, what do you think the next immediate outcome would be? A worrier would likely only think of the worst-case scenario, while a non-worrier would have the capacity to think, "That woman is in distress, but maybe she breaks away from her assailant and runs to safety," Moser explains. Non-worriers are able to see that there could be a positive outcome to a negative event.

想想之前提到的莫澤博士在《變態心理學雜誌》上發表的研究中用過的圖片。如果你看到圖片上一個女子被蒙面漢用刀指着喉嚨，你認爲緊接着的結果會是什麼?憂慮者很有可能只會想到最壞的情形，然而樂天派的人會有大腦容量去思考，“那個女子處於危難之中，但也許她能夠從蒙面漢手中逃脫，跑到安全的地方，”莫澤博士解釋道。樂天派的人有能力從負面的事情中看到積極的結果。

　　They ask themselves the right questions

問自己三個問題

Worriers who are trying to tamp down on their worrying tendencies could find it useful to ask themselves a series of questions when they're going down a negative path. "Ask, 'Is it my problem?" And secondly, 'Do I have any control over it?'" Purdon says. "Thirdly, the next question people can ask themselves is, 'Have I already done everything about it that I can? And is it imminent?' If it's not imminent, then there's no reason to worry about it now."

想要平息憂慮?當陷入負面情緒時問自己一系列問題：“提問，‘是我的問題麼?”第二個問題，“我有辦法控制它麼?’” 博登說道，“第三個問題，‘我已經做到所有自己能做的了麼?這事緊迫麼?’如果不急，就沒有理由現在去擔心啊。”

　　They know how to perceive their negative emotions

正確對待負面情緒


"The most severe chronic worriers [are] less accepting of their emotions, which means they're intolerant of uncertainty and also find negative emotions in particular to not be very acceptable," Moser explains. Meanwhile, people who have a healthier psychological outlook tend to look at negative emotions as a sign that whatever is causing those emotions -- whether it be relationships, or work, or bills -- needs attention. They use emotions to make informed decisions.

“症狀最嚴重的慢性憂慮者很難接受自己的情緒，就是說他們無法容忍不確定性，尤其很難接受負面的情緒，” 莫澤解釋道。然而，在心理觀念健康的人們看來，負面情緒只是一種徵兆，表明引發這些情緒的根源——無論是人際關係，工作或者賬單——需要注意而已。他們會利用自己的情緒全面地做出決定。