Dr. Nicole Cain breaks down thought anxiety into four types: the Auctioneer has racing thoughts, the Ruminator gets stuck dwelling, the Broken Record loops intrusive phrases, and the Fog brings confusion and blanking. Recognizing which one you experience helps you know what to do about it.
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Let's talk about thought anxiety. Do you ever feel like your brain is tormenting you with what if thoughts, racing thoughts, anxious thoughts, health anxiety thoughts? Or maybe your thoughts are foggy and you feel like you can't collect them. Or maybe you think something but you have a hard time articulating it or getting it out. Thought anxiety is a manifestation of anxiety that affects, well, you guessed it, your thoughts. And did you know that there are four different types of thought anxiety? We talk about this a lot in my book Panic Proof, but I'll introduce it to you now. And then you should definitely jump into the Holistic Wellness Collective because we dive into the root causes of each of these different types of thought anxiety and strategically, what to do to unwind that type of anxiety so that you feel calm, in control, and that you're commanding your thoughts as opposed to your thoughts commanding you. So let's talk about the four different types of thought anxiety. Number one is the auctioneer. This is if you feel like your thoughts are really fast. An auctioneer speaking, if you've ever heard them. They say a lot and they say it really fast. So your thoughts are faster and there are more of them. It's like your brain is racing, jumping from thing to thing to thing. That's thought anxiety type A, which is the auctioneer. Thought anxiety number two, type B is called the ruminator. And this is if you find that you're dwelling or obsessing and you can't move on or come to any conclusions. Maybe you're trying to make a decision or resolve a conflict or create something, but it feels like your brain is thinking a lot, but your ability to get to a conclusion is just blocked. It takes longer for you to think lots of thoughts. It just takes a really long time. Number three, or thought anxiety type C is called the broken record. And this is where you get a word or a phrase or a short melody stuck in your head. It's like listening to a broken record. Thoughts are going round and round in circles and it makes it hard for you to think of anything else. We see that there are fewer thoughts, but when they come, they can be fast, really bothersome, intrusive and rapid. And then the fourth type of thought anxiety, or subtype D is called the fog. And when you're in the fog, your thoughts are going to be slow and few. Your mind is going to feel foggy, confused, even blank. And when the fog rolls, you're going to find yourself forgetting words or what you are about to say. You might notice you feel like you're dissociating or shutting down. And so if you're interested in learning more about how to target the different types of thought anxiety, I get into that in a whole lot more detail in the Holistic Wellness Collective. You can click the bottom button here to learn a little bit.
