A Simple Way to Deal with Anxiety is Named

Detailed and emotionally charged images of a "frightening future" can undermine a person's self-esteem and thereby increase anxiety.

As BAKU.WS reports, this conclusion was reached by psychologists from York St. John University in the United Kingdom. The work is published in the journal Psychological Reports (PR).

Our concept of who we might become - so-called "possible selves" - has long been considered an important factor in motivation and emotional state. These include both positive scenarios and frightening versions of the future. Meanwhile, anxious people usually have more vivid and realistic negative images, but until now this was considered a consequence of the anxiety itself.

The authors of the study proposed a different explanation: perhaps detailed frightening visions of oneself in the future not only reflect anxiety but also intensify it. They identified self-esteem as the key link - one of the most stable predictors of anxiety disorders.

The study involved 68 students. In the first stage, participants completed anxiety and self-esteem questionnaires, and then described their "frightening possible self," assessing how clearly it appeared in their imagination. The analysis showed expected connections: high anxiety was combined with low self-esteem and more vivid frightening images. But most importantly, low self-esteem itself was associated with greater "visual" clarity of the negative future.

Statistical analysis confirmed the authors' central hypothesis: it is self-esteem that mediates the connection between anxiety and the vividness of frightening images. In other words, the more "real" a frightening future is perceived, the more it damages one's sense of self-worth - and reduced self-esteem, in turn, feeds anxiety.

Then all subjects were asked to perform the Best Possible Self exercise - to imagine and describe in detail their most favorable future. After this, anxiety decreased in both groups, and even fell below the initial level.

Scientists plan to test this mechanism in larger and longer-term studies, including patients with anxiety disorders. Such simple and inexpensive methods, as the authors emphasize, could potentially become a useful addition to psychological help.