Although the what-ifs feel very justified, therapists explain why dwelling on them isn’t helpful and how we can break out of this anxious loop. It feels like every minute of every day now comes with a new and worrisome possibility. News reports about how grocery prices continue to go up.
It just gets worse from there. Are we headed for a recession? How long until gas hits $5 a gallon everywhere?
Will the war in Iran ever actually end? It’s almost impossible not to crash out thinking about what could happen, and before you know it, you’re imagining a near future where you’ve lost your job or your house or had to pull your kids out of the school they’re in. It doesn’t matter that those things haven’t taken place; you’ve been sucked into the maelstrom of doom-spiraling.
That’s “future tripping” for you: getting stuck in a loop of anxious what-ifs about things that haven’t happened yet. (It’s relatable enough that Hilary Duff put a song by that name on her comeback album this year.) Most of us know this behavior isn’t helpful. But between the news cycle, the economy, and the general state of the world, it also feels kind of… justified. And because it feels justified, it’s really hard to shake.
I asked therapists what’s actually going on when we spiral and how to interrupt the loop without pretending everything is fine. In other words, you take something that could happen tomorrow, next week, or months from now and play it out over and over, typically focusing on what might go wrong. Well, for starters, it works… at first.
As Phil Smyth, a licensed professional counselor and executive director at Milestone Treatment Center, puts it, “The goal isn’t to find an answer to every possible future problem; it’s learning to tolerate some uncertainty and remind ourselves that we can handle things as they actually happen.” Long story short: Looking ahead is the job. We’re constantly considering future outcomes because we're the ones taking care of everyone. Azita Sayan, a licensed marriage and family therapist with more than 40 years of experience and the CEO of Embrace Growth.
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