Mental Resources

Worry and negative stress can also be the result of the relationship between what is happening to you, or the situation you are in, and the resources you feel you have, in order to deal with it. 

This explanation is rather easy to understand:

When environmental worries are greater or different than the inner resources we have to deal with them, we experience stress and worry. We are overwhelmed, we shut down and we cannot find ways to manage the situation effectively.

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How to Cope?

When our inner resources are greater than our environmental worries, then we can be said to cope. Coping is also a learned skill, and something we can develop it. We use the skills and attitudes we need to survive and even thrive in adversity. The solution suggested by this theory is obvious: find a way to increase your personal resources.

Worry and the Feeling of Powerlesness

A variation on this theory is that worry can be an expression of powerlessness. When you are able to perceive something unpleasant but are prevented somehow from doing anything about it, you may experience worry. This explains the kind of worry mothers feel when their young children insist on climbing dangerous looking trees – they keenly feel that they ought to do something, but also that they are powerless and that kids will be kids and occasionally do reckless things.

What About You?


What do you think? Does this theory ring true when you think about your own worry?
Full reference: 

(Nov 20, 2015). Mental Resources. Retrieved Sep 14, 2024 from Explorable.com: https://explorable.com/e/mental-resources

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