Worrying about what’s going on in your life? Do these thoughts keep you tossing and turning at night rather than letting you get to sleep. Are your friends or family noting that you seem ready to bite someone’s head off for no apparent reason? Is it hard for you to stay focused?

If this sounds like you, perhaps you are a worrier. That said, everyone worries. However, for someone who is a worrier, this behavior is very typical rather than in response to a particular event. For example, are you worried about your job? If you recently were informed that your company is downsizing, you may be rightly concerned that you could lose your job. On the other hand, if the organization you work for has had a banner year and you had a glowing performance review complete with a raise and a bonus, your concern is far more likely to be ill founded.

When worry is purposeful, it motivates you to consider the alternatives that are available and to develop a plan of action. In this case, a reasonable amount of stress works to your advantage. However, when your concerns are more in the realm of “What if’s…” then you may be spinning your wheels. Not surprisingly, worriers fall into this latter group.

We all know people who worry. These are people who always seem like there is a part of their body that is in constant motion. They cannot sit still! They always seem to be on the brink of some catastrophe — except when you think about their situation, it does not seem anywhere nearly as awful as they suggest, especially since they do not look for solutions — they just keep worrying. Other worriers have a myriad of physical complaints that are related to stress — they have headaches, backaches, are restless, complain of feeling jittery or on edge, have problems with their sleep, or are tired all the time. Some worriers are irritable or seem forgetful because they have trouble keeping themselves focused on the task at hand.

So what do worriers worry about? Simply put, everything! Their worries may involve ordinary, day-to-day tasks or chores or concerns about getting to places on time or just getting things done. They may be focused on work or school, about family life, finances, or relationships. Your own health or the health of the people that you care about may be a source of worry. Some people even spend an undue amount of time worrying about community or world affairs.

If everyone worries, why is this a problem? For some people, their worry spins out of control. Worriers can spend hours each day wrapped up in concerns over situations that are so far off in the future that it is unclear whether the feared catastrophic outcomes will ever occur. These worries also interfere with their ability to enjoy life. Instead of enjoying that their glass is almost full, worriers are miserable over the idea that there is some possiblity that there will be nothing available to refill their glass again.