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The effects of worry and anxious thoughts

Why is it so hard to stop worrying, how to stop worrying tip 1: create a daily “worry” period, tip 2: challenge anxious thoughts, tip 3: ask yourself if a worry is something you can control, tip 4: interrupt the cycle of worry and stress, tip 5: talk about your worries, tip 6: practice mindfulness, how to stop worrying and end anxious thoughts.

Are you plagued by constant worries, fears, and anxious thoughts, especially about things you can’t control? These tips can help calm your worried mind, ease anxiety, and end negative thinking.

Worries, doubts, and anxieties are a normal part of life. It’s natural to worry about an unpaid bill, an upcoming job interview, or a first date. But “normal” worry becomes excessive when it’s persistent and uncontrollable. You worry every day about “what ifs” and worst-case scenarios, you can’t get anxious thoughts out of your head, and it interferes with your daily life.

Constant worrying, negative thinking, and always expecting the worst can take a toll on your emotional and physical health. It can sap your emotional strength, leave you feeling restless and jumpy, cause insomnia, headaches, stomach problems, and muscle tension, and make it difficult to concentrate at work or school.

You may take your negative feelings out on the people closest to you, self-medicate with alcohol or drugs, or try to distract yourself by zoning out in front of screens. Chronic worrying can also be a major symptom of Generalized Anxiety Disorder (GAD), a common anxiety disorder that involves tension, nervousness, and a general feeling of unease that colors your whole life.

If you’re plagued by exaggerated worry and tension, there are steps you can take to turn off anxious thoughts. Chronic worrying is a mental habit that can be broken. You can train your brain to stay calm and look at life from a more balanced, less fearful perspective.

Speak to a Licensed Therapist

BetterHelp is an online therapy service that matches you to licensed, accredited therapists who can help with depression, anxiety, relationships, and more. Take the assessment and get matched with a therapist in as little as 48 hours.

Constant worrying can keep you up at night and make you tense and edgy during the day. And even though you hate feeling like a nervous wreck, it can still be so difficult to stop. For most chronic worriers, the anxious thoughts are fueled by the beliefs—both negative and positive—that you hold about worrying:

Negative beliefs about worry

You may believe that your constant worrying is harmful, that it’s going to drive you crazy or affect your physical health. Or you may worry that you’re going to lose all control over your worrying—that it will take over and never stop.

While negative beliefs, or worrying about worrying, adds to your anxiety and keeps worry going, positive beliefs about worrying can be just as damaging.

Positive beliefs about worry

You may believe that your worrying helps you avoid bad things, prevents problems, prepares you for the worst, or leads to solutions. Maybe you tell yourself that if you keep worrying about a problem long enough, you’ll eventually be able to figure it out? Or perhaps you’re convinced that worrying is a responsible thing to do or the only way to ensure you don’t overlook something?

It’s tough to break the worry habit if you believe that your worrying serves a positive purpose. Once you realize that worrying is the problem, not the solution, you can regain control of your worried mind.

It’s tough to be productive in your daily activities when anxiety and worry are dominating your thoughts and distracting you from work, school, or your home life. This is where the strategy of postponing worrying can help.

Telling yourself to stop worrying doesn’t work. In fact, trying to do so often makes your worries stronger and more persistent. This is because trying to “thought stop” forces you to pay extra attention to the very thought you want to avoid.

But that doesn’t mean there’s nothing you can do to control worry. You just need a different approach. This is where the strategy of postponing worrying comes in. Rather than trying to stop or get rid of an anxious thought, give yourself permission to have it, but put off dwelling on it until later.

• Create a “worry period.” Choose a set time and place for worrying. It should be the same every day (e.g. in the living room from 5:00 to 5:20 p.m.) and early enough that it won’t make you anxious right before bedtime. During your worry period, you’re allowed to worry about whatever’s on your mind. The rest of the day, however, is a worry-free zone.
• Write down your worries. If an anxious thought or worry comes into your head during the day, make a brief note of it and then continue about your day. Remind yourself that you’ll have time to think about it later, so there’s no need to worry about it right now. Also, writing down your thoughts—on a pad or on your phone or computer—is much harder work than simply thinking them, so your worries are more likely to lose their power.
• Go over your “worry list” during the worry period. If the thoughts you wrote down are still bothering you, allow yourself to worry about them, but only for the amount of time you’ve specified for your worry period. As you examine your worries in this way, you’ll often find it easier to develop a more balanced perspective. And if your worries don’t seem important any more, simply cut your worry period short and enjoy the rest of your day.

Postponing worrying is effective because it breaks the habit of dwelling on worries when you’ve got other things to do, yet there’s no struggle to suppress the thought or judge it. You simply save it for later. And as you develop the ability to postpone your anxious thoughts, you’ll start to realize that you have more control than you think.

If you suffer from chronic anxiety and worry, chances are you look at the world in ways that make it seem more threatening than it really is. For example, you may overestimate the possibility that things will turn out badly, jump immediately to worst-case scenarios, or treat every anxious thought as if it were fact. You may also discredit your own ability to handle life’s problems, assuming you’ll fall apart at the first sign of trouble. These irrational, pessimistic attitudes are known as  cognitive distortions .

Although cognitive distortions aren’t based on reality, they’re not easy to give up. Often, they’re part of a lifelong pattern of thinking that’s become so automatic you’re not even completely aware of it.

Cognitive distortions that add to worry, anxiety, and stress include:

All-or-nothing thinking . Looking at things in black-or-white categories, with no middle ground. “If everything is not perfect, I’m a total failure.”

Overgeneralization . Generalizing from a single negative experience, expecting it to hold true forever. “I didn’t get hired for the job. I’ll never get any job.”

The mental filter . Focusing on the negatives while filtering out the positives. Noticing the one thing that went wrong, rather than all the things that went right. “I got the last question on the test wrong. I’m an idiot.”

Diminishing the positive. Coming up with reasons why positive events don’t count. “I did well on the presentation, but that was just dumb luck.”

Jumping to conclusions . Making negative interpretations without actual evidence. You act like a mind reader: “I can tell she secretly hates me.” Or a fortune teller: “I just know something terrible is going to happen.”

Catastrophizing. Expecting the worst-case scenario to happen. “The pilot said we’re in for some turbulence. The plane’s going to crash!”

Emotional reasoning. Believing that the way you feel reflects reality. “I feel like such a fool. Everyone must be laughing at me.”

‘Shoulds’ and ‘should-nots.’ Holding yourself to a strict list of what you should and shouldn’t do and beating yourself up if you break any of the rules. “I should never have tried starting a conversation with her. I’m such a moron.”

Labeling. Criticizing yourself based on mistakes and perceived shortcomings. “I’m a failure; I’m boring; I deserve to be alone.”

Personalization. Assuming responsibility for things that are outside your control. “It’s my fault my son got in an accident. I should have warned him to drive carefully in the rain.”

How to challenge these thoughts

In order to break these bad thinking habits and stop the worry and anxiety they bring, you need to retrain your brain. Once you identify the negative thoughts, instead of viewing them as facts, treat them as hypotheses you’re testing out. As you examine and challenge your worries and anxious thoughts, you’ll develop a more balanced perspective.

During your worry period, challenge your negative thoughts by asking yourself:

• What’s the evidence that the thought is true? That it’s not true?
• Is there a more positive, realistic way of looking at the situation?
• What’s the probability that what I’m scared of will actually happen? If the probability is low, what are some more likely outcomes?
• Is the thought helpful? How will worrying about it help me and how will it hurt me?
• What would I say to a friend who had this worry?

Research shows that while you’re worrying, you temporarily feel less anxious. Running over the problem in your head distracts you from your emotions and makes you feel like you’re getting something accomplished. But worrying and problem solving are two very different things.

Problem solving involves evaluating a situation, coming up with concrete steps for dealing with it, and then putting the plan into action. Worrying, on the other hand, rarely leads to solutions. No matter how much time you spend dwelling on worst-case scenarios, you’re no more prepared to deal with them should they actually happen.

Is your worry something you can control?

If a worry pops into your head, start by asking yourself whether the problem is something you can actually solve or control.

• Is the problem something you’re currently facing, rather than an imaginary what-if?
• If the problem is an imaginary what-if, how likely is it to happen? Is your concern realistic?
• Can you do something about the problem or prepare for it, or is it out of your control?

Productive, solvable worries are those you can take action on right away. For example, if you’re worried about your bills , you could call your creditors to see about flexible payment options.

Unproductive, uncontrollable worries are those for which there is no corresponding action. “What if I get cancer someday?” or “What if my kid gets into an accident?”

If the worry is in your control, start brainstorming

Make a list of all the possible solutions you can think of. Try not to get too hung up on finding the perfect solution to a worry. Focus on the things you have the power to change, rather than the circumstances or realities beyond your control.

After you’ve evaluated your options, make a plan of action. Once you have a plan and start doing something about the problem, you’ll feel much less anxious.

If the worry is NOT in your control, accept the uncertainty

If you’re a chronic worrier, the vast majority of your anxious thoughts probably fall in this camp. Worrying is often a way we try to predict what the future has in store—a way to prevent unpleasant surprises and control the outcome. The problem is, it doesn’t work.

Thinking about all the things that could go wrong doesn’t make life any more predictable. You may feel safer when you’re worrying, but it’s just an illusion. Focusing on worst-case scenarios will only keep you from enjoying the good things you have in the present. To stop worrying, you need to learn how to embrace the uncertainty that we all face in life.

[Read: Dealing with Uncertainty]

Tackle your need for immediate answers . Do you tend to predict bad things will happen just because they are uncertain? What is the likelihood they will? Given the likelihood is very low, is it possible to live with the small chance that something negative may happen?

Discover how others cope with uncertainty . Ask your friends and family how they cope with uncertainty in specific situations. Could you do the same? For example, if you’re worried about your child taking the bus to school, asking a neighbor how they deal with the uncertainty could help you feel less anxious. 

Tune into your emotions . Worrying about uncertainty is often a way to avoid unpleasant emotions. But you can’t worry your emotions away. While you’re worrying, your feelings are temporarily suppressed, but as soon as you stop, they bounce back. And then, you start worrying about your feelings: “What’s wrong with me? I shouldn’t feel this way!”

By using HelpGuide’s free Emotional Intelligence Toolkit , you can tune into your emotions and  start to accept your feelings, even those that are uncomfortable or don’t make sense.

If you worry excessively, it can seem like negative thoughts are running through your head on endless repeat. You may feel like you’re spiraling out of control, going crazy, or about to burn out under the weight of all this anxiety.

But there are steps you can take right now to interrupt all those anxious thoughts, lower your stress, and give yourself a time out from relentless worrying.

Get up and get moving. Exercise is a natural and effective anti-anxiety treatment because it releases endorphins which relieve tension and stress, boost energy, and enhance your sense of well-being. Even more importantly, by really focusing on how your body feels as you move, you can interrupt the constant flow of worries running through your head.

Pay attention to the sensation of your feet hitting the ground as you walk, run, or dance, for example, or the rhythm of your breathing, or the feeling of the sun or wind on your skin.

Take a yoga or tai chi class. By focusing your mind on your movements and breathing, practicing yoga or tai chi keeps your attention on the present, helping to clear your mind and lead to a relaxed state.

Meditate. Meditation works by switching your focus from worrying about the future or dwelling on the past to what’s happening right now. By being fully engaged in the present moment, you can interrupt the endless loop of negative thoughts and worries.

You don’t need to sit cross-legged, light candles or incense, or chant. Simply find a quiet, comfortable place and choose one of our free audio meditations that can guide you through the meditation process.

Practice progressive muscle relaxation. This can help you break the endless loop of worrying by focusing your mind on your body instead of your thoughts. By alternately tensing and then releasing different muscle groups in your body, you release muscle tension in your body. And as your body relaxes, your mind will follow.

Try deep breathing. When you worry, you become anxious and breathe faster, often leading to further anxiety. But by practicing deep breathing exercises , you can calm your mind and quiet negative thoughts.

Relaxation techniques can change the brain

While the above relaxation techniques can provide some immediate respite from worry and anxiety, practicing them regularly can also change your brain. Research has shown that regular meditation , for example, can boost activity on the left side of the prefrontal cortex, the area of the brain responsible for feelings of serenity and joy.

The more you practice, the greater the anxiety relief you’ll experience and the more control you’ll start to feel over your anxious thoughts and worries.

It may seem like a simplistic solution, but talking face to face with a trusted friend, family member, or therapist —someone who will listen to you without judging, criticizing, or continually being distracted—is one of the most effective ways to calm your nervous system and diffuse anxiety. When your worries start spiraling, talking them over can make them seem far less threatening.

Keeping worries to yourself only causes them to build up until they seem overwhelming. But saying them out loud can often help you to make sense of what you’re feeling and put things in perspective. If your fears are unwarranted, verbalizing them can expose them for what they are—needless worries. And if your fears are justified, sharing them with someone else can produce solutions that you may not have thought of alone.

Build a strong support system. Human beings are social creatures. We’re not meant to live in isolation. But a strong support system doesn’t necessarily mean a vast network of friends. Don’t underestimate the benefit of a few people you can trust and count on to be there for you. And if you don’t feel that you have anyone to confide in, it’s never too late to build new friendships .

Know who to avoid when you’re feeling anxious. Your anxious take on life may be something you learned when you were growing up. If your mother is a chronic worrier, she is not the best person to call when you’re feeling anxious—no matter how close you are. When considering who to turn to, ask yourself whether you tend to feel better or worse after talking to that person about a problem.

Try volunteering

Volunteering helps counteract the effects of stress, anger, and anxiety. The social contact aspect of helping and working with others can have a profound effect on your overall psychological well-being.

Nothing relieves stress better than a meaningful connection to another person.  Working with pets  and other animals has also been shown to improve mood and reduce stress and anxiety.

Worrying is usually focused on the future—on what might happen and what you’ll do about it—or on the past, rehashing the things you’ve said or done. The centuries-old practice of mindfulness can help you break free of your worries by bringing your attention back to the present.

This strategy is based on observing your worries and then letting them go, helping you identify where your thinking is causing problems and getting in touch with your emotions.

Acknowledge and observe your worries. Don’t try to ignore, fight, or control them like you usually would. Instead, simply observe them as if from an outsider’s perspective, without reacting or judging.

Let your worries go. Notice that when you don’t try to control the anxious thoughts that pop up, they soon pass, like clouds moving across the sky. It’s only when you engage your worries that you get stuck.

Stay focused on the present. Pay attention to the way your body feels, the rhythm of your breathing, your ever-changing emotions, and the thoughts that drift across your mind. If you find yourself getting stuck on a particular thought, bring your attention back to the present moment.

Repeat daily. Using mindfulness to stay focused on the present is a simple concept, but it takes time and regular practice to reap the benefits. At first, you’ll probably find that your mind keeps wandering back to your worries. Try not to get frustrated. Each time you draw your focus back to the present, you’re reinforcing a new mental habit that will help you break free of the negative worry cycle.

Basic mindfulness meditation

• Find a quiet place
• Sit on a comfortable chair or cushion, with your back straight, and your hands resting on the tops of your upper legs.
• Close your eyes and breathe in through your nose, allowing the air downward into your lower belly. Let your abdomen expand fully.
• Breathe out through your mouth.
• Focus on an aspect of your breathing, such as the sensations of air flowing into your nostrils and out of your mouth, or your belly rising and falling as you inhale and exhale.
• If your mind starts to wander, return your focus to your breathing with no judgment.
• Try to meditate 3 or 4 times per week for 10 minutes per day. Every minute counts.

[Listen: Mindful Breathing Meditation]

Support resources

Support in the u.s..

NAMI Helpline  – Trained volunteers can provide information, referrals, and support for those suffering from anxiety disorders in the U.S. Call 1-800-950-6264. (National Alliance on Mental Illness)

Find a Therapist  – Search for anxiety disorder treatment providers in the U.S. (Anxiety Disorders Association of America)

Support in other countries

Support Groups  – List of support groups in the U.S., Canada, Australia, and South Africa. (Anxiety and Depression Association of America)

Anxiety UK  – Information, support, and a dedicated helpline for UK sufferers and their families. Call: 03444 775 774. (Anxiety UK)

Anxiety Canada  – Provides links to services in different Canadian provinces. (Anxiety Disorders Association of Canada)

SANE Help Centre  – Provides information about symptoms, treatments, medications, and where to go for support in Australia. Call: 1800 18 7263. (SANE Australia).

Helpline (India)  – Provides information and support to those with mental health concerns in India. Call: 1860 2662 345 or 1800 2333 330.

More Information

• Anxiety - Worksheet to help you cope with anxiety and worry. (Centre for Clinical Interventions)
• Anxiety and Stress Disorders - Special health report from Harvard Medical School. (Harvard Health Publishing)
• Grupe, D. W., & Nitschke, J. B. (2013). Uncertainty and Anticipation in Anxiety. Nature Reviews. Neuroscience, 14(7), 488–501. Link
• Stubbs, B., Vancampfort, D., Rosenbaum, S., Firth, J., Cosco, T., Veronese, N., Salum, G. A., & Schuch, F. B. (2017). An examination of the anxiolytic effects of exercise for people with anxiety and stress-related disorders: A meta-analysis. Psychiatry Research, 249, 102–108. Link
• Newman, M. G., Llera, S. J., Erickson, T. M., Przeworski, A., & Castonguay, L. G. (2013). Worry and Generalized Anxiety Disorder: A Review and Theoretical Synthesis of Evidence on Nature, Etiology, Mechanisms, and Treatment. Annual Review of Clinical Psychology, 9, 275–297. Link
• Kircanski, K., Thompson, R. J., Sorenson, J., Sherdell, L., & Gotlib, I. H. (2015). Rumination and Worry in Daily Life: Examining the Naturalistic Validity of Theoretical Constructs. Clinical Psychological Science : A Journal of the Association for Psychological Science, 3(6), 926–939. Link
• Wells, A. (2005). The Metacognitive Model of GAD: Assessment of Meta-Worry and Relationship With DSM-IV Generalized Anxiety Disorder. Cognitive Therapy and Research, 29(1), 107–121. Link
• Aylett, E., Small, N., & Bower, P. (2018). Exercise in the treatment of clinical anxiety in general practice – a systematic review and meta-analysis. BMC Health Services Research, 18(1), 559. Link

More in Anxiety

Tools to help you feel less tense

How to cope with events in life outside your control

Cognitive Distortions

Put an end to distorted thinking

Anxiety in Children and Teens

A parent’s guide to managing symptoms

Symptoms, treatment, and self-help for needle phobia

How to talk to and support a loved one

Symptoms, treatment, and help for hoarders

Always focusing on your physical flaws? You may have BDD.

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Tackling your worries

Worrying is part of life. We cannot eliminate it completely or control everything, but if your worries feel overwhelming there are lots of things you can try to manage or overcome them, including the "worry time" technique.

Find out about worry time, as well as plenty more practical tips and strategies you can try to help you tackle your worries.

Video: Tackling your worries

This video takes you through the "worry time" technique, and other tips and strategies to help you better manage your worries.

Steps and strategies to tackle your worries

1. write them down.

Sometimes just getting things out of your head and down onto paper or a notes app on your phone can help you clear your mind and make it easier to work through concerns one by one.

2. Set aside 'worry time'

If you find that your worries are taking over your day, it can help to try to manage this by setting yourself some "worry time” – a short period, say 10 or 15 minutes, every day or so before bed to write things down and try to find solutions.

Making this a regular thing can help put your mind at ease and stop your thoughts racing when you're trying to sleep.

3. Do not dwell during the day

Once we have a regular worry time, this can help prevent us from getting lost in our worries during the rest of the day.

So when a worry does enter your mind, think "I'll set that aside for my worry time." This can help you shift your focus back to the here and now.

It might feel difficult at first to stop your thoughts from returning to the worry, but as time goes on and you settle into the habit of having worry time, it should get easier.

4. Use the 'worry tree'

When you sit down to think about your worries, a structured technique called the "worry tree" can help keep you focused on understanding the difference between problems you can solve and hypothetical worries that are beyond your control.

It can also help you decide what you can act on immediately or whether something needs to be scheduled and acted on later.

5. Make a plan – and carry it out

Once you have caught and checked the worry , ask yourself: "Is there anything practical I can do about it?"

For worries you can do something about, write down a plan of action.

Try to make this as specific as possible. Answering these questions might help:

• What would you do?
• How could you do it?
• When would you do it?

If you have identified anything it would be possible to do right now, make sure you do it.

If the worry returns, you can then remind yourself you have already taken action and try to shift your focus.

If there's nothing you can do for the moment, schedule a time for when you can and will. Then if the worry bubbles back up, remind yourself you have a plan in place, and try to switch your attention to something else.

6. Accept the worries you cannot control and move on

Worrying is part of life. We cannot eliminate it completely or control everything. For any worries you have identified as ones you cannot do anything about, try to acknowledge and accept this.

Often, even just knowing we've spent time thinking about a worry properly and assessing the options can help dampen them.

Try not to dwell on one worry for too long – either move on to dealing with another, or find ways to shift your focus, distract yourself, relax or clear your mind.

8. Focus on the present

In time, following these steps should make it easier to deal with the worries we can do something about and stop the ones we cannot from becoming overwhelming.

But if anxiety is creeping in, it's really useful to have some go-to strategies – like exercise, yoga, or breathing, mindfulness or meditation techniques – to help calm us down and bring us back to the present moment.

These can take time and practice to get used to, but they really can help you feel more in control of your thoughts and feelings.

You could also try an app, an NHS audio guide , or a book from your local library from the Reading Well list of mental health books .

It's worth giving things a go and seeing what works best for you.

Video: Mindful breathing

Mindfulness and meditation help you to be in the present. The mindful breathing exercise in this video can help you feel calmer.

More self-help CBT techniques you can try

Problem solving.

Learning new ways to work through your problems can make them feel more manageable, and improve your mental and physical wellbeing.

Bouncing back from life's challenges

Facing your fears

Reframing unhelpful thoughts

Find more ideas to try in self-help CBT techniques

How to Deal With Anxiety: 5 Coping Skills and Worksheets

Recognizing that you are experiencing anxiety is the first healthy step toward learning how to manage and cope with your feelings.

Symptoms of anxiety and stress include:

• Your heart is pounding for no good reason.
• Your mind is noisy, flitting from one thought to the next.
• You feel exhausted.

In this post, we will look at different ways to tackle anxiety, including:

• Cognitive strategies
• Physical strategies
• Emotional support strategies

All these strategies are accessible, easy to implement, and flexible. Some methods are more appropriate for children, others for adults, and can be easily used at home or work. You can try each strategy to see which works best for you.

Before we take a look at how we can tackle anxiety, we thought you might like to download these three Resilience Exercises for free . These engaging, science-based exercises will help you effectively deal with difficult circumstances and give you the tools to improve the resilience of your clients, students, or employees.

This Article Contains:

10 simple ways to deal with anxiety, coping techniques and strategies, 5 worksheets and handouts, useful activities and exercises, anxiety coping for teens and students: 3 games, assessing coping skills: two tests.

• 4 Tips for Coping With Social Anxiety

2 PositivePsychology.com Tools

A take-home message.

It’s important to note that these coping strategies are not passive and won’t happen by themselves, without your attention and care.

Think of it like going to the gym; to improve your strength and endurance, you need to work out regularly. But to work out regularly, you need to make the time and monitor how you feel. If you’re feeling tired, you might complete an easier exercise session that day, but you can work harder when you feel mentally strong . Use this same approach when dealing with anxiety.

Strategies to cope with anxiety

When we feel stressed out or anxious, it’s very easy to let our other needs slide to the wayside. In the book, Coping with Anxiety: Ten Simple Ways to Relieve Anxiety, Fear and Worry , authors Bourne and Garano (2016) provide the following 10 strategies, some of which echo the bottom tiers of Maslow’s (1954) hierarchy of needs.

• Relax your body and muscles, and control your breathing. You can do this through exercises such as yoga, guided meditation, mindful meditation , and breathing exercises .
• Use visualizations, music, and meditation to relax and ease your mind.
• Change your thinking so that you consider other alternatives and solutions to the situation that is causing anxiety.
• Consider facing what you are afraid of so that you can learn to recognize that your concerns are fleeting and see that your imagined outcome is not guaranteed.
• Get regular exercise so that you can sharpen your mind, learn to push through pain and exhaustion, get stronger, and have fun.
• Eat mindfully and maintain a healthy, moderate diet.
• Make time for yourself to recharge. This includes getting a good night’s sleep.
• Simplify your life so that you can adapt to stressful situations and avoid unnecessary (and avoidable) causes of stress.
• Do not go down the rabbit hole of worry. If you are aware that you are starting to worry, find a way to stop it.
• Finally, develop a set of strategies to use when you’re feeling anxious at a particular time so that you can cope with it in the moment (e.g., calling your friend immediately, doing some physical exercise, doing a breathing exercise, etc.).

Only familial needs are considered part of the adaptive coping strategies for dealing with anxiety, which are discussed below. However, ensuring that your basic needs are fulfilled will help you feel better prepared to handle anxiety and stress. For example, physical exercise can help with anxiety (Jayakody, Gunadasa, & Hosker, 2014).

List of adaptive coping strategies

Coping strategies are methods for addressing the impact of upsetting, anxiety-provoking, or stressful events (Cooper, Katona, Orrell, & Livingston, 2008). Coping strategies can be further classified into similar clusters of strategy, for example:

• Emotional or emotion-focused strategies (Lazarus & Folkman, 1984), also referred to as emotional support and acceptance-based strategies (Li, Cooper, Bradley, Shulman & Livingston, 2012)
• Problem-focused strategies or solution-focused strategies (Lazarus & Folkman, 1984)
• Dysfunctional strategies (Carver, Scheier, & Weintraub, 1989)

In a meta-analysis of coping strategies used by carers of patients with Alzheimer’s disease, Li et al. (2012) found that:

• Dysfunctional coping strategies did not affect anxiety development.
• Emotional support strategies and acceptance-based strategies were associated with lower anxiety.
• Surprisingly, solution-based strategies were associated with more anxiety, but this relationship is based on only one study and should be interpreted with caution.

Anxiety and depression often occur together. In the same meta-analysis, Li et al. (2012) found that dysfunctional coping strategies predicted the development of depression. In contrast, emotional-support strategies and solution-based strategies had a protective nature and were not associated with the development of depression.

Now that we understand the relationship between dysfunctional coping and depression, let’s take a look at useful coping strategies.

Emotion-focused strategies (including acceptance-based strategies)

These strategies aim to change and deal with how we feel when confronted with a stressor.

Examples include:

• Turning to other people for emotional support and talking about your feelings.
• Looking for ways that you have changed as a person in a good way.
• Changing your viewpoint about the stressor by looking for positive things that have come from it.
• Turning to prayer or other activities (e.g., meditation) for added support and finding comfort in your religion or life philosophy.

Solution-focused strategies

These types of strategies aim to change the reason for the source of the stress.

• Active coping strategies, such as trying to take action to change the situation.
• ‘Planful’ problem solving, such as concerted efforts to make necessary changes or designing a ‘plan of action’ to address the situation.
• Logical analysis, which refers to identifying multiple ways to change the situation and other solutions or changes if the first solution falls through.
• Active behavioral changes, which refers to making a plan and following it through. The proposed plan must be accompanied by behavior; for example, taking the time to implement the solution.

Dysfunctional strategies

Dysfunctional strategies are ineffective strategies that are less likely to help. You should not engage in these strategies. Examples of dysfunctional strategies include:

• Denial or denying the existence of the event or the way you feel
• Accepting responsibility by criticizing yourself
• Avoidance, such as avoiding other people
• Emotional discharge, such as venting your emotions

5 Anxiety coping strategies you can use right now – MedCircle

At PositivePsychology.com, there are various worksheets and handouts that help cope with anxiety. Here is a list of the most helpful ones.

Breathing exercise sheets

These two breathing exercises will help teach you how to practice mindful breathing. Mindful breathing can be beneficial when you need to take a break and gather your thoughts. These exercises can be easily implemented in a parked car, home, bath, or any other environment. Keep this exercise as one of your go-to’s for when you need to cope with anxiety immediately.

• Breath Awareness
• Anchor Breathing

Cognitive strategy exercise sheets

These exercises are great to use when trying to change your thinking about a particular event that makes you feel stressed out.

An effective coping strategy is to consider alternatives to the stressful event and to reframe it as positive. Often the anxiety we feel about a particular event is unfounded and linked to only one outcome; there may be many positive outcomes possible.

The What If? Bias worksheet is a good starting point to help you change how you think about the particular stressful event causing you anxiety.

The next two worksheets are very similar, but the second sheet is more in-depth than the first. Both will help you consider solutions to the current thing that is causing you anxiety. Forming a plan, listing the obstacles, and possible solutions are effective strategies for coping with anxiety.

In the Coping: Stressors and Resources worksheet, you need to list what you think is causing you anxiety and then consider the coping resources you have to tackle the problem.

To help you foresee possible challenges, you also need to consider the potential obstacles that you might encounter and how to overcome those obstacles. This worksheet can also be easily written up in a journal so that you don’t need to print it out multiple times.

The Decatastrophizing Worksheet  can be useful when you feel incredibly anxious about a specific event.

Physical exercises

First, make time to exercise regularly. Find an exercise that you enjoy. It can be strenuous (e.g., running or cycling) or less strenuous (e.g., walking, hiking, or yoga), performed alone or with someone else.

Having a physical activity like this in your toolbox of coping strategies will better buttress you against the effects of anxiety. It can also give you opportunities to recharge, spend time with other people, and be outside in nature.

Other physical exercises that are good to practice include mindful meditation and breathing exercises. Research shows that mindfulness is a useful strategy for dealing with anxiety, which you can read more about in the article 7 Great Benefits of Mindfulness in Positive Psychology . Breathing exercises can also help center you and make you feel calm. You don’t need to wait until you feel anxious to practice these exercises.

Cognitive exercises

There are many cognitive strategies for coping with anxiety. First, practice reframing negative situations as positive events. For example, if you locked yourself outside your house, consider what you could learn and how you could prevent this in the future. Maybe you learned that you were able to handle the unexpected worry very well or that you were able to call your neighbor to help you.

Secondly, take the time to foresee the event cognitively. Consider alternative outcomes other than the worst-case scenario you’re worried about. Think about what can make you feel better and ensure you are prepared for other possible hiccups.

For example, if you are anxious about an upcoming work trip:

• Make a list of all possible outcomes (positive and negative).
• Consider what you need to do to feel less anxious (e.g., arrange a babysitter or make a list of things to pack).
• Consider possible obstacles that might occur and solutions to overcome them (e.g., the babysitter needs a list of emergency phone numbers; pack your bag the night before).

Finally, delegate responsibilities and lean on other people for emotional support. You do not live in a vacuum, and you can turn to your friends and family for support. List your friends and family who you feel comfortable talking to, and let them know if you feel anxious.

If your anxiety is linked to your workload or responsibilities, then delegate these to other people. If your anxiety is very severe, consider seeing a professional.

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These detailed, science-based exercises will equip you or your clients to recover from personal challenges and turn setbacks into opportunities for growth.

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Here is a list of useful exercises and worksheets that can help children and teenagers cope with anxiety.

The first worksheet, Meditation Grounding Scripts for Children , details a meditation exercise for older and younger children. With regular practice, children will learn how to practice meditation. Initially, this exercise would work better if an adult (e.g., a parent or teacher) goes through the steps and guides the child.

The second worksheet, Noodle Caboodle , teaches children muscle relaxation techniques. This worksheet needs a parent or a teacher to guide the child through the exercises. With time, children can learn to use these techniques without guidance, and it is very powerful when used with the meditation worksheet above.

Cognitive and emotional exercises

The worksheet Inside and Outside helps children articulate the way they feel and how they can change their thinking (e.g., reframing an event or thoughts for positive outcomes). This exercise is currently more suitable for younger children, but it could be easily adapted to suit older children.

Some of the exercises described previously are also appropriate for teenagers and young adults.

Brief COPE (and COPE)

The original COPE inventory contains 15 scales (Carver et al., 1989); the Brief COPE  is a much shorter version (Carver, 1997). It consists of only 28 items that measure 14 scales.

The respondent must indicate how often they have engaged in that particular activity for each item or question. The responses are made on a 4-point scale, ranging from 0 to 3, with 0 meaning ‘I haven’t been doing this at all,’ and 3 meaning ‘I’ve been doing this a lot.’ You can read more about the brief COPE scale in our article dedicated to Coping Scales .

Ways of Coping questionnaire

Richard Lazarus was the first researcher to focus on coping strategies for anxiety and, together with Susan Folkman (1980), created the original Ways of Coping Questions. The questionnaire has gone through multiple revisions since then (in 1985 and 1988). The 1985 version is freely available and has been validated with two different samples (middle-aged adults and college-aged students).

In total, the questionnaire contains 66 questions, each describing a specific behavior, thought, or method that could be used for coping. Respondents must indicate the degree that they engage in each behavior, on a scale from ‘Not used’ to ‘Used a great deal’ (0 to 4).

The questions measure eight different categories of coping strategies, and scores of each category are calculated by summing the responses (from 0 to 4) for the different questions that comprise that category.

4 Tips for Coping with Social Anxiety

Social anxiety is a particular type of anxiety linked to social events and the fear of being judged or scrutinized by other people (American Psychiatric Association, 2013). Some researchers and clinicians believe that social anxiety is linked to how we feel and think about a particular event, rather than the nature of the event itself (Beck, Emery, & Greenberg, 2005).

Different types of social anxiety treatments have been proposed, including cognitive behavioral therapy, medications, and exposure therapy (Rodebaugh, Holaway, & Heimberg, 2004).

Many of the techniques already described are also appropriate for social anxiety; for example:

• Consider the positive outcomes of a social setting that you feel anxious about; for example, you will see your friends, enjoy a new restaurant, or learn a new skill.
• Consider other possible outcomes, positive and negative, and think about how you will overcome them. For example, if you believe that you will forget what to say in a presentation, make speaker notes, practice your presentation, or consider topics you are looking forward to talking about with your colleagues.
• Set up a support system. Go to the social event with a friend, tell a friend about the social event, and arrange that you text them before and afterward.
• If you need a short break to calm your emotions, go to a private space such as a bathroom and practice breathing exercises.

17 Tools To Build Resilience and Coping Skills

Empower others with the skills to manage and learn from inevitable life challenges using these 17 Resilience & Coping Exercises [PDF] , so you can increase their ability to thrive.

Created by Experts. 100% Science-based.

PositivePsychology.com offers additional tools for coping with anxiety that may interest you.

The Reverse The Rabbit Hole worksheet is easily implemented and can be used as a long- or short-term solution. In this exercise, the client is asked to challenge their “What If?” thinking by coming up with equally plausible positive outcomes for anxiety-inducing scenarios.

With regular practice, the client learns how to challenge maladaptive thinking with a more positive and realistic mindset.

With the Coping Skills Inventory , clients can learn about six different coping skills: Thought Challenging, Releasing Emotions, Practicing Self-Love, Distracting, Tapping Into Your Best Self , and Grounding . The client is provided with a two-column table; alongside an outline of each skill, they are asked to list some ways that they feel they could apply these skills when facing a challenging or difficult situation.

If you’re looking for more science-based ways to help others overcome adversity, this collection contains 17 validated resilience tools for practitioners . Use them to help others recover from personal challenges and turn setbacks into opportunities for growth.

There are many tools you can use with anxiety therapy . Some of these are solution-based strategies; others are emotional-based strategies.

Regardless, it is essential to put other measures in place that are not directly related to solving immediate feelings of anxiety. For example, engaging in regular exercise will help you get regular and good-quality sleep, motivate you to eat healthily, and ensure you make time for yourself.

As you learn to recognize how anxiety manifests in your body, mind, and life, the measures you put in place to help you deal with anxiety will also get better.

Dealing with anxiety is not a panacea; you will not suddenly be free of anxiety. But you will become stronger and better at coping with it. So be kind to yourself, and try not to judge yourself when you feel like you’re not doing as well. You are doing the best that you can with what you have.

We hope you enjoyed reading this article. Don’t forget to download our three Resilience Exercises for free .

• American Psychiatric Association. (2013). Diagnostic and statistical manual of mental disorders (DSM-5®) . American Psychiatric Pub.
• Beck, A. T., Emery, G., & Greenberg, R. L. (2005). Anxiety disorders and phobias: A cognitive perspective . Basic Books.
• Bourne, E. J., & Garano, L. (2016). Coping with anxiety: Ten simple ways to relieve anxiety, fear, and worry . New Harbinger Publications.
• Carver, C. S. (1997). You want to measure coping but your protocol is too long: Consider the brief COPE. International Journal of Behavioral Medicine , 4 (1), 92.
• Carver, C. S., Scheier, M. F., & Weintraub, J. K. (1989). Assessing coping strategies: A theoretically based approach. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology , 56 (2), 267.
• Cooper, C., Katona, C., Orrell, M., & Livingston, G. (2008). Coping strategies, anxiety and depression in caregivers of people with Alzheimer’s disease. International Journal of Geriatric Psychiatry: A Journal of the Psychiatry of Late-Life and Allied Sciences , 23 (9), 929–936.
• Folkman, S., & Lazarus, R. S. (1980) An analysis of coping in a middle-aged community sample. Journal of Health and Social Behavior , 21 , 219–239.
• Jayakody, K., Gunadasa, S., & Hosker, C. (2014). Exercise for anxiety disorders: Systematic review. British Journal of Sports Medicine , 48 (3), 187–196.
• Lazarus, R. S., & Folkman, S. (1984). Stress, appraisal, and coping . Springer.
• Li, R., Cooper, C., Bradley, J., Shulman, A., & Livingston, G. (2012). Coping strategies and psychological morbidity in family carers of people with dementia: A systematic review and meta-analysis. Journal of Affective Disorders , 139 (1), 1–11.
• Maslow, A. H. (1954). Motivation and personalit y. New York, NY: Harper.
• Rodebaugh, T. L., Holaway, R. M., & Heimberg, R. G. (2004). The treatment of social anxiety disorder. Clinical Psychology Revie w, 24 (7), 883–908.

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How to Worry More Mindfully

It’s possible. Here’s how to cope when stressful thinking seems constant.

By Jenny Taitz

During times of high-stakes uncertainty, it’s normal to stress about potential threats and negative outcomes, and it can be tougher to resist anxious thoughts given that the coronavirus has disrupted the usual ways we comfort ourselves.

But getting lost in worries is emotionally depleting, and it interferes with moving forward. That’s why it’s worth improving how you handle this pesky mental habit.

Many of us worry because we feel that it helps us plan . It’s tempting to keep unsettling issues top of mind — the same way we review our to-dos — to prepare.

“Our minds will try to solve a problem, even if it’s a problem that can’t be solved by us,” said Lizabeth Roemer, a professor of psychology at the University of Massachusetts Boston, and an author of “Worry Less, Live More: The Mindful Way Through Anxiety Workbook.”

As a psychologist, some of my clients describe associating worrying with warding off bad outcomes. And it can appear as if that strategy works, since most of our worries never materialize. But none of us can control the future with our thoughts.

We may also worry because it feels like a way to do something when we feel helpless. There’s some logic in that, and even some science: When we worry, we may feel less afraid , since worrying involves thinking rather than feeling.

Despite how instinctual this habit feels, confusing worrying with coping robs you of moments of peace. And isn’t life already challenging enough?

What ultimately helps is being present, even if that means sitting with uncertainty, sadness and, yes, a certain amount of worry — approached intentionally. Here are some of my favorite evidence-based strategies to finding clarity when your worries feel overwhelming.

Accept your worries

You can’t choose what shows up in your mind, but you can observe — without judging — thoughts that don’t empower you. Many of our emotional struggles stem from our response to our worries rather than their content. People often assume that they need to worry, and then feel guilty that they can’t control their worrying. But by targeting those conflicting beliefs, it’s possible to free yourself from traps like worrying about worry.

Instead, practice seeing your worries neutrally, the same way you might glance up and notice skywriting. You can observe, “There is the thought that …,” and then decide if it’s worth engaging with immediately. If you can take a step to problem solve, go for it. If not, turn your mind back to the moment, just as you screen out a robocall.

Keep in mind that letting thoughts go is not the same as pushing them away , which leads to them returning with vigor. Also sidestep asking others for reassurance , since no one can enduringly promise that all will be OK. And when thoughts get so blaring that it’s hard to perceive them as mere ideas, immerse yourself in a brief, captivating activity, like watching a hilarious video clip, until you gain perspective.

Free yourself from mental multitasking

Usually when you’re worrying, you’re only partly attending to your thoughts. With concerns stealthily arising, it’s easy to feel as if you have a personal threat ticker contaminating your head space at inopportune moments. With worry, as in the rest of life, it can be difficult to perform when multitasking .

[Like what you’re reading? Sign up here for the Smarter Living newsletter to get stories like this (and much more!) delivered straight to your inbox every Monday morning.]

In the 1980s, Dr. Thomas Borkovec, a professor emeritus in psychology at Pennsylvania State University and leading expert on anxiety, developed a paradoxical intervention : Encouraging chronic worriers to carve out time to worry. By planning when to worry, you can cut hours of intrusive worrying.

When my clients are skeptical about scheduling worry, I tell them it may sound like a simple hack, but the practice hinges on behavioral science. First, it encourages self-monitoring, or tracking when and where your mind wanders. Second, by setting aside a space for worry, you’ll be less likely to associate worry with a wide variety of activities. This concept is known as stimulus control: By reducing the amount of time you worry, it’s easier to break the all-day worry habit. Finally, deciding to worry for a longer period rather than jumping in and out of half-attended-to thoughts is a form of exposure therapy, a gold standard treatment for anxiety.

Experiencing what you fear when you are wanting to avoid allows you to learn that your thoughts and feelings come and go. You’ll also come to appreciate that you don’t have to worry to manage. The current is not the constant.

Make a worry appointment

Rather than recommending the impossible, “Don’t worry!” I prescribe 20 to 30 minutes of Dr. Borkovec’s concentrated worry time to my clients, encouraging them not to do this right before bed or first thing in the morning, especially if they tend to wake up with a sense of dread. Instead, my clients plan a more constructive time to either try a single session or two, 15-minute ones. If you have an array of worries, you can also set times for specific topics, such as financial stressors or health concerns, limiting your total worry time to half an hour.

During your worry period, feel free to list your worries , or, ideally, take steps if your concerns lend themselves to problem solving. Writing down worries ahead of time actually improves problem solving since we’re able to perform better when our worries aren’t taking up our mental space. A 2011 study led by cognitive scientists Dr. Gerardo Ramirez and Dr. Sian Beilock highlights this benefit: Students who struggled with academic anxiety took 10 minutes to journal about their fears before a big exam, which significantly improved their performance.

After your worry time, postpone worries until your next worry session, just as you might answer your emails in a batch rather than letting them interrupt your flow. When you inevitably catch yourself entertaining pop-up worries, don’t blow a loud whistle at yourself — that’s not the compassionate stance that will free you. Rather, speak to yourself as a friend would, putting a metaphorical hand on your shoulder to warmly whisper, “It’s OK, you don’t have to do this right now.”

Sometimes when I suggest this approach, my clients wonder if, by scheduling worry, they will get themselves stuck in an endless distressing loop. I explain that many people who struggle with obsessive compulsive disorder and find themselves bombarded with disturbing thoughts, like intrusive ideas of harming a loved one, are encouraged to similarly sit with thoughts to realize that mental events aren’t dangerous. I also encourage coming up with a strategy to prevent worry appointments from spiraling into ruminating, like noticing sights and sounds, to return to your current reality.

Plan times outside of worry to be fully present

Often, when I ask clients how their worry time is going, they report that they actually start to feel bored by their concerns or that they feel more at peace with difficult circumstances. Some tell me that they forget their worry appointments. I’m always happy to hear this, but I remind them that the goal isn’t what happens when they’re worrying; it’s about being more effective during the rest of their lives.

To improve your ability to be in the moment, schedule rituals, like leaving your phone at home and taking a daily walk or savoring your breakfast without jumping from news headlines to work emails. Even if your worry habit tries to interrupt you (“What if I miss something important?!” ), mindfulness correlates with improving how you manage whatever life throws your way.

Take a study led by two psychologists, Dr. Joanna Arch and Dr. Michelle Craske at the University of California, Los Angeles. The researchers divided participants into groups: One group listened to a recording on focused breathing while the other listened to a recording that provoked worrying. Afterward, when both groups viewed negative images, the participants from the worry group responded more negatively versus those who had practiced staying present. In other words, worrying depletes us, while being present facilitates facing challenges.

“Our minds act on habit,” Dr. Roemer said. “We want to help our minds develop habits that help us thrive and live as fully as possible, even in the midst of the pain.”

So let’s try to remember, when reality feels so messy, we all deserve a little more space, even if all we can manage is our minds.

Jenny Taitz is an assistant clinical professor in psychiatry at the University of California, Los Angeles, and the author of “ How to be Single and Happy: Science-Based Strategies for Keeping Your Sanity While Looking for a Soul Mate ” and “ End Emotional Eating .”

Managing Anxiety and Stress

Stay balanced in the face of stress and anxiety with our collection of tools and advice..

How are you, really? This self-guided check-in will help you take stock of your emotional well-being — and learn how to make changes .

These simple and proven strategies will help you manage stress , support your mental health and find meaning in the new year.

First, bring calm and clarity into your life with these 10 tips . Next, identify what you are dealing with: Is it worry, anxiety or stress ?

Persistent depressive disorder is underdiagnosed, and many who suffer from it have never heard of it. Here is what to know .

New research suggests people tend to be lonelier in young adulthood and late life. But experts say it doesn’t have to be that way .

How much anxiety is too much? Here is how to establish whether you should see a professional about it .

Are You Problem-Solving, or Just Worrying?

Insights on how to stop worrying about your problems and start solving them..

Posted February 1, 2021 | Reviewed by Matt Huston

We all have problems—it’s an inevitable part of being alive. But sometimes, when we’re trying to focus our energies on solving these problems, we may actually be doing something far less productive: worrying .

In the anxiety literature, worry is defined as a repetitive pattern of negative thinking about unresolved and threatening issues that could end badly. It’s not just about having one negative thought (“Oh no, I forgot to write that report due on Monday!”). Instead, worry is a sustained period of negative thinking about the issue, and often focused on the worst-case-scenario outcomes (e.g., “What if I can’t finish on time? What if it’s terrible? What will people think of me? I might get fired!” and so on).

It’s not uncommon for people to confuse worry with problem-solving. But unfortunately, despite our best intentions, worry actually derails the problem-solving process.

As worry researchers, Michelle and I have carefully studied the literature on this topic, and have conducted our own research as well. Here are our responses to some of the common questions and misconceptions about worry versus problem-solving.

When I’m worrying about my problems, I’m working on solving them, right?

Actually, no. Worrying is NOT the same as problem-solving. But it seems that lots of us have trouble telling the difference. For example, research shows that when asked why they worry, many people say it’s because they’re trying to solve problems. And this may be especially true for those of us who worry a lot: Another study found that chronic worry is linked to believing that prolonged thinking is required to find the best solutions.

However, recognizing the distinction, and being able to shift away from worry and into more productive thinking, can make a big difference in how efficiently you solve your problems.

Okay, so what is problem-solving, and how is it different from worrying?

In the research literature, successful problem-solving is described as following these steps: clearly pinpointing and defining the problem, determining what you hope to achieve with the solution, coming up with a range of solutions while withholding any judgment regarding the quality of those solutions (brainstorming), weighing the solutions based on pros and cons, and then identifying the optimal solution ( D’Zurilla & Goldfried, 1971 ). In general, the best problem-solvers also hold a positive stance toward their problems—accepting that difficulties are bound to happen from time to time, and believing that they are capable of responding appropriately.

Worry, on the other hand, is more focused on all the things that can go wrong. We identify the threat (e.g., work we forgot to do), but then get stuck in either rehearsing the threat itself (“I can’t believe I forgot! How did this happen? I’m so irresponsible.”) or mulling over all the possible repercussions (“My boss will be so disappointed. This will really throw off the project. Everyone at work will be mad at me.”). When we’re worrying, we’re so focused on these things that we may never even get to the point of coming up with solutions.

Why do I get these two processes confused?

Because thinking about our problems can make us feel anxious, we might confuse that thought process with worrying. This is especially true for those of us who worry a lot. Worriers can have pretty negative beliefs about our ability to solve problems. We find problems to be kind of scary, and don’t feel as confident that we can handle them.

So if you’re a worrier, you may find that thinking about your problems can make you anxious, which can then trigger worrying about the issue instead of focusing on it objectively.

Another reason is that, for many of us, worry feels productive. We’re focusing on the threatening issue, repeating it over and over to ourselves, mulling over possible outcomes (mainly the bad ones), and spending a LOT of time and mental energy doing it. But we’re not getting anywhere . It’s like pressing really hard on the gas pedal while the car is in neutral. You might expend a ton of energy and feel mentally exhausted, but you haven’t moved an inch.

Is worrying really such a bad reaction to my problems?

The short answer is: yes. While it may be totally normal to feel a surge of anxiety when you first identify a threat or problem, it’s not so helpful to keep that anxiety going when you’re trying to fix it.

Here’s why worry is bad for problem-solving.

For one, worrying makes us feel bad . And research shows that feeling bad can influence our judgments and decision-making . That is, a negative frame of mind can make us feel more pessimistic about the problem, and more likely to dismiss any solutions we come up with as not good enough.

Furthermore, when we’re worrying, it takes a lot of mental effort to stop focusing on the threat and shift into more goal-directed thinking. This means fewer cognitive resources left to actually solve the problem.

To get to the bottom of things, Michelle and I recently ran a study (which we also discussed here ) to directly test the impact of worry on problem-solving.

We asked some people to worry about a current problem and others to consider their problem without worrying (e.g., focus on breaking it down into smaller parts, think about end- goals , and set aside negative thoughts). When we then asked everyone to come up with solutions, worry took its toll. Not only did people who worried generate less effective solutions to the problem, worry also predicted that they were less inclined to put these solutions into action. And for those participants who were naturally high worriers, worrying had a significant negative impact on their confidence , too.

In essence, we found that worry impaired problem solving when compared to more objective, less emotional thinking.

Here are some ideas for how to tell when you’re worrying versus problem-solving, and how to change these patterns.

1. When you’re thinking about the issue or problem, take a moment to assess how you’re feeling. Are you tense, distressed, and upset? If so, you might be worrying.

Instead, try to take some slow breaths from your diaphragm and relax. If that doesn’t help, maybe decide to come back to the problem when you’ve had a chance to settle down (e.g., go for a run, take a shower, etc.). Just be sure you actually DO come back to it.

2. Are you spending a lot of time focusing on how things could go terribly wrong (i.e., catastrophizing )? If so, you are worrying.

Remember, focusing on what you DON’T want to happen takes time away from more productive thinking. Instead, focus attention on your goals— this might make it easier to come up with a pathway toward achieving them.

3. As you’re brainstorming, do you find yourself immediately dismissing all your solutions as ineffective? If so, you may be worrying.

Remember, worrying makes us feel pessimistic about our brainstorming process. Coming up with lots of solutions (even if some aren’t that great) is an important part of problem-solving. Just accept them as they come—you can evaluate and fine-tune them later.

Here’s the bottom line:

When you’re going to sit down and focus on a problem, try to do so in an open-minded, calm, and non-judgmental manner. Clearly define the problem, identify your ultimate goals, and think positive! But if you find yourself slipping into negative thinking (e.g., thinking about everything that could go wrong), don’t get frustrated or give up. Just try to let those thoughts go, and refocus your mind on the problem itself.

And remember, despite what you may hear, there is no such thing as "good worry," especially when it comes to your problems. There are so many more productive ways to spend your time!

LinkedIn image: AshTproductions/Shutterstock.

Facebook image: By Marina Andrejchenko/Shutterstock

Llera, S. J., & Newman, M. G. (2020). Worry impairs the problem-solving process: Results from an experimental study. Behaviour Research and Therapy, 135, 103759. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.brat.2020.103759

Sandra J. Llera, Ph.D . is a clinical psychologist and an Associate Professor at Towson University.

Michelle G. Newman, Ph.D ., is a Professor of Psychology and Psychiatry at the Pennsylvania State University.

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Work through a self-help guide for anxiety that uses cognitive behavioural therapy (CBT).

Navigate self-help guide

1. introduction, 2. symptoms of anxiety, 3. what is anxiety, 4. what causes anxiety, 5. what keeps anxiety going activity 1, 6. how can i manage my anxiety, 7. patterns of unhelpful thinking, 8. how to challenge unhelpful thoughts, 9. activity 2, 10. review your responses, 11. challenges to an unhelpful thought, 12. activity 3, 13. managing your worry, 14. improving your quality of life, 15. grounding, 16. reducing avoidance, 17. confronting the things you avoid - activity 4, 18. continuing to confront the things you avoid, 19. problem solving, 20. self-esteem, 21. next steps.

Section 1 of 21

Urgent Help

This self-help guide is intended for people with mild-to-moderate symptoms of anxiety.

If you're feeling distressed, in a state of despair, suicidal or in need of emotional support you can phone NHS 24 on 111.

For an emergency ambulance phone 999.

This self-help guide is intended for people with mild-to-moderate symptoms of depression.

This guide aims to help you to:

• find out if you have symptoms of anxiety
• understand more about anxiety
• find ways to manage or overcome anxiety

There are a number of conditions that have anxiety as a symptom, or have anxiety in the name – like social anxiety, social phobia, and obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD). This guide is designed to help with general anxiety symptoms.

How to use the anxiety self-help guide

Working through this guide can take around 30 to 40 minutes, but you should feel free to work at your own pace.

Work through the guide on your device, using the “Next” button to move forward and use the “Previous” button instead of the Back button in your browser. To type in a graphic or diary, click or tap the part you’d like to fill in and use your keyboard as usual.

If you’d like to save the guide and return to it later, you’ll need to save it as a PDF on your device before you leave the page. You can then continue filling it out on the PDF. We don’t use a login feature on our mental health self-help guides for privacy reasons.

If you’d like to print the guide at any time, you’ll find an option to save and print the whole guide, including the parts you have added, in each section.

Section 2 of 21

Do I have symptoms of anxiety?

• Do you spend large periods of the day worrying?
• Do you feel nervous, apprehensive or on edge?
• Do you often experience unpleasant physical sensations like “butterflies” in your stomach, tense muscles, dizziness or breathlessness?
• Do you find it hard to relax and “switch off”?

If the answer to any of these questions is ‘yes,’ you may be experiencing symptoms of anxiety and you may find this guide helpful.

Other symptoms of anxiety

Feelings you might have.

• Overwhelmed
• Irritable/lack of patience

How your body might feel

• Breathing faster or feeling breathless
• Stomach churning
• Chest tight or painful
• Heart racing/heart palpitations – meaning heartbeats that become noticeable
• Tense/sore muscles
• Dizzy/faint
• Trembling or tingling sensations
• Difficulty concentrating

Thoughts you might have

• “I’m going to die”
• “I’m not safe”
• “I can’t cope”
• “Other people aren’t safe/they’re going to die”
• “Something bad is going to happen”

Things you might do

• Avoid doing things that make you anxious
• Find it hard to relax
• Snap at people easily
• Avoid people or things you would normally enjoy
• Talk very quickly

Due to the unpleasant nature of anxiety, people often worry that experiencing it is harmful. You might worry that the physical symptoms of anxiety, like a fast heartbeat, are signs of a serious health problem. These fears can make you even more anxious, which creates a cycle of anxiety.

Section 3 of 21

Anxiety is an unpleasant feeling that everyone experiences sometimes. You might describe it as feeling very nervous or “wound up”.

General anxiety symptoms can last for extended periods of time – it could go on for a couple of weeks or longer. It’s more than just being nervous.

You might have anxious thoughts about yourself, other people, and how you think other people feel about you. You might also have anxious thoughts about the world around you and what’s coming in the future.

People who are anxious usually think negatively about:

• “Other people can cope better than me”
• “Someone I love is going to have an accident or die”
• “The people I love aren’t safe”
• “Bad things will happen”
• “I’ll not manage”
• “I won’t be able to cope”
• “The world isn’t safe”
• “The world is a dangerous and frightening place”

Section 4 of 21

People can feel anxious for lots of reasons – or you might not know what the reason is right now.

Psychological

• Negative thoughts about yourself, other people and the world
• Early life experiences
• Learning anxious behaviour from someone else, like a parent or loved one

Difficult experiences:

• Stress at work
• Relationship problems

If a parent or close relative has experienced anxiety, there could be more of a chance that you’ll experience anxiety yourself.

Section 5 of 21

The things you think, feel, and do when you’re anxious can actually keep anxiety going.

When you’re anxious, you might worry all the time and feel like you can’t get it under control. You might spend long periods of time worrying and this can make it difficult to relax or sleep. These worries can stop you from doing things you enjoy, or things you need to do like going to work.

Now fill in the boxes below about a situation when you felt anxious. Filling this in helps you see how your feelings, thoughts, behaviour and how your body feels are all linked, and can all affect each other.

The text you enter will be saved as long as you’re using this guide, but won’t be sent anywhere.

On the infographic you can see how thoughts, feelings and actions affect each other.

Section 6 of 21

Automatic thoughts

Automatic thoughts are unhelpful thoughts that pop into your mind, without you making any effort to think of them. They’re believable and usually upsetting – this can affect your feelings and what you do.

It’s important to remember that a thought isn’t necessarily a fact, or based on reality. You might believe the unhelpful thoughts that pop into your mind, but it’s actually important to question them. They can be based on unhelpful assumptions.

You might have unhelpful thoughts about all kinds of things. Here are some examples:

Being judged negatively by others

• “They think I’m useless”
• “They won’t like me”

Being unable to cope

• “I’ll make a fool of myself”
• “I’m too anxious to manage that”
• “I can’t control this”

Something terrible happening

• “What if I have an accident?”
• “What if I lose my job?”

Being unable to control worry

• “If I keep worrying I’ll make myself ill”

Do you ever think in any of the ways outlined above?

Try thinking about a time when you started to feel anxious. Consider what was running through your mind at that time – was it an automatic thought?

Section 7 of 21

Knowing the common patterns that unhelpful thoughts follow can help you recognise and challenge them before they have a negative effect on the things you do.

Here are some common patterns of unhelpful thinking:

Catastrophising:

People often catastrophise when they’re anxious. This means the anxiety makes them feel like something that’s happened is far worse than it really is.

For example:

• “My partner’s late coming home – they must have been in an accident.”
• “I’m worrying so much – this worry could harm me.”

Black and white thinking:

People often see things as black or white when they’re feeling anxious – there’s no ‘in between’.

• “I failed that exam – I’m going to fail my whole degree.”
• “My partner is annoyed with me – they’re going to break up with me.”

Emotional reasoning

This means treating emotions as if they’re facts.

• “I feel anxious – something bad is going to happen.”
• “I feel scared in a new situation – I’m not safe.”

Must and should statements:

People often live by fixed rules for themselves about what they “should” do and how they “should” feel, and judge themselves harshly if they don’t meet them.

• “I should be able to cope.”
• “I must be calm at all times.”

When people think like this, they’re being critical of themselves, which makes the anxiety worse.

If you find yourself thinking this way, it can help a lot to accept that things and people aren’t always perfect, and they don’t have to be in order for you to be calm and relaxed.

Jumping to conclusions:

People often assume they know what others are thinking, and the assumptions are usually about the future – there are frightening “what ifs” running through their minds.

• A friend doesn’t say hello when you see them across the street. You think you must have done something terrible to upset them. In fact, they just didn’t see you.

Jumping to conclusions can also make you feel like you know the future, and that it will be bad.

• “I’m starting a new job tomorrow – no one’s going to speak to me.”

Over-generalising:

Based on one isolated incident, people with this thinking pattern assume all future events will follow a similar pattern. It becomes hard to see a negative event as a one-off.

• After failing your driving test, you think you’ll never be able to drive.

Dismissing the positives:

Often people can ignore the positive aspects of life or situations, and instead focus on the negative.

• Your boss gives you a good review, but you’re certain they’re only saying positive things because they have to.

People who are anxious often label themselves in negative ways.

• “I didn’t cope well today – I’m pathetic.”
• “I couldn’t speak at the meeting – I’m stupid.”

Personalisation

People who think this way believe everything is to do with them, and it’s usually negative – they place blame on themselves for no logical reason.

• “My colleague is in a bad mood today – I must have done something to upset them.” In reality, your colleague’s bad day could have nothing to do with you.

Do any of your unhelpful thoughts follow these patterns? Make a list of the ones you have most often, and try to put them in one of the categories above.

It’s important to remember that anyone can experience thoughts like this, and that patterns of unhelpful thinking can be managed so they don’t bother you as much, or at all.

Section 8 of 21

Once you have recognised an unhelpful thought the next stage is to challenge it. To do this, you can ask yourself a series of questions.

The example below outlines the cycle of anxious thoughts and feelings. It shows how a situation, combined with negative feelings, can create a cycle with unhelpful thoughts. When you have an unhelpful thought, it makes you feel anxious, which creates more negative feelings. It also works the other way around – negative feelings make it more likely you’ll have unhelpful thoughts, which create more anxiety.

In the next section, you can fill out an example of this cycle from your own life.

Section 9 of 21

Use the boxes below to write about a time when you had an unhelpful thought. This will help you to understand and remember how the cycle of anxious thoughts and feelings works.

The next time you find yourself feeling anxious or experiencing an unhelpful thought, it will be easier to remind yourself of what is happening and challenge the thought.

The text you enter will be saved as long as you’re using the guide, but it won’t be sent anywhere.

Section 10 of 21

My feelings

My unhelpful thought.

Section 11 of 21

Now you can challenge your unhelpful thoughts by asking these questions. Work through the questions below, using the examples to give you ideas.

“My partner was supposed to be home 20 minutes ago and they aren’t back yet. They must have been in an accident.”

1. Is there any evidence against this thought?

• “The police haven’t phoned me to say there’s been an accident.”
• “They’re a safe driver; they’ve never had an accident before.”

2. Is there any evidence for this thought (based in fact)?

• “They’re 20 minutes late getting home.”
• “They’re usually on time.”

3. Can you identify any patterns of unhelpful thinking?

• “I’m catastrophising – I’m thinking of the worst thing that could happen.”
• “I’m using emotional reasoning – I’m thinking that something bad must have happened because I feel anxious.”

4. What would you say to a friend who had this thought in a similar situation?

• “I’d say they’re just held up in traffic or at work – this kind of thing happens all the time.”

5. Is there another way of looking at this situation?

• “They’re probably just busy and will be home soon.”

6. Is there a proactive solution to this unhelpful thought?

• “I could distract myself from worrying by watching TV.”

Section 12 of 21

Now complete the table below to challenge your own unhelpful thoughts.

Section 13 of 21

Anxious people can spend a lot of time worrying, but worry is only useful when it reminds you to do something – otherwise it’s just your thoughts getting stuck in an unhelpful loop. One of the most frustrating things about anxiety is that it can make you feel like you have no control over how much you worry. Managing how much you worry can lower your anxiety.

One way you can do this is to set aside ‘worry time’  –  this can help you to feel in control of your worry, so it doesn’t feel overwhelming.

Worry time:

• Decide a time in the day that’s worry time – this should last about 10 to 15 minutes.
• At other times, remind yourself that you have worry time put aside already and try not to think about your worries until then.
• Once your worry time arrives, start timing yourself, so it doesn’t go on for longer than 15 minutes.
• During worry time, let yourself worry – don’t even try to come up with solutions. Focus entirely on being worried.
• Stop as soon as your worry time is finished – or earlier, as you might run out of worries before the 15 minutes is up.

Section 14 of 21

Doing something you enjoy will give you less time to spend worrying, and make you feel better overall.

Suggestions:

• Do some exercise, like going swimming or cycling
• Spend time with a friend or family member
• Read a book
• Watch your favourite TV show
• Go to the cinema
• Do something creative, like drawing or painting
• Have a bath

You could do a web search for events happening in your area and see if there’s anything you’d be interested in. Just remember it’s important to pace yourself – you don’t have to do everything at once. You’ll know what works best for you.

Feeling calmer

Breathing exercises can help you feel calmer and reduce your anxiety.

The controlled breathing technique involves focusing on and slowing down your breathing. It’s particularly helpful if you feel dizzy or light-headed when you get anxious.

• Get into a comfortable position – you could lie on your bed, or sit on a comfortable chair.
• Try to breathe in a steady rhythm. Perhaps try to breathe in for three seconds, hold this breath for two seconds, and then breathe out for three seconds. It can be helpful to count as you do this – for example, “in, 1,2,3… out, 1,2,3”.
• Repeat the steady breathing for a few minutes.
• You should soon begin to feel more relaxed. If you were feeling dizzy then this should also get better after a few minutes.

We have a number of other breathing and relaxation exercises on NHS inform that can help with anxiety and stress. Try doing one of these when you’re feeling anxious.

Breathing and relaxation exercises

Learn new ways of feeling calmer and more relaxed in day-to-day life.

Section 15 of 21

Grounding is a good technique to fend off symptoms of anxiety and stress when they feel overwhelming.

Grounding involves trying to take your mind off of uncomfortable symptoms or thoughts.

You can use the 5,4,3,2,1 method to ground yourself.

Start by sitting in a comfortable place and taking a deep breath. Then try to focus on the following:

• 5 things you can see
• 4 things you can feel
• 3 things you can hear
• 2 things you can smell
• 1 thing you can taste
• Sit or stand in a comfortable position
• Imagine you have an empty balloon in your stomach
• Try to inflate the balloon by breathing through your nose – breathe in while counting to 3
• Now slowly deflate the balloon by breathing out through your mouth
• Inflate and deflate the balloon a few times until you feel calmer

Section 16 of 21

People often get into the habit of avoiding situations that make them feel anxious. This can, unfortunately, make the problem worse. The longer you avoid something, the more intimidating it becomes. Also, if you always avoid situations that cause anxiety, it’s harder to prove to yourself that you can manage them – as a result, you may lose confidence.

If you worry about other people judging you negatively, you might avoid going out socially. This means:

• you might stay at home and avoid social events or taking part in hobbies
• you might avoid speaking when in groups
• you could avoid any situation where you have to ‘perform’, like giving a speech or a presentation at work

As a result, you never get the chance to practice coping in these situations, and can’t build up confidence about them. There’s no opportunity for you to reduce the anxiety you feel about doing these things.

If you can confront situations that make you feel anxious, you’ll build up confidence. Over time, this will reduce the anxiety symptoms.

Section 17 of 21

There are three steps to this activity:

• Make a list of situations that you often try to escape from or avoid. For example, you could write “work nights out” or “giving presentations”.
• Give each situation a “difficulty score” out of 10. If a situation causes you no anxiety, rate it 0. If it causes extreme anxiety, rate it 10.

Try to put the situations in order, from least anxiety to most anxiety. Here’s an example:

Download a table to fill out

3. Confront the lowest-ranked item on your list – this is the one that causes you the least anxiety.

Although your anxiety symptoms might feel worse at first, if you keep going they’re likely to reduce. Try to stay in the situation until your anxiety has reduced.

Remember, you don’t have to be scared of the symptoms of anxiety. They might feel awful, but they aren’t dangerous.

Section 18 of 21

Keep confronting the situation that makes you feel the least anxiety – every day if you can. If you can’t do it every day, try not to wait too long between the times you can confront the situation. The more you confront the situation, the less fear you’ll feel.

Every time you experience the situation that makes you anxious, you should notice that your anxiety symptoms get a little better.

Move on to the next situation

When you feel comfortable with the situation that causes the least anxiety, move to the next one on your list and repeat the process. As you work through the list, you’ll start feeling anxious in fewer situations and your confidence will grow. As you progress, you’ll find that the situations you rated as very difficult start to seem much more manageable.

You might confront a situation that doesn’t go as well as you hoped. Try not to give up. If you keep going, it’ll get easier.

If there’s something on your list that seems too much, see if there’s something smaller you can do to build up to it. For example, if you’re anxious about going to an exercise class, start by calling the gym to ask about the class and get more information. This will help you build more confidence before you tackle the main situation.

Look out for other situations that you avoid due to anxiety, and try to reduce your avoidance more and more. In time, you’ll feel much more confident and experience fewer anxiety symptoms.

Section 19 of 21

You might find it more difficult to cope if you have a lot of problems you can’t seem to get on top of. This can make your mood worse and leave you feeling more anxious.

It’s possible to end up worrying over problems without finding a way to resolve them. This can interfere with many parts of your life – even things like eating and sleeping.

Problem solving guide

It can help to develop a structured way of working through a problem. Beginning to overcome some of your problems might help you to feel better.

Section 20 of 21

Self-esteem relates to how we think and feel about ourselves, and how much value you think you have as a person.

People with low self-esteem often ignore their own achievements and positive things about themselves, and criticise themselves even when there’s no reason to.

Low self-esteem isn’t a medical condition or mental illness on its own, although you can experience low self-esteem as a result of mental health issues like anxiety.

Self-esteem self-help guide

Work through a self-help guide that uses cognitive behavioural therapy (CBT) to improve self-esteem.

Section 21 of 21

Urgent help

Keep using the techniques you found helpful from this guide – they should continue to benefit you. If there are some things that you didn’t find helpful to begin with, stick with them for a few weeks – CBT can take a little time to work.

Further help

If you’re feeling distressed, in a state of despair, suicidal or need emotional support you can phone NHS 24 on 111. For an emergency ambulance phone 999.

If you feel you need more help with your mental health, try speaking to your GP, or  search for mental health and wellbeing services in your area.

For information and advice when you’re feeling down, you can phone  Breathing Space  on 0800 83 85 87.

The Breathing Space phoneline is available:

• 24 hours at weekends (6pm Friday to 6am Monday)
• 6pm to 2am on weekdays (Monday to Thursday)

If you found this guide helpful and would like to do more work like this, Living Life offers a range of structured psychological interventions and therapies to improve mental health and wellbeing. This service is appointment-based and specifically for low mood, or mild/moderate depression or anxiety. Living Life are open Monday to Friday, from 1pm to 9pm, and you can phone them on 0800 328 9655 for an assessment appointment.

To learn more about coping with anxiety and related issues, you can visit some other parts of NHS inform:

Learn more about anxiety and your mental wellbeing

Learn about panic attacks

Read about dealing with panic attacks

Find out about stress

Read our 10 stress busters

Try some more breathing and relaxation exercises

Section 1 of 17

This guide aims to help you:

• find out if you could have symptoms of depression
• understand more about depression
• find ways to manage or overcome depression

This guide is based on Cognitive Behavioural Therapy (CBT). CBT helps you to examine how you think about your life, and challenge negative automatic thoughts to free yourself from unhelpful thought and behaviour patterns.

How to use the depression self-help guide

Work through the guide on your device, using the "Next" button to move forward and use the "Previous" button instead of the Back button in your browser. To type in a graphic or diary, click or tap the part you’d like to fill in and use your keyboard as usual.

If you’d like to save the guide and return to it later, you’ll need to save it as a PDF on your device before you leave the page. You can then continue filling it out on the PDF. We don’t use a login feature on our mental health self-help guides for privacy reasons.

Last updated: 27 May 2021

Section 2 of 17

2. Symptoms of depression

Section 3 of 17

3. Symptoms of depression

anxiety or worry?

  The first step to helping children cope with anxiety and worry is for them to understand what they both are. Many children get caught up with 'what if?' worries, adults too, and so it's important that we support their learning in this area; the problem is that a lot of us never received this kind of emotional education either.

Teaching children problem-solving skills is an important life skill that can boost self-esteem and reduce anxiety. Many children confuse worry with anxiety, become uncomfortable with their thoughts, and feel they have no control.  Our free resources are developed to be used in stages to help nurture this skill in children and young people. We also offer these as separate lessons and as a scheme of work for schools.

A worksheet to help you explore worry with children, how they feel and what they can do to help them to feel more secure. Can they problem solve it? DO they need a distraction?

Helping you to work out what worry is and what the things are that might be causing you to worry.

Creative activity to help children express their worry.

Helping children to understand what kind of worry they have helps them to understand if they can problem solve it or need to utilise a coping strategy.

The Worry Tree can help you to work out whether the worry you have is an actual worry, or a future based worry.

Our problem solving guide helps you to find a potential solution to a problem and begin to implement that plan.

What adds stress into your bucket? What helps you with those stressors? If your worry is not one that you can problem solve, try exploring the triggers for your stress and overwhelm.

You probably have lots of different thoughts and feelings about your problem. This can make our head feel fuzzy! Use this mind map to help you process, work through and understand them.

Once you have identified a solution for your problem, try and use this guide to help you break down the different stages; this can help it feel more manageable. Maybe you have a challenge you are facing as well, this sheet can be use for either.

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Guided Self-Help Resources

Our Guided Self-Help resources are available to use either on your own or with the support of your practitioner.

Each resource works through step by step how to implement the intervention. There are worksheets included to help maintain a record of activities and progress.

Filter resources:

• Condition Anxiety Depression Long Term Conditions Low Mood OCD Panic Phobia Sleep Stress Worry
• Type of resource Activities & Worksheets Mindfulness MP3 Self Help Video

Worry Management

Worry management has four parts. Each aspect of worry management can be used individually to manage worries. It can take some time for an intervention to become effective and to show improvement. It is important to allow enough time for worry management to be effective.

Problem Solving Workbook

Problem Solving has six steps. It is important to work through one step at a time, only move on to the next step of Problem Solving once you are comfortable with using the previous step. It is key to follow all six steps of Problem Solving in sequence.

Perinatal Wellbeing 

This workbook can be used either alone or with the support of your Psychological Wellbeing Practitioner.

Behavioural Activation

Behavioural Activation is an evidence based coping technique for the treatment of low mood or depression, recommended by the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE, 2009). You may find this workbook helpful if you have noticed your low mood or depression has stopped you from doing your usual activities, such as the things you normally enjoy. This workbook can be used either alone or with the support of your Psychological Wellbeing Practitioner.

Social Anxiety

TalkPlus guides, workbooks and informational leaflets have been created to provide you with the resources and information you need to help with your mental wellbeing at any time or day that suits you. You may have been directed to this page by your therapist or you may have found this website via a search engine. Whichever it is, we hope you find these documents informative and helpful.

Cognitive Restructuring Workbook

Cognitive Restructuring, or Thought Challenging, is an evidence based intervention for the treatment of low mood or anxiety, recommended by the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE, 2009). This workbook can be used either alone or with the support of your Psychological Wellbeing Practitioner.

Graded Exposure Workbook

Graded Exposure is an evidence based intervention for the treatment of anxiety and phobias. This workbook can be used either alone as a self help resource or with the support of a Psychological Wellbeing Practitioner.

Unhelpful Thinking Habits

Over the years, we tend to get into unhelpful thinking habits such as those described below. We might favour some over others, and there might be some that seem far too familiar. Once you can identify your unhelpful thinking styles, you can start to notice them – they very often occur just before and during distressing situations. Once you can notice them, then that can help you to challenge or distance yourself from those thoughts, and see the situation in a different and more helpful way.

Physical Activity & Our Mental Health

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Top Resources

Muscle Relaxation

TalkPlus MP3s have been created to provide you with the help you need with your mental wellbeing at any time or day that suits you.

You may have been directed to this page by your therapist or you may have found this website via a search engine. Whichever it is, we hope you find these MP3s informative and helpful.

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All our testimonies are written by people who have used our service and wanted to share what our service meant to them. Testimonials are always anonymised.

I still think it was one of the most helpful and useful courses I’ve done, so I’d be happy to help spread the word.”

Overall the course was fantastic and, I think, has had a benefit that I can build upon.”

I know that the road to recovery is a long one, however I feel better prepared for anything
that is thrown at me and I know that I will deal with it in a way that I know I would not have done before I spoke to TalkPlus.”

I felt really supported and I feel I have some great tools to help me manage my anxiety.”

Good and encouraging. Helpful with trying new things and skills to work through issues and feelings present.”

My GP isn’t in one of the areas listed above, can I still access TalkPlus?

You should check for your local NHS talking therapies for anxiety and depression service if you live out of our area by going to this page . In exceptional circumstances we may consider offering services to someone out of our area. To check if you qualify for this please email [email protected]

What geographical area do you cover?

Our friendly service provides free NHS therapy for people aged 16 and above registered to surgeries in Farnborough, Farnham, Fleet, Aldershot, Church Crookham, Blackwater and Yateley.

Do I need to pay for treatment?

TalkPlus is a FREE NHS Talking Therapies Service for Anxiety and Depression.

I haven’t got a mental illness, I am struggling at the moment, is this the right service for me?

If you are feeling; stressed, anxious, worried, under pressure, suffering with low mood or finding a long term physical condition is causing a strain on your wellbeing, then this is the right service for you.

Do you provide Counselling?

We provide a range of services including counselling with trained counsellors. We also provide one to one Cognitive Behavioural Therapy (CBT), a range of group courses, telephone or video-based therapy, Guided Self Help and online courses.

Do you provide relationship counselling?

Our service provides support for individuals experiencing symptoms of depression and anxiety. We can provide help if a condition is affecting your relationship(s). We do not provide relationship counselling.

Do you work with people who have a learning disability / difficulty?

Everybody has the right to access mental health services and we work with patients who have a learning disability diagnosis, we offer short-term, goal-focussed therapy, we do not offer long term support. So there are limitations to the support that we can provide.

How do I refer to one of your courses?

You can discuss your desire to attend a course at the Initial Assessment. Not all courses run all the the year through so there may be a wait or another option in the interim.

How long do people have to wait for various types of support?

Our waiting list times fluctuate frequently so we recommend asking us when you attend your Initial Assessment. Typically the online CBT option or one of our courses involve accessing treatment much quicker.

How long will I have to wait for my appointment?

This will depend on which service you require and availability but generally, after your Initial Assessment, which will take place very quickly following your referral, you can expect to wait under 8 weeks.

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GAD & Worry Self Help

Self help guide for Generalised Anxiety, GAD and worry, using effective CBT strategies. Make sense of the problem, then learn how to make positive changes

Generalised Anxiety Disorder (GAD) is a general, long-lasting worry and anxiety about everyday life, about anything and everything. People with GAD imagine the worst happening (and worry about all the possible worst case scenarios). They believe future events are almost always negative, and they won't be able to cope 'when' these things 'do' happen. However, as in all anxiety, we tend to over-estimate the danger, and under-estimate our ability to cope.

GAD can feel overwhelming and can in some ways seem contagious.... it is often identified as the anxiety disorder that makes therapists worry and feel anxious during sessions! These resources are aimed at both GAD sufferers and therapists.

Worry is the main problem, but there are other specific aspects to the anxiety that occur with GAD (See the Vicious Cogs of GAD above): Worry about current problems and hypothetical situations, worry about worry, intolerance of uncertainty, cognitive avoidance and lack of problem solving skills.

Therapy aims to target each of these smaller cogs that keep the main problem going.    Blank Cogs PDF

There are two main types of worry.

Type 1 worries  relate to feared future events. These worries are further broken down (more info in The Worry Tree) into worries about:

• Current problems (things I can do something about - and can therefore learn to problem solve)
• Hypothetical situations (things I can't do anything about - and can therefore learn to react to differently)

Use   The Worry Tree  to help you deal with type 1 worries.

Type 2 worries  are "worry about worry" which can be both positive and negative.

•  Negative beliefs about worry:
• I might lose all control
• The worry will drive me crazy

Positive beliefs about worry  (the beliefs are negatively reinforced because the imagined feared event doesn't happen and we therefore don't discover that our beliefs are not true):

• Worrying keeps me (and others) safe
• Worrying helps me prepare for all the possible worst case scenarios
• Worrying means I'm a caring person
• Worrying means I'll cope better when the worst happens

We have up to 60,000 thoughts every day. Research (Leahy) tells us that 85% of the things we worry about have a positive or neutral outcome. Of the 15% that have a negative outcome, 80% of people said they handled the situation much better than they thought they would.

Use the Thought Record Sheet for Worry Beliefs to help you deal with type 2 worries.

Set   Worry zones or postpone your worry  to take control of your worry & discover that you don't need to worry all the time.

Intolerance Of Uncertainty

An 'intolerance of uncertainty' means that the person with GAD will worry about an imagined feared event as long as there is even the slightest risk of it happening.

Examples of thoughts:

• There's always a risk of something terrible happening
• I have to be 100% sure!
• I can't tolerate not knowing
• The worst could happen
• Uncertain events are almost always negative

Example Of A Vicious Cycle Of Intolerance Of Uncertainty

Tolerating Uncertainty

ACKNOWLEDGE  - Notice and acknowledge the uncertainty as it comes to mind.

PAUSE   - Don't react as you normally do. Don't react at all. Just pause, and breathe.

PULL BACK   - Tell yourself this is just the worry talking, and this apparent need for certainty is not helpful and not necessary. It is only a thought or feeling. Don't believe everything you think!  Thoughts are not statements of fact . What's the bigger picture ?

LET GO   - Let go of the thought or feeling about needing certainty. They will pass. You don't have to respond to them. You might imagine them floating away in a bubble or cloud.

EXPLORE  - Explore the present moment, because right no, in this moment, all is well. Notice your breathing, and the sensations of breathing. Notice the ground beneath you. Look around and notice what you see, what you hear, what you can touch, what you can smell. Right now. Then,  SHIFT YOUR FOCUS OF ATTENTION  to something else - on what you need to do, on what you were doing before you noticed the worry, or do something else - mindfully, with your full attention.

APPLE: Mindful Response To Thoughts - video

Self Help for Generalised Anxiety Disorder and Worry VIDEO

Therapy for GAD focuses on:

• identifying and acknowledging the worry
• learning to differentiate between different kinds of worry -   The Worry Tree
• increase   flexible thinking
• challenging the unhelpful beliefs about worry ( Thought Record Sheet For Worry Beliefs )
• reducing worry by learning to set   Worry Zones or Postpone worry and keeping a   Worry Record
• developing   problem solving skills
• increasing   tolerance of uncertainty   and the associated discomfort of anxiety
• learning attention training or   mindfulness skills

You can use   STOPP skill to incorporate all these techniques, e.g.

STOP  - just pause for a moment

Take a   breath  - one slow deep breath

Observe  - there's that worry again. My body is reacting to those thoughts and I feel anxious.

Pull back   - this is just the mind bully / GAD talking. I don't have to react right now. Is this a current problem or one of those hypothetical situations? ( Worry Tree ) I can use  APPLE  technique for dealing with uncertainty. Another way of looking at this worry is...  (The  Helicopter View )

Practise and Proceed - What can I do right now? I can use APPLE (uncertainty), Worry Tree  (type 1 worry),  Thought Record Sheet for Worry Beliefs (type 2 "worry about worry"), problem solving  worksheet,  Postpone my worry  etc. Where can I put my  focus of attention  - what else can I do...?

GAD & Worry Self Help Guide - this page as PDF

Tolerating Uncertainty With APPLE

Thew Worry Tree

Vicious Cycle Of Intolerance Of Uncertainty   PDF

F lexible Thinking

Postponing Worry Or Setting Worry Zones

P roblem Solving

Thought Record Sheet For Worry Beliefs   PDF

Worry Record    incorporating worry time PDF

Overcoming Avoidance

THE WORRY TREE mp3 (for dealing with worry)

Female voice, with music.

TOLERATING UNCERTAINTY mp3 (for Generalised Anxiety Disorder)

THE MIND BULLY mp3 (for dealing with intrusive / distressing thoughts)

More Self Help MP3s

Self Help Books

FACE Fear And Avoidance

Useful links

THE DECIDER SKILLS FOR SELF HELP

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How to Worry Less and Be Happier

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E verybody has worries . In early 2023, according to the market-research firm Ipsos , the five most common worries of people worldwide were inflation, poverty and social inequality, crime and violence, unemployment, and corruption (financial and political). Such surveys ask respondents to choose from a list of typical global problems. In that regard, they no doubt diverge from your personal worries, which might be even greater: a perceived change in your partner’s affections, perhaps, or your child’s rather mixed performance in school, or that sore spot on the back of your leg.

Although worrying a bit is normal, for some people, worrying can be a dominant element of a generalized anxiety that steals their peace and sucks up valuable time. “I have been worrying and fretting myself, and I don’t know what I am doing,” says Rodion Raskolnikov, the protagonist of Fyodor Dostoevsky’s novel Crime and Punishment . “Yesterday and the day before yesterday and all this time I have been worrying myself.” If you too are a chronic worrier, this will ring familiar.

[ Arthur C. Brooks: Sleep more and be happier ]

Your loved ones have probably offered you all kinds of true but unhelpful advice, such as “Worrying won’t help”—as if that insight would make you slap your forehead and become worry free. Maybe you have at times despaired that this condition of anxiety is simply your lot in life. But the cause is not lost: With some knowledge and a bit of practice, you can make 2024 a far less worrisome—and thus happier—year.

W orrying is a recursive mental attempt to resolve a situation that has an uncertain, possibly negative outcome. As a mental operation, it is similar to rumination in that both are repetitive and self-focused, and feature an inability to shift attention from negative thoughts. Both activities also harm attention, erode problem-solving, and worsen mood. The distinction between them is that rumination typically involves brooding on trouble in the past, whereas worry usually focuses on events that, to your knowledge, have not yet occurred. You ruminate on a bad conversation you had yesterday; you worry about the conversation you need to have tomorrow.

A number of psychological theories have been advanced to explain chronic worry. One of the most prominent is called the avoidance model , which explains how worry can become obsessive and intrusive in our lives. This model argues that inveterate worriers replace thoughts of clear outcomes of problems, especially potentially catastrophic ones, with a hazy sense of negativity that’s harder to act upon. In support of this idea, subsequent research has shown that when people prone to worry are shown negative images, the parts of the brain normally associated with processing stimuli—the parietal cortex and the insula—are relatively disengaged. In other words, worrying seems to mute the vividness of our mental picture, interfering with some of the pathways that could help us devise real solutions.

[ Derek Thompson: How anxiety became content ]

Second, the avoidance model suggests that worriers hold a belief that if they think enough about a threat, they will manage to avoid it. Research has revealed that worriers believe that their worrying will help them learn how to handle a situation better or increase their control of it. This conviction also contains an element of superstition, as if worrying per se could somehow ward off negative events and prevent them from occurring. For some people, therefore, worrying is like wearing a pair of lucky socks or carrying around a rabbit’s foot. This is similar to the belief that you can “jinx” something by talking about it, and equally inefficacious.

Some evidence suggests that chronic worrying actually has a genetic component. The so-called worrier/warrior gene determines how well catecholamines—neurotransmitters and hormones released into the body in response to stress—are broken down. Worriers have a gene variant that allows them, researchers presume, to process excess dopamine efficiently in areas of the brain associated with working memory. The warrior variant has a different genetic characteristic that may enable superior absorption of neurotransmitters in regions that handle negative information; a person with this variant seems better equipped to be calm under fire.

Chronic worriers tend to be people who deal poorly with uncertainty , who struggle with narrowed focus, are self-conscious, and have social anxiety. The good news is that, generally, the susceptibility to worry declines as we age. According to a 2009 Gallup poll, 37 percent of people in their 40s report experiencing worry “a lot of the day yesterday”; for people in their late 60s, this falls to 23 percent, and to 15 percent for nonagenarians and older. We know that people tend to become less neurotic as they age , but it is also possible that they simply have less to worry about at 90 than they did at 40. (All the more reason to look forward to getting old.)

[ George Packer: I worry we’ll soon forget about Ukraine ]

A seeming exception to the downside is that worry is positively correlated with high performance—but only among people with unusual levels of ability. You might interpret this as evidence that worrying is good for top-notch performers, but much more probable in my view is that such people tend to be in extremely stressful situations anyway, which leads to a lot of apprehension—and, in fact, these talented individuals might do even better if they could control their worrying. For them, too, as for everyone, worry is terrible for well-being: It is linked to depression , it increases the perception of pain , and it’s associated with procrastination and perfectionism .

O n top of everything else, worrying is not based in reality most of the time. As the stoic philosopher Seneca noted , “We suffer more often in imagination than in reality.” His assertion bears up under empirical scrutiny. According to research from 2020 in the journal Behavior Therapy , 91 percent of the things studied participants worried about did not come to pass. This means that for every bad thing that happens, chronic worriers suffer for 10. If nothing else, this is a colossal waste of valuable time, and we should all find ways to avoid it.

Easier said than done. If you are a worrier, simply willing it away is something you have probably tried—unsuccessfully—many times. The science gives us a better strategy, based on worry’s component parts.

1. Write your worry down.

Anxiety, of which worry is a component, is essentially just unfocused fear. Without a true focus, fear is a phantasm that you will struggle to deal with adequately. Much better to focus the fear by articulating it to yourself. You can do this by making a list: When you are worried about a bunch of things, take a sheet of paper and write down the five that you’re most anxious about. This is an effective metacognitive technique —as I’ve written before, thinking about thinking—that defines and puts limits around the sources of your discomfort. Naming them in a list makes them emotionally manageable.

2. Focus on outcomes, not problems.

Remember that worry generally focuses on problems but avoids actual outcomes. So you worry about an upcoming medical test but don’t admit to yourself what the “bad” outcome you fear actually is. If you could voice that fear, you would give yourself a chance to think about what you could actually do in that case. So, on your worry list, write down the best outcome for each problem, the worst outcome, and the most likely outcome. Then add what you would do in each instance. This makes the source of worry specific and gives you a management plan. With that, you’ll be able to park the problem mentally and experience relief from worry.

3. Fight your superstition.

Give up the magical thinking that if you torture yourself enough about some uncertainty, you will somehow improve the situation. Perseverative worry will not give you some unique insight, nor will you alter the universe through the power of your thoughts. This is what your loved ones mean when they tell you “Worrying won’t help.” Make this more helpful by telling yourself “My worrying will not change the course of events,” and use the social science outlined in this article to reinforce this rational resolve.

[ Arthur C. Brooks: The seven habits that lead to happiness in old age ]

4. Seize the day.

Worry robs you of valuable time in your life. When you wake up in the morning, declare your intention to stop spending time this way. Here’s what I say: “I don’t know what this day will bring, but I am alive to experience it and will not waste it worrying about things I cannot control.” (Another good one is the Serenity Prayer .) Will you still worry some? Probably, but this statement of intent can set you on a better course. Research does in fact show that this type of mental exercise—which involves identifying specific alternate, goal-oriented behavior—promotes goal achievement.

O ne more point : Worriers often beat themselves up for their habit, as if worrying were a purely personal failing. One possible countermeasure for a chronic worrier is to ask yourself whether something or someone might be encouraging this in you for some gain of their own. Major economic interests, for example, reside in maintaining a worried population. In addition, activists, our political system, and news media foment anxiety to capture support, votes, or attention. That’s why doomscrolling —obsessively reading bad news—is good for business but bad for you.

The one profiting from your worry might be closer still. One of the hallmarks of a toxic relationship is one in which you are purposely and systematically made to feel anxious and fretful, making you more pliable and easier to manipulate.

No one is responsible for making your tendency to worry go away, but you in turn have no responsibility to give your support, votes, attention, or affection to someone who will use your anxiety to their advantage. If someone or something is prospering from your worries, 2024 might be the year to declare independence.

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A Better Framework for Solving Tough Problems

Start with trust and end with speed.

• Apple Podcasts

When it comes to solving complicated problems, the default for many organizational leaders is to take their time to work through the issues at hand. Unfortunately, that often leads to patchwork solutions or problems not truly getting resolved.

But Anne Morriss offers a different framework. In this episode, she outlines a five-step process for solving any problem and explains why starting with trust and ending with speed is so important for effective change leadership. As she says, “Let’s get into dialogue with the people who are also impacted by the problem before we start running down the path of solving it.”

Morriss is an entrepreneur and leadership coach. She’s also the coauthor of the book, Move Fast and Fix Things: The Trusted Leader’s Guide to Solving Hard Problems .

Key episode topics include: strategy, decision making and problem solving, strategy execution, managing people, collaboration and teams, trustworthiness, organizational culture, change leadership, problem solving, leadership.

HBR On Strategy curates the best case studies and conversations with the world’s top business and management experts, to help you unlock new ways of doing business. New episodes every week.

• Listen to the full HBR IdeaCast episode: How to Solve Tough Problems Better and Faster (2023)
• Find more episodes of HBR IdeaCast
• Discover 100 years of Harvard Business Review articles, case studies, podcasts, and more at HBR.org .

HANNAH BATES: Welcome to HBR On Strategy , case studies and conversations with the world’s top business and management experts, hand-selected to help you unlock new ways of doing business.

When it comes to solving complicated problems, many leaders only focus on the most apparent issues. Unfortunately that often leads to patchwork or partial solutions. But Anne Morriss offers a different framework that aims to truly tackle big problems by first leaning into trust and then focusing on speed.

Morriss is an entrepreneur and leadership coach. She’s also the co-author of the book, Move Fast and Fix Things: The Trusted Leader’s Guide to Solving Hard Problems . In this episode, she outlines a five-step process for solving any problem. Some, she says, can be solved in a week, while others take much longer. She also explains why starting with trust and ending with speed is so important for effective change leadership.

This episode originally aired on HBR IdeaCast in October 2023. Here it is.

CURT NICKISCH: Welcome to the HBR IdeaCast from Harvard Business Review. I’m Curt Nickisch.

Problems can be intimidating. Sure, some problems are fun to dig into. You roll up your sleeves, you just take care of them; but others, well, they’re complicated. Sometimes it’s hard to wrap your brain around a problem, much less fix it.

And that’s especially true for leaders in organizations where problems are often layered and complex. They sometimes demand technical, financial, or interpersonal knowledge to fix. And whether it’s avoidance on the leaders’ part or just the perception that a problem is systemic or even intractable, problems find a way to endure, to keep going, to keep being a problem that everyone tries to work around or just puts up with.

But today’s guest says that just compounds it and makes the problem harder to fix. Instead, she says, speed and momentum are key to overcoming a problem.

Anne Morriss is an entrepreneur, leadership coach and founder of the Leadership Consortium and with Harvard Business School Professor Francis Frei, she wrote the new book, Move Fast and Fix Things: The Trusted Leaders Guide to Solving Hard Problems . Anne, welcome back to the show.

ANNE MORRISS: Curt, thank you so much for having me.

CURT NICKISCH: So, to generate momentum at an organization, you say that you really need speed and trust. We’ll get into those essential ingredients some more, but why are those two essential?

ANNE MORRISS: Yeah. Well, the essential pattern that we observed was that the most effective change leaders out there were building trust and speed, and it didn’t seem to be a well-known observation. We all know the phrase, “Move fast and break things,” but the people who were really getting it right were moving fast and fixing things, and that was really our jumping off point. So when we dug into the pattern, what we observed was they were building trust first and then speed. This foundation of trust was what allowed them to fix more things and break fewer.

CURT NICKISCH: Trust sounds like a slow thing, right? If you talk about building trust, that is something that takes interactions, it takes communication, it takes experiences. Does that run counter to the speed idea?

ANNE MORRISS: Yeah. Well, this issue of trust is something we’ve been looking at for over a decade. One of the headlines in our research is it’s actually something we’re building and rebuilding and breaking all the time. And so instead of being this precious, almost farbege egg, it’s this thing that is constantly in motion and this thing that we can really impact when we’re deliberate about our choices and have some self-awareness around where it’s breaking down and how it’s breaking down.

CURT NICKISCH: You said break trust in there, which is intriguing, right? That you may have to break trust to build trust. Can you explain that a little?

ANNE MORRISS:  Yeah, well, I’ll clarify. It’s not that you have to break it in order to build it. It’s just that we all do it some of the time. Most of us are trusted most of the time. Most of your listeners I imagine are trusted most of the time, but all of us have a pattern where we break trust or where we don’t build as much as could be possible.

CURT NICKISCH: I want to talk about speed, this other essential ingredient that’s so intriguing, right? Because you think about solving hard problems as something that just takes a lot of time and thinking and coordination and planning and designing. Explain what you mean by it? And also, just  how we maybe approach problems wrong by taking them on too slowly?

ANNE MORRISS: Well, Curt, no one has ever said to us, “I wish I had taken longer and done less.” We hear the opposite all the time, by the way. So what we really set out to do was to create a playbook that anyone can use to take less time to do more of the things that are going to make your teams and organizations stronger.

And the way we set up the book is okay, it’s really a five step process. Speed is the last step. It’s the payoff for the hard work you’re going to do to figure out your problem, build or rebuild trust, expand the team in thoughtful and strategic ways, and then tell a real and compelling story about the change you’re leading.

Only then do you get to go fast, but that’s an essential part of the process, and we find that either people under emphasize it or speed has gotten a bad name in this world of moving fast and breaking things. And part of our mission for sure was to rehabilitate speed’s reputation because it is an essential part of the change leader’s equation. It can be the difference between good intentions and getting anything done at all.

CURT NICKISCH: You know, the fact that nobody ever tells you, “I wish we had done less and taken more time.” I think we all feel that, right? Sometimes we do something and then realize, “Oh, that wasn’t that hard and why did it take me so long to do it? And I wish I’d done this a long time ago.” Is it ever possible to solve a problem too quickly?

ANNE MORRISS: Absolutely. And we see that all the time too. What we push people to do in those scenarios is really take a look at the underlying issue because in most cases, the solution is not to take your foot off the accelerator per se and slow down. The solution is to get into the underlying problem. So if it’s burnout or a strategic disconnect between what you’re building and the marketplace you’re serving, what we find is the anxiety that people attach to speed or the frustration people attach to speed is often misplaced.

CURT NICKISCH: What is a good timeline to think about solving a problem then? Because if we by default take too long or else jump ahead and we don’t fix it right, what’s a good target time to have in your mind for how long solving a problem should take?

ANNE MORRISS: Yeah. Well, we’re playful in the book and talking about the idea that many problems can be solved in a week. We set the book up five chapters. They’re titled Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, and we’re definitely having fun with that. And yet, if you count the hours in a week, there are a lot of them. Many of our problems, if you were to spend a focused 40 hours of effort on a problem, you’re going to get pretty far.

But our main message is, listen, of course it’s going to depend on the nature of the problem, and you’re going to take weeks and maybe even some cases months to get to the other side. What we don’t want you to do is take years, which tends to be our default timeline for solving hard problems.

CURT NICKISCH: So you say to start with identifying the problem that’s holding you back, seems kind of obvious. But where do companies go right and wrong with this first step of just identifying the problem that’s holding you back?

ANNE MORRISS: And our goal is that all of these are going to feel obvious in retrospect. The problem is we skip over a lot of these steps and this is why we wanted to underline them. So this one is really rooted in our observation and I think the pattern of our species that we tend to be overconfident in the quality of our thoughts, particularly when it comes to diagnosing problems.

And so we want to invite you to start in a very humble and curious place, which tends not to be our default mode when we’re showing up for work. We convince ourselves that we’re being paid for our judgment. That’s exactly what gets reinforced everywhere. And so we tend to counterintuitively, given what we just talked about, we tend to move too quickly through the diagnostic phase.

CURT NICKISCH: “I know what to do, that’s why you hired me.”

ANNE MORRISS: Exactly. “I know what to do. That’s why you hired me. I’ve seen this before. I have a plan. Follow me.” We get rewarded for the expression of confidence and clarity. And so what we’re inviting people to do here is actually pause and really lean into what are the root causes of the problem you’re seeing? What are some alternative explanations? Let’s get into dialogue with the people who are also impacted by the problem before we start running down the path of solving it.

CURT NICKISCH: So what do you recommend for this step, for getting to the root of the problem? What are questions you should ask? What’s the right thought process? What do you do on Monday of the week?

ANNE MORRISS: In our experience of doing this work, people tend to undervalue the power of conversation, particularly with other people in the organization. So we will often advocate putting together a team of problem solvers, make it a temporary team, really pull in people who have a particular perspective on the problem and create the space, make it as psychologically safe as you can for people to really, as Chris Argyris so beautifully articulated, discuss the undiscussable.

And so the conditions for that are going to look different in every organization depending on the problem, but if you can get a space where smart people who have direct experience of a problem are in a room and talking honestly with each other, you can make an extraordinary amount of progress, certainly in a day.

CURT NICKISCH: Yeah, that gets back to the trust piece.

ANNE MORRISS: Definitely.

CURT NICKISCH: How do you like to start that meeting, or how do you like to talk about it? I’m just curious what somebody on that team might hear in that meeting, just to get the sense that it’s psychologically safe, you can discuss the undiscussable and you’re also focusing on the identification part. What’s key to communicate there?

ANNE MORRISS: Yeah. Well, we sometimes encourage people to do a little bit of data gathering before those conversations. So the power of a quick anonymous survey around whatever problem you’re solving, but also be really thoughtful about the questions you’re going to ask in the moment. So a little bit of preparation can go a long way and a little bit of thoughtfulness about the power dynamic. So who’s going to walk in there with license to speak and who’s going to hold back? So being thoughtful about the agenda, about the questions you’re asking about the room, about the facilitation, and then courage is a very infectious emotion.

So if you can early on create the conditions for people to show up bravely in that conversation, then the chance that you’re going to get good information and that you’re going to walk out of that room with new insight in the problem that you didn’t have when you walked in is extraordinarily high.

CURT NICKISCH: Now, in those discussions, you may have people who have different perspectives on what the problem really is. They also bear different costs of addressing the problem or solving it. You talked about the power dynamic, but there’s also an unfairness dynamic of who’s going to actually have to do the work to take care of it, and I wonder how you create a culture in that meeting where it’s the most productive?

ANNE MORRISS: For sure, the burden of work is not going to be equitably distributed around the room. But I would say, Curt, the dynamic that we see most often is that people are deeply relieved that hard problems are being addressed. So it really can create, and more often than not in our experience, it does create this beautiful flywheel of action, creativity, optimism. Often when problems haven’t been addressed, there is a fair amount of anxiety in the organization, frustration, stagnation. And so credible movement towards action and progress is often the best antidote. So even if the plan isn’t super clear yet, if it’s credible, given who’s in the room and their decision rights and mandate, if there’s real momentum coming out of that to make progress, then that tends to be deeply energizing to people.

CURT NICKISCH: I wonder if there’s an organization that you’ve worked with that you could talk about how this rolled out and how this took shape?

ANNE MORRISS: When we started working with Uber, that was wrestling with some very public issues of culture and trust with a range of stakeholders internally, the organization, also external, that work really started with a campaign of listening and really trying to understand where trust was breaking down from the perspective of these stakeholders?

So whether it was female employees or regulators or riders who had safety concerns getting into the car with a stranger. This work, it starts with an honest internal dialogue, but often the problem has threads that go external. And so bringing that same commitment to curiosity and humility and dialogue to anyone who’s impacted by the problem is the fastest way to surface what’s really going on.

CURT NICKISCH: There’s a step in this process that you lay out and that’s communicating powerfully as a leader. So we’ve heard about listening and trust building, but now you’re talking about powerful communication. How do you do this and why is it maybe this step in the process rather than the first thing you do or the last thing you do?

ANNE MORRISS: So in our process, again, it’s the days of the week. On Monday you figured out the problem. Tuesday you really got into the sandbox in figuring out what a good enough plan is for building trust. Wednesday, step three, you made it better. You created an even better plan, bringing in new perspectives. Thursday, this fourth step is the day we’re saying you got to go get buy-in. You got to bring other people along. And again, this is a step where we see people often underinvest in the power and payoff of really executing it well.

CURT NICKISCH: How does that go wrong?

ANNE MORRISS: Yeah, people don’t know the why. Human behavior and the change in human behavior really depends on a strong why. It’s not just a selfish, “What’s in it for me?” Although that’s helpful, but where are we going? I may be invested in a status quo and I need to understand, okay, if you’re going to ask me to change, if you’re going to invite me into this uncomfortable place of doing things differently, why am I here? Help me understand it and articulate the way forward and language that not only I can understand, but also that’s going to be motivating to me.

CURT NICKISCH: And who on my team was part of this process and all that kind of stuff?

ANNE MORRISS: Oh, yeah. I may have some really important questions that may be in the way of my buy-in and commitment to this plan. So certainly creating a space where those questions can be addressed is essential. But what we found is that there is an architecture of a great change story, and it starts with honoring the past, honoring the starting place. Sometimes we’re so excited about the change and animated about the change that what has happened before or what is even happening in the present tense is low on our list of priorities.

Or we want to label it bad, because that’s the way we’ve thought about the change, but really pausing and honoring what came before you and all the reasonable decisions that led up to it, I think can be really helpful to getting people emotionally where you want them to be willing to be guided by you. Going back to Uber, when Dara Khosrowshahi came in.

CURT NICKISCH: This is the new CEO.

ANNE MORRISS: The new CEO.

CURT NICKISCH: Replaced Travis Kalanick, the founder and first CEO, yeah.

ANNE MORRISS: Yeah, and had his first all-hands meeting. One of his key messages, and this is a quote, was that he was going to retain the edge that had made Uber, “A force of nature.” And in that meeting, the crowd went wild because this is also a company that had been beaten up publicly for months and months and months, and it was a really powerful choice. And his predecessor, Travis was in the room, and he also honored Travis’ incredible work and investment in bringing the company to the place where it was.

And I would use words like grace to also describe those choices, but there’s also an incredible strategic value to naming the starting place for everybody in the room because in most cases, most people in that room played a role in getting to that starting place, and you’re acknowledging that.

CURT NICKISCH: You can call it grace. Somebody else might call it diplomatic or strategic. But yeah, I guess like it or not, it’s helpful to call out and honor the complexity of the way things have been done and also the change that’s happening.

ANNE MORRISS: Yeah, and the value. Sometimes honoring the past is also owning what didn’t work or what wasn’t working for stakeholders or segments of the employee team, and we see that around culture change. Sometimes you’ve got to acknowledge that it was not an equitable environment, but whatever the worker, everyone in that room is bringing that pass with them. So again, making it discussable and using it as the jumping off place is where we advise people to start.

Then you’ve earned the right to talk about the change mandate, which we suggest using clear and compelling language about the why. “This is what happened, this is where we are, this is the good and the bad of it, and here’s the case for change.”

And then the last part, which is to describe a rigorous and optimistic way forward. It’s a simple past, present, future arc, which will be familiar to human beings. We love stories as human beings. It’s among the most powerful currency we have to make sense of the world.

CURT NICKISCH: Yeah. Chronological is a pretty powerful order.

ANNE MORRISS: Right. But again, the change leaders we see really get it right, are investing an incredible amount of time into the storytelling part of their job. Ursula Burns, the Head of Xerox is famous for the months and years she spent on the road just telling the story of Xerox’s change, its pivot into services to everyone who would listen, and that was a huge part of her success.

CURT NICKISCH: So Friday or your fifth step, you end with empowering teams and removing roadblocks. That seems obvious, but it’s critical. Can you dig into that a little bit?

ANNE MORRISS: Yeah. Friday is the fun day. Friday’s the release of energy into the system. Again, you’ve now earned the right to go fast. You have a plan, you’re pretty confident it’s going to work. You’ve told the story of change the organization, and now you get to sprint. So this is about really executing with urgency, and it’s about a lot of the tactics of speed is where we focus in the book. So the tactics of empowerment, making tough strategic trade-offs so that your priorities are clear and clearly communicated, creating mechanisms to fast-track progress. At Etsy, CEO Josh Silverman, he labeled these projects ambulances. It’s an unfortunate metaphor, but it’s super memorable. These are the products that get to speed out in front of the other ones because the stakes are high and the clock is sticking.

CURT NICKISCH: You pull over and let it go by.

ANNE MORRISS: Yeah, exactly. And so we have to agree as an organization on how to do something like that. And so we see lots of great examples both in young organizations and big complex biotech companies with lots of regulatory guardrails have still found ways to do this gracefully.

And I think we end with this idea of conflict debt, which is a term we really love. Leanne Davey, who’s a team scholar and researcher, and anyone in a tech company will recognize the idea of tech debt, which is this weight the organization drags around until they resolve it. Conflict debt is a beautiful metaphor because it is this weight that we drag around and slows us down until we decide to clean it up and fix it. The organizations that are really getting speed right have figured out either formally or informally, how to create an environment where conflict and disagreements can be gracefully resolved.

CURT NICKISCH: Well, let’s talk about this speed more, right? Because I think this is one of those places that maybe people go wrong or take too long, and then you lose the awareness of the problem, you lose that urgency. And then that also just makes it less effective, right? It’s not just about getting the problem solved as quickly as possible. It’s also just speed in some ways helps solve the problem.

ANNE MORRISS: Oh, yeah. It really is the difference between imagining the change you want to lead and really being able to bring it to life. Speed is the thing that unlocks your ability to lead change. It needs a foundation, and that’s what Monday through Thursday is all about, steps one through four, but the finish line is executing with urgency, and it’s that urgency that releases the system’s energy, that communicates your priorities, that creates the conditions for your team to make progress.

CURT NICKISCH: Moving fast is something that entrepreneurs and tech companies certainly understand, but there’s also this awareness that with big companies, the bigger the organization, the harder it is to turn the aircraft carrier around, right? Is speed relative when you get at those levels, or do you think this is something that any company should be able to apply equally?

ANNE MORRISS: We think this applies to any company. The culture really lives at the level of team. So we believe you can make a tremendous amount of progress even within your circle of control as a team leader. I want to bring some humility to this and careful of words like universal, but we do think there’s some universal truths here around the value of speed, and then some of the byproducts like keeping fantastic people. Your best people want to solve problems, they want to execute, they want to make progress and speed, and the ability to do that is going to be a variable in their own equation of whether they stay or they go somewhere else where they can have an impact.

CURT NICKISCH: Right. They want to accomplish something before they go or before they retire or finish something out. And if you’re able to just bring more things on the horizon and have it not feel like it’s going to be another two years to do something meaningful.

ANNE MORRISS: People – I mean, they want to make stuff happen and they want to be around the energy and the vitality of making things happen, which again, is also a super infectious phenomenon. One of the most important jobs of a leader, we believe, is to set the metabolic pace of their teams and organizations. And so what we really dig into on Friday is, well, what does that look like to speed something up? What are the tactics of that?

CURT NICKISCH: I wonder if that universal truth, that a body in motion stays in motion applies to organizations, right? If an organization in motion stays in motion, there is something to that.

ANNE MORRISS: Absolutely.

CURT NICKISCH: Do you have a favorite client story to share, just where you saw speed just become a bit of a flywheel or just a positive reinforcement loop for more positive change at the organization?

ANNE MORRISS: Yeah. We work with a fair number of organizations that are on fire. We do a fair amount of firefighting, but we also less dramatically do a lot of fire prevention. So we’re brought into organizations that are working well and want to get better, looking out on the horizon. That work is super gratifying, and there is always a component of, well, how do we speed this up?

What I love about that work is there’s often already a high foundation of trust, and so it’s, well, how do we maintain that foundation but move this flywheel, as you said, even faster? And it’s really energizing because often there’s a lot of pent-up energy that… There’s a lot of loyalty to the organization, but often it’s also frustration and pent-up energy. And so when that gets released, when good people get the opportunity to sprint for the first time in a little while, it’s incredibly energizing, not just for us, but for the whole organization.

CURT NICKISCH: Anne, this is great. I think finding a way to solve problems better but also faster is going to be really helpful. So thanks for coming on the show to talk about it.

ANNE MORRISS:  Oh, Curt, it was such a pleasure. This is my favorite conversation. I’m delighted to have it anytime.

HANNAH BATES: That was entrepreneur, leadership coach, and author Anne Morriss – in conversation with Curt Nickisch on HBR IdeaCast.

We’ll be back next Wednesday with another hand-picked conversation about business strategy from Harvard Business Review. If you found this episode helpful, share it with your friends and colleagues, and follow our show on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or wherever you get your podcasts. While you’re there, be sure to leave us a review.

When you’re ready for more podcasts, articles, case studies, books, and videos with the world’s top business and management experts, you’ll find it all at HBR.org.

This episode was produced by Mary Dooe, Anne Saini, and me, Hannah Bates. Ian Fox is our editor. Special thanks to Rob Eckhardt, Maureen Hoch, Erica Truxler, Ramsey Khabbaz, Nicole Smith, Anne Bartholomew, and you – our listener. See you next week.

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Project Management Mastering Root Cause Analysis for Effective Problem Solving

Daily Jobs › Project Management

Mastering Root Cause Analysis for Effective Problem Solving

The first step in any problem-solving process is to identify the problem. It’s a daunting but necessary step that cannot be bypassed even if you don’t know how to solve the problem itself. One of the most effective ways to identify the problem is to conduct a root cause analysis. But what is a root cause analysis, exactly? In this article, we cover everything from root cause analysis and its approaches to how to conduct a root cause investigation effectively.

What Is Root Cause Analysis?

When faced with a problem, it can be tempting to only fix the immediate issue and move on as quickly as possible. But if you want to get to the bottom of things and avoid future problems, you need to conduct a root cause analysis. To even begin to understand the process, we first need to define root cause analysis.

❗ What is Root Cause Analysis ?

Root cause analysis is a systematic process for finding the real source of a problem.

Once you’re able to identify the root cause, you can put measures in place to prevent similar issues from happening in the future. You might be thinking,

Root cause example

An example of a root cause might be an IT system failing because someone didn’t update it when they were meant to. Another example is implementing training programs, career advancement paths, and mentorship initiatives to reduce employee turnover.

Once you’ve identified the problem, you can put measures in place to prevent it from happening again—this might involve changes to processes, procedures, or training. It could also require changes to equipment or materials, depending on the nature of the issue. 

✅ The Advantages of Root Cause Analysis

There are several advantages to conducting a root cause analysis. When done correctly, root cause analysis can:

🔮 Prevent future problems Conducting a root cause analysis investigation can help organizations identify and correct the underlying causes of problems, preventing them from recurring in the future.

👨🏽‍🤝‍👨🏼 Improve team communication Conducting root cause analysis investigations can help to improve team members’ communication and help organizations better understand their customers’ needs.

⌛ Save time and money Root cause analyses can also save organizations time and money by preventing issues from reoccurring. 

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💡 Foundation for continuous improvement Additionally, it can help organizations of all kinds build a foundation for continuous improvement by identifying opportunities for process improvements.

🤝 Promotes knowledge sharing  Finally, root cause analyses promote learning and knowledge sharing within an organization by documenting the investigation process and findings.

As long as it is done properly, conducting root cause analysis investigations will help your organization solve problems, promote team communication, encourage knowledge sharing and save you precious time and money which can be spent improving other parts of the business.

❌ Drawbacks of Root Cause Analysis

There are several potential challenges associated with root cause analysis. For example, root cause analysis is:

🙅‍♀️ Time-consuming Root cause analysis investigations can be time-consuming and resource intensive, especially if you’re part of a small organization with a limited budget for such activities. Investigators need to have a good understanding of the problem and the systems involved in order to identify all possible causes. 

🕵️‍♀️ Data access RCA often requires access to data that may be difficult to obtain. If the relevant data isn’t available to the investigators, the investigation may not be able to find the root causes of an issue.

🤹‍♀️ Multiple factors Another challenge with RCA is that it can be a challenge to identify the cause, often because multiple factors contribute to the issue. Additionally, changes in the system or environment can impact the results of an RCA investigation. For example, a change in the production process might eliminate a reported problem but, unfortunately, may introduce new ones that need to be tackled.

🤷‍♀️ Recommendations not implementable or meaningful Finally, RCA can sometimes lead to recommendations for changes that are difficult (or, in some cases, impossible) to implement. For example, the recommended changes may be too expensive or disruptive to implement fully, meaning the same issues may continue to occur. In other cases, investigators may not have enough information to make meaningful recommendations for change, limiting the effectiveness of a root cause analysis investigation.

Although root cause analysis has its advantages, in some cases, it may be met with roadblocks such as access to data, challenges identifying the cause due to lots of cause factors, and problems implementing meaningful change after the investigation closes.

Root Cause Analysis Approaches 

The main goal of root cause analysis is to find out the source of a problem. But there’s not just one approach—there are several approaches to root cause analysis: 

The 5 Whys is a popular approach to root cause analysis. It involves asking five successive questions about a problem in order to identify its root cause. For example, if a machine is not functioning as it should, the 5 Whys approach would involve asking five successive questions such as ‘why is the machine not working?’, ‘what is causing the machine to not work?’, ‘what are the consequences of the machine not working?’, and so on. By asking these questions, it should be possible to identify root causes and take the necessary steps to fix them.

One of the key advantages of the 5 Whys approach is that it is a relatively simple and straightforward way to identify the root causes of various problems. However, this specific approach may not always be successful in identifying root causes in all scenarios. For example, it may be necessary to ask more than five questions or use other approaches to define a root cause.

Fishbone Diagrams

Another popular root cause analysis (RCA) approach is to create a fishbone diagram. This approach helps investigation teams to visualize the relationships between different factors that may have contributed to a problem. They are also sometimes called cause and effect diagrams or Ishikawa diagrams, named after Kaoru Ishikawa, who developed this approach to root-cause analysis.

To create a fishbone diagram:

• Start by drawing a large bone shape on a piece of paper.
• Add branches coming off of the main bone, representing different factors that could have caused the problem.
• For each factor, ask why it may have contributed to the problem.

After adding a range of factors, you’ll likely soon find the source of the problem. 

Fishbone diagrams have their advantages over some other root cause analysis approaches. For example, the technique is relatively straightforward, meaning it’s easy for those who’ve never encountered it before to learn how it works. On the other hand, for complex investigations, fishbone diagrams quickly become messy, and this may lead to confusion.

Change Analysis/Event Analysis

Another way to approach root cause analysis is with the change and event analysis method. Change analysis involves looking at how a system or process has changed over time, while event analysis focuses on understanding what happened during a specific incident.

Both approaches have their strengths and weaknesses, but change and event analysis can be used together to get a complete picture of exactly what caused a problem. So if you’re looking to solve a problem and prevent it from happening again, this might be the best method.

Change and event analysis is a great approach because it is conceptually simple, making it easy for those who haven’t encountered it before to grasp. However, it can be resource-intensive compared to other approaches because the results may not be conclusive, meaning investigation teams need to conduct time-consuming testing.

Pareto Charts

A Pareto chart is a simple graphical tool that is used to perform root cause analysis. The charts are useful for identifying the most important factors in a given situation, and they can help you prioritize actions and allocate resources effectively to save precious time and money. 

To create a Pareto chart, you will first need to collect data on the different factors involved in the problem or issue you are investigating. Once you have this data, you can use it to create a bar chart with the different factors on the x-axis and their relative importance on the y-axis.

The most crucial factor is typically the one that contributes the most to the overall problem or issue. In most cases, this will probably be quite obvious. However, sometimes it may take time to determine which factor has caused the issue. In these cases, you can use the Pareto principle to help guide your analysis. The principle states that for most events, approximately 80% of the effects come from just 20% of the causes. This means that for many problems, most of the impact comes from a small number of contributing factors.

Applying this principle to root cause analysis can help you focus your attention on the factors with the biggest impact. This will be especially useful when dealing with a complex problem with many different contributing factors, but you have limited time or resources at your disposal.

Pareto charts are favored by many because problems are ranked in severity order, meaning it’s clear to all involved which issues need tackling first. Plus, these charts often provide a more complete explanation of a problem than other root cause analysis approaches. However, Pareto charts need good data to be effective. For this reason, they may not be suitable for teams that cannot access the data they require.

Failure Mode and Effect Analysis

Another potential approach is Failure Mode and Effect Analysis (FMEA), a tool used to identify possible failures in a system or process and determine the impact of those failures. This approach can also be used to develop corrective actions to prevent or mitigate the effects of the failures.

FMEA is typically performed during the design phase of a project, but it can also be used after a problem has occurred to help identify the root cause. When used in an investigation, FMEA can help identify all potential causes of a problem so that they can be explored further.

There are three steps involved in conducting an FMEA:

1. Identify potential failure modes: What could go wrong? 2. Determine the effect of each failure mode: What would be the consequences if this happened? 3. Prioritize corrective actions based on risk: What are the chances of this happening, and how severe would the consequences be?

Conducting an FMEA ensures that all potential causes of a problem are considered during an investigation and that corrective actions are prioritized based on the level of risk involved. This is beneficial because the investigation team can fix problems based on the severity level. However, this approach might not be suitable for all root cause analysis investigations because the method is only as good as the investigation team’s. For example, problems beyond the team’s knowledge may go undetected, meaning the root cause is never identified. 

❓ How To Conduct a Root Cause Investigation

To conduct an effective root cause investigation, there are a few key things to be mindful of:

1️⃣ Establish a clear problem statement

First and foremost, it is vital to establish a clear and concise root cause problem statement—this will help to ensure that the investigation stays focused and on track. A vague problem statement may cause confusion and could drag the investigation out. 

2️⃣ Work in a team

When it comes to conducting root cause analysis, you shouldn’t go it alone, if possible. Whether you’re working with one other colleague or an investigation team, more people will help you spot problems, challenge assumptions and figure out workable solutions. 

3️⃣ Scrutinize (and improve) the process

This probably won’t be the last time you perform root cause analysis. So when you’re conducting the investigation, make sure to identify ways that you can improve the process for next time. Do you need a larger team? Should you pursue a different root cause analysis approach? The root cause problem-solving process won’t be perfect the first time!

4️⃣ Gather data

Gather as much relevant data as possible during root cause investigations. This data can come from a variety of sources, including interviews, observations, records, and documents. 

5️⃣ Verify findings

Once potential root causes have been identified, they should be verified through additional testing and analysis to ensure the investigation team has found the true problem.

6️⃣ Make findings accessible

Once you’ve successfully identified the root cause of the problem, you should make the findings available to all those who might benefit from them. Your RCA analysis might help other colleagues solve problems in the future.

A variation of the process we outlined before can be seen in the picture below. Even though the steps may vary, all in all

Root cause analysis approaches may seem complicated when encountering them for the first time, but they are practical problem-solving tools that are helpful in various situations. The key to conducting an effective root cause analysis is to work as a team, ask the right questions, and use the information you gather to improve your processes over time. By following any of the approaches outlined above, you can run an effective root cause analysis investigation and help your business or organization avoid future problems.

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Maria Kharlantseva

Rehoming wild horses won't solve the brumby problem, but it transforms lives for horses and owners

At 14, Ruby Wild would rather demonstrate her connection with horses than explain it.

Whether she's prompting the more than 500-kilogram animal to lie down or waiting for the mare to be still enough to stand on her back, the bond between the teenager and her horses is undeniable.

"If you don't have a strong connection, it's hard to do anything," Ruby said.

But her herd of four aren't regular domestic horses, they were once wild brumbies.

"We grew up together because she was only little. She was only two when we got her," she said.

Her mum Kylie Wild said, while Ruby was supervised, her young daughter had a natural intuition with horses.

"Ruby and Gidget built this connection together and it never really crossed my mind that she was a wild brumby," Ms Wild said.

Ruby's love of brumbies is one she shares with her cousin, 17-year-old Brooke Wild.

"Brumbies, they're definitely underestimated, that's for sure," Brooke said.

"Brumbies are just so, so versatile, anything you put them to: jumps, cattle, whatever. They'll just pick it up like that and they just learn so quickly."

Where did brumbies come from?

Horses came to Australia on the First Fleet in 1788. Escaped animals become the country's first brumbies.

Over time, other domestic breeds have gone feral and now descendants of thoroughbreds, stock, quarter and heavy horses can be found in the wild.

It is estimated there are more than 400,000 brumbies in Australia and when concentrated in high numbers, their hard hooves pose a risk to the environment and native species.

Horse trainer Anna Uhrig runs a brumby rehoming camp in south-east Queensland, using horses trapped in local forests and from central Queensland.

"We can't solve the brumby problem but we're doing what we can," Ms Uhrig said.

"It's a very small part of the puzzle: the amount of horses we rehome. It's not thousands but I think the work adds quality of life to those horses."

Ecologist Dave Berman has been managing brumby populations for 40 years across the country.

For most of the past decade, he has managed the brumby herds of Tuan and Toolara state forests, which consist of pine plantations and native species north of Noosa.

The growing population has brought wild horses close to roads, putting drivers at risk.

"We catch them and find homes for them to reduce the risk of collisions between horses and people," Dr Berman said.

"Usually it's the horses that get killed, but eventually, you know, there will be people killed.

"Originally in about 2009 there were about four horses killed per year, we removed all the horses regularly crossing the road and then there were no collisions, so we showed that worked."

What's a brumby rehoming camp?

Ms Uhrig's 10-day intensive camp attracts participants from all over the country to choose, train and adopt a brumby.

"Yarding, drafting and then coming to these yards is totally new for the brumbies so it can be quite scary for them," Ms Uhrig said.

In less than two weeks, some of the horses go from not letting a human within 100 metres to being ridden.

"I just love seeing the transformation and I love giving people the opportunity to learn those skills," Ms Uhrig said.

"I could break in a brumby continuously and I still wouldn't be able to rehome as many as we can through the camps."

Melissa Teunis's brumby Valour will join her herd of domestic horses used for equine therapy.

"I've loved horses forever and I just wanted the opportunity to start [training] my own [horse]," she said. 

"It's the perfect place to come. Anna is amazing and just knows the process and talks and walks you through every step."

But Ms Uhrig said rehoming brumbies wouldn't work everywhere.

"In terms of the whole management debate, it's not a closed book. We don't have the answers necessarily," Ms Uhrig said.

"There's been some research done in some targeted areas and we think we have the answers and we can apply those but generally it's a nationwide issue and the management implications are different in each area."

How are the horses trapped?

Dr Berman said   the trapping process was slow and targeted brumbies who grazed near or regularly crossed roads.

"We use electric fences and we build a really large electric fence area that can be up to 4 kilometres long," he said.

"We'll build that around the horses and gradually make it smaller and then get them into a laneway and then into hessian panels, and then into panel yards."

He said patience and a respect for the animals were required.

"If you put too much pressure on, they go. They'll go through the fence anyway," he said.

Giving the horses a second chance can take weeks and sometimes months.

It's an emotional process for Dr Berman who creates a strong connection with the brumbies during the process.

"They're wonderful animals," he said.

A national problem

Brumby management differs across the country.

Dr Berman said rehoming was becoming more common, but wasn't the solution alone.

"In a lot of other parts of Australia where populations are getting too much, horses can be shot from the air or the ground," he said.

In New South Wales's largest national park, Kosciuszko, the government is culling horses in the hundreds . 

In 2022, the NSW government estimated about 18,000 horses lived in the park, with a population range between 14,501 and 23,535 horses .

Under the state government management plan, more than 15,000 brumbies could be killed or rehomed to reduce the population to 3,000 by mid-2027, to the despair of some of the locals.

Meanwhile, a Kosciuszko brumby rehoming program has been suspended  after hundreds of horse carcasses were found on a property near Wagga Wagga .

Further north in NSW, the officers from the Local Land Services have a different approach, working with landholders and rescue groups to trap and rehome wild horses near Grafton.

"It's not just about safety for people. It's the safety of the horses as a number of them have been hit on the road," senior biosecurity officer Tiffany Felton said.

"But it's not just that, they're a hard-hoofed animals so they do, and especially in these dry times, start affecting the waterways and in environmentally sensitive areas."

In the past three years more than 130 have been captured and rehomed under the state government's Biosecurity Act.

"Previously, there have been probably far harsher approaches to wild horse management, and that's not what the community wanted," said Louise Orr of North Coast Local Land Services.

Untapped potential

After just seven days at brumby camp, some of the horses are almost unrecognisable for participants, including Melissa Teunis.

"It's amazing to think that when we got here last Friday, he'd never been touched," Ms Teunis said.

"It shows you how resilient they are and just how willing — oh this will make me cry — how willing they are to try for us and, and give us all that they have."

Lilly Anderson, 14, could put a saddle on her horse Rain by day four of the course and three days later, she was able to ride the animal.

"Like, for me, that's incredible. That's like just gone so quickly. But she's also so just amazing," Lilly said.

The camp is the first stage of the horses transitioning to domestic life with more time and effort required after they leave.

"Once you give them a chance, they'll do anything for you," Lilly said. 

"She's just so smart to catch on and she'll do anything for lucerne as well. Loves a bit of food."

Past participants of the camp said the biggest challenge with rehoming a brumby was fighting off the temptation to buy another.

"It's been hard but it gets better. The highs are really high," Ava Cloherty said.

Watch ABC TV's Landline at 12:30pm on Sunday or on  ABC iview .

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ENERGY SECTOR CURRENT STATUS, RECENT CHANGES, AND ENERGY POLICIES IN THE RUSSIAN FAR EAST (RFE)

NAPSNet Special Report

Recommended Citation

Olga dyomina and alexander izhbuldin, august 28, 2020.

I. INTRODUCTION

In this Special Report, Olga Dyomina and Alexander Izhbuldin describe the current status and recent trends in energy supply and demand in the Russian Far East (RFE).  RFE energy policies are considered, and current and planned projects for exporting energy resources to the countries of Northeast Asia are also summarized.

A summary of this report follows. A downloadable PDF file of the full report is here .

Olga Dyomina is a Senior Research Fellow at the Economic Research Institute FEB RAS, Khabarovsk; Alexander Izhbuldin is the Lead Specialist of the Laboratory of Energy Supply to Off-grid Consumers, Melentiev Energy Systems Institute (ESI) SB RAS, Irkutsk.

This report was produced for the Regional Energy Security Project funded by the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation and presented at China Foreign Affairs University, April 8–10, 2019

The views expressed in this report do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of the Nautilus Institute. Readers should note that Nautilus seeks a diversity of views and opinions on significant topics in order to identify common ground.

This report is published under a 4.0 International Creative Commons License the terms of which are found  here .

Banner image:  Lake Baikal in summer, photo by Olga Dyomina.

II.  NAPSNET SPECIAL REPORT BY DYOMINA AND IZHBULDIN

Report of the russian far east working group to the nautilus institute regional energy security project.

The fuel and energy sector of the Far East of Russia provides about 20% of its gross regional product and almost 50% of its industrial production. The following features of the functioning of the fuel and energy complex of the region are highlighted in this Report: products of the mining and oil and gas producing industries dominate in the output structure of the complex; new industries (gas processing and gas chemistry) will develop in the near future; export orientation of production and infrastructure restrictions to increase the physical volume of exports; the main fuel and energy companies in the Far East of Russia are part of vertically integrated companies. A feature of the power industry of the Far East is the lack of communication with the country’s unified power grid, and the presence of isolated and remote areas of power supply.  China, Japan and the Republic of Korea are traditional markets for products of the fuel and energy complex of the Russian Far East. Since 2013, the development of the Russian Far East has been identified as one of the priorities of Russia’s state policy. As a result, several measures were taken to stimulate development: reduction of electricity tariffs for industrial consumers in the Far East, preferential taxation of oil production and export customs duties on oil for some new fields in the region. Two scenarios in the LEAP model of the Russian Far East are considered: Reference Scenario (business as usual) and Resource-Transit Scenario. Both of these are based on assumptions that the current trends in the economy will continue, and specialization in the extraction of mineral resources and the use of transit opportunities will form the basis of the development of the region. Under the second scenario, additional export-oriented energy projects are considered without taking into account restrictions on the demand for Russian energy resources in the NEA countries.

1     Introduction

1.1  The Russian Far East’s Physical, Demographic, and Economic Setting

The total area of the Russian Far East is ​​6169.3 thousand km 2 that accounts for 36% of the area of ​​the Russian Federation. The Far Eastern Federal District (the Russian Far East) is divided into 9 Russian Federation subjects: the Sakha Republic (Yakutia), the Khabarovsk Territory, the Primorsky Territory, the Kamchatka Territory, the Amur Region, the Jewish Autonomous Region, the Magadan Region, the Sakhalin Region and the Chukotka Autonomous Region (Zabaykalsky Krai and the Republic of Buryatia became a part of the Far Eastern Federal District since 2018 in accordance with the Decree of the President of Russia No. 632 of November 3, 2018). In this research, the composition of the Russian Far East is considered without taking into account the Zabaykalsky Krai and the Republic of Buryatia, because they are regarded as a part of the Far Eastern Federal District only due to the provision of benefits that exist in the Far Eastern territories, but there are no links between the fuel and energy sector of the Russian Far East and this two regions in energy supply. The Russian Far East has land borders with China and the DPRK and sea borders with Japan and the USA.

The population of the Russian Far East is 6182.7 thousand people (4.2% of the Russian population). The average density of population is 1 person per square kilometer. The Russian Far East accounts for 4.6% of Russian industrial output and 5.4% of the total gross regional product. Traditionally, the Russian Far East has specialized in mining in order to maintain the rates of increase of the national economy (non-energy recourses) and resource exports (energy and non-energy resources).

In the period from 2008-2016 the economy of the Russian Far East developed more rapidly than the economy of Russia as a whole.  The (average annual growth rate of GRP (gross regional product) of the Far Eastern Federal District was 2.0% during this period, while the gross domestic product of the Russian Federation grew at an average rate of 1.6% annually.  The higher growth in the region in recent years can be explained by the realization of large investment projects in the Russian Far East.

GRP growth in the Russian Far East has been driven by the growth of industrial production, primarily, the increase in extraction of natural resources. In 2008-2016, the average annual growth rate of industrial production in the region was 4.2%, and the average annual growth rate of natural resources extraction was 5.4%.

The Russian Far East receives about 8% of all investment funds in Russia, while the annual average growth rate of investments in the region matched almost exactly the growth rate of investments nationally (1.5% and 1.3% respectively).

Despite the positive dynamics of the key macro indicators, the population in the region has continued to decrease. In 2008-2016 the annual average population dropped by 284.4 thousand people, and the annual average population decrease rate was 0.5%.

1.2  Energy Demand and Supply in the RFE

The volume of extraction of primary energy resources in the Far East in 2008-2016 increased as follows: coal – 1.2 times, oil – 2.1 times, and natural gas 3.5 – times.

The increases in extraction were caused by the increase in export volume of Russian energy resources to the NEA (Northeast Asian) countries. In 2016, the export volume of energy resources from the Russian Far East increased by a factor of 2.4 compared to 2008, yet due to the changes in energy prices in the global market, the value of exports in 2016 had fallen to 95% of that in 2008.

Transport infrastructure has been built in the region to provide for the export of coal, oil, and electricity; the respective infrastructure for export of Russian gas to NEA countries (China) is under construction as of 2019.

The domestic demand for energy resources in the region remains stable at a level of about 25 (±5) million tonnes of coal equivalent. The most energy-intensive industry in the region is the energy industry itself.

1.3  Key Energy Policy Issues for the RFE

The current and future development of the economy and energy sector of the Russian Far East is determined by two main factors: Russian state policy in the Russian Far East, and the international situation concerning Russia. The first factor has had a positive effect: starting from 2013 the development of the Russian Far East was stated to be a priority of Russian state policy (Presidential Address to the Federal Assembly of the Russian Federation, 2013). The second factor has had a negative effect: the slowing of the global economy and decrease of global prices for raw materials, especially oil, coupled with sanctions that were put into effect in 2014 concerning Russian companies and businesspeople, has been followed by the loss of FDI (foreign direct investment) and access to international capital, and the limited availability of cutting-edge technologies for deployment in the Russian Far East. The second factor complicates the realization of technologically complex and capital-intensive projects in the Russian Far Eastern energy industry. The main mechanisms that serve to advance the development in the region that have been introduced in the Russian Far East are the following: advanced development zones, Free Port Vladivostok, infrastructural support of investment projects, free provision of land (“Far Eastern Hectare” [1] ), and an emphasis on Far Eastern sections in state programs. The major support tool in the energy industry is infrastructural support of investment projects, where the state subsidizes transport and energy infrastructure construction.

Specific features of Russian economic development in a new economic environment have caused the need to revise priorities adopted earlier in the economic and energy policy of the country. The national interests of Russia require intensification of mutually-beneficial energy cooperation between Russia and China, Japan, Korea and the other countries of East and Northeast Asia. In Russian official documents, this priority direction in the energy development of the country is referred to as the “Eastern Vector of Russia’s energy policy”. The central tenets of this direction can be briefly summarized as follows:

• Creation of new energy centers in the East of the country will increase the energy security of Russia, restore and strengthen energy ties among the regions, and help to solve many crucial federal, interregional and regional problems;
• Creation of a wide energy infrastructure including interstate gas and oil pipelines, and transmission lines in the east of Russia and Northeast Asia will reduce the cost of energy, improve reliability of energy supply to consumers in different countries, and help to solve environmental problems.

The Eastern energy policy of Russia, being part of regional economic policy, is not an end in itself but a tool for solving many critically-important federal, interregional and regional problems.

2  Energy Demand in the RFE—Current Status and Recent Trends

The economy of the Russian Far East is heavily skewed towards the energy industry. The energy sector accounted for 20.2% of GRP and 49.8% of industrial production as of 2016. At the same time, the branches of the energy industry are the largest consumers of energy resources in the region. For example, 49.5 million tonnes of coal equivalent (tce) of energy resources were used for processing of fuels.

In 2016 the total final energy consumption in the region was 30.7 million tce. The largest shares belong to: petroleum products – 27%, thermal power – 26%, natural gas – 20%, and electricity – 16% (Figure 1).

Figure 1: Final Energy Consumption in the Russian Far East by Type of Energy

As the energy-intensive processing industries haven’t seen much development in the Far East to date, the highest-volume consumers of energy are the residential (“population”) and transport sectors, plus “other” (see Figure 2).

Figure 2: Final Energy Consumption in the Russian Far East by Sector

The “other” sector is a residual that results by subtracting the residential, transport, and industrial sectors from the total reported final consumption. The largest share of the “other” sectors belongs to the public (government) sector and services (commercial), which cannot be disaggregated and analyzed as separate sectors due to insufficient statistical data.

2.1 Transport

Freightage in the Far East is carried via several different transport modes. Railways service large-scale long and ultra-long-distance freight routes, and sea transport serves international markets. One of the specific features of the regions is the lack of a unified railway network and the presence of local systems of pipelines. Road vehicle (trucks and automobiles) transport acts as an intermediate between other kinds of transport and services intra-regional freight and short and medium distance hauls.

The key transportation means for the region is the automobile. It takes up the leadership spot in terms of volume of freight in the region (about 90% in 2017 – 138.7 million t).  As such, it also consumes the most energy resources among other transportation means (78.5%). Since this kind of transport consumes mostly petroleum products, those fuels represent the largest share in the structure of the energy resources consumed by the transport sector as a whole (more than 78%). Automobile traffic has retained the top place among transport subsectors despite the decrease of freight turnover and passenger traffic between 2008 and 2016 (see Table 1).

The second largest consumer of energy resources in the transport sector is the railway. Since a huge part of this transport is electrified, it is one of the largest consumers of electricity. There is an active project of electrifying the “Khabarovsk – Sovetskaya Gavan” railway in order to increase the freight turnover by a planned factor of 3 by 2030. This goal is the priority policy for regional transport net development: transit networks providing access to natural resources deposits and further transportation of goods to North Eastern Asia markets.

2.2  Residential Sector

The dynamics and structure of energy consumption by the residential sector is primarily driven by regional population figures, the area and specifics of housing, and the number of private cars.

During 2008-2016 the population of the Far East decreased from 6.46 million to 6.18 million people. However, during this period there was also rapid housing construction in the region, as a result of which the total area of housing has increased from 134 to 145 million square meters. These opposite trends explained the growth of total housing area per capita, from 20.8 m 2 in 2008 to 23.5 m 2 in 2016. At the same time, the quality of housing hasn’t changed significantly with respect to access to centralized heat or gas supplies (see Table 2).

The characteristics of the Far East are: harsh climate conditions, which define long duration of the heating period (5 to 9 months), a large share of housing with central heating (Table 2), and the centralized provision of housing with gas or electric stoves. Thus, gas and electricity for the residential sector are competing resources used in cooking.

Most of the housing in the region was put into operation during Soviet times and has no heat meters. As a result, most households receive heating bills based on calculations. These calculations depend on the area of the home and a unit norm of consumption GCal per m 2 , which is developed for each municipality depending on the natural and climate conditions and housing specifics (number of floors, building materials, year of construction, etc.). Only a minority of the residential consumers (representing, in the Far East, 41.6% of the total volume of heat consumption) pays for heat based on meters. As a result, residences have no control over the volumes heat they consume, unlike other energy resources. The consumption of electricity and gas is mostly measured with meters (with metered homes accounting for 94.9% and 75.5%, respectively, of the total consumption volume).

There has been, however, growth in the total consumption of electricity, and a decrease in the total consumption of heat. These opposite dynamics can be explained by changes in shares of resource consumption:

• As a result of using modern building materials and energy-saving technologies in construction, repair and modernization of housing, the share of heat consumption has been falling;
• As a result of population income growth and increases in the quality of life, including access to quality housing and household appliances, the share of electricity consumption has been increasing.

The dynamics of consumption of petroleum products in the Far East by households is explained by the number of private cars. During 2008-2016 the number of personal cars has increased from 206.6 to 314 cars per 1000 people, which in turn increased the consumption of petroleum.

The structure of energy resources consumption by the residential/household sector therefore looked as follows as of 2016: 51% – heat, 30% – petroleum products, 14% – electricity, and 4.5% – natural gas. The share of gas in the structure is minimal, since the level of gas supply to homes in the Far East is only 13%, while gas redistribution networks are loaded only partially. The average network load in the Far East is the minimum in the country, at 43%, compared with the country average of 72%.

As a result, household behavior in the Far Eastern energy services market is defined primarily by the specifics of the services themselves, the specifics of their supply and consumption in the region, and only then by price.

2.3  Industry (Excluding Energy Industry)

Excluding the energy industry, when looking at the structure of industrial production, the largest share belongs to the extraction industries (58%). The region traditionally mines diamonds, gold, silver, tin, lead, zinc, and tungsten. These industries mostly consume petroleum products. The structure of Russian energy statistical records does not allow separating the consumption of these industries from those of other industrial consumers.

Based on available information on industrial production excluding the energy industry, it is clear that energy consumption by processing industries has not yet developed significantly in the region. These industries occupied only 4.7% of GRP and 20% of total industrial production as of 2016.

Some of the largest consumers of energy resources among the processing industries are: production of other non-metal mineral products, the food industry, and the wood and wood products industry. The processing industry mostly consumes electricity, accounting for 58% of its energy use.

3 Primary Energy Supply in the RFE—Current Status and Recent Trends

Resource extraction dominates in the structure of the Russian Far Eastern energy industry. In 2016 the total volume of primary energy was 105.7 million tonnes of coal equivalent (tce), the volume of secondary energy – only 30.7 million tce — was 3.4 times lower (see Table 3).

3.1  Oil and Natural Gas

The Far East has two main centers of oil and natural gas extraction: Sakhalin Oblast and Sakha Republic. In 2016 the volume of oil and natural gas condensate extraction was 28.3 million t, with natural gas production of 32.9 billion m 3 .  The largest producers of hydrocarbons in the Russian Far East are the consortiums “Sakhalin-1” and “Sakhalin-2”, which account for more than 60% of oil and about 90% of natural gas extraction in the region.

During 2008-2016 the volume of oil extraction in the region increased by a factor of 2.1 and comprised 5.2% of the total Russian volume of extraction, while natural gas extraction in the Far East increased by a factor of 3.5 and comprised 5.1% of the total volume of Russian gas as of 2016.

The growth of oil extraction was provided by starting industrial exploitation of the Talakan deposit in 2008-2009 in the Sakha Republic, year-round oil extraction as part of “Sakhalin-2” project in 2009, exploitation of the Odoptu deposit on the Sea of Okhotsk shelf in 2010 (“Sakhalin-1” project) and of the Arktun-Dagi deposit in 2015 (“Sakhalin-1”). The growth of oil extraction volumes was synchronized with the concurrent development of transport infrastructure.

The transportation of oil in the region is carried out through a system of oil pipelines, including the “East Siberia – Pacific Ocean” (ESPO), the “Sakhalin-1-De-Kastri”, and the “Sakhalin-2-Prigorodnoye” pipelines, which connect the largest deposits of the regions with seaports, and are oriented to the export of Russian oil (see Table 4). The construction of ESPO was carried out in stages: “Tayshet-Skovorodino” (ESPO-1) and the special oil port Kozmino were put into operation in 2009, and “Skovorodino-Kozmino” (ESPO-2) in 2012. The planned capacity of the pipeline is 80 million t annually, and an expansion project is now underway.

Oil processing in the Far East is carried out by two large oil refineries — Komsomolsk refinery (Rosneft Oil Company) and Khabarovsk refinery (“Independent Oil Company”) (Table 5), and two small refineries belonging to “Petrosakh” and “Transbunker”. The total annual capacity of the Far Eastern refineries in 2016 was 14.2 million t, and the level of capacity utilization was 85.3%. Since Sakhalin products are aimed at oil export markets as part of agreements on production division, the raw materials for refining in the region are imported from the Ural and Siberian Federal Districts. Small volumes of oil from the land-based deposits of Sakhalin are transported to the Komsomolsk refinery for processing (up to 2 million t annually).

Presently there are only local gas transportation systems under development in the Far East: 1) underwater gas pipelines for gas supply of certain settlements and industrial enterprises “Zapadno-Ozyornoye Gas Condensate Deposit – Anadyr” in the Chukotka Autonomous Okrug); 2) four local gas transportation systems that operate separately and independently from each other in Sakha Republic, for example, “Kysyl-Syr – Mastakh – Berge – Yakutsk” and “Mirny – Aykhal – Udachny”, 3) the gas transportation system of  the Kamchatka center of gas extraction (“Sobolevo – Petropavlovsk-Kamchatsky”); and 4) gas transportation systems (“Sakhalin – Khabarovsk – Vladivostok”) in the southern part of the Far East, and the trans-Sakhalin pipeline system (Table 6).

The Sakhalin Oblast, Sakha Republic, Kamchatka Krai, and Chukotka Autonomous Okrug have their own natural gas resources. Gas from Sakhalin Oblast that is not used in production of liquefied natural gas (LNG) and not pumped back into reservoirs is sent to consumers in Sakhalin Oblast, Khabarovsk Krai, and Primorsky Krai through a system of pipelines. Gas supply to the Amur Oblast will, once Phase I of the “Power of Siberia” project is complete, be coming from the Sakha Republic. Discussions are underway to supply the Magadan Oblast with LNG from Sakha Republic, although in the future it is may develop its own gas resources.

The gas processing industry in the Far East is represented by two factories: the Yakutsk gas processing plant and an LNG plant in Sakhalin (Table 7).

Primary gas processing is carried out in only one enterprise – the Yakutsk gas processing plant, with a capacity of 15 thousand t per year. The plant produces dry gas, liquefied hydrocarbon gases and petrol. The products are consumed inside the region. There is an LNG plant as part of “Sakhalin-2” with a rated capacity of 9.6 million t per year. In 2016 the volume of production was 10.9 million t of LNG.

Coal extraction is active in all of the Far Eastern jurisdictions of Russia except for the Jewish Autonomous Oblast. The volume of extraction in 2016 was 40.0 million t, including black coal – 58.5%, and lignite – 41.5%. The extraction of coke only takes place in the Sakha Republic, which comprises 32% of the total coal extraction volume in the Far East.

During 2008–2016 the capacity of coal mining facilities in the Far East increased by a factor of 1.5 and reached 51.3 million t. During 2008-2016 the volume of coal extraction increased 1.2 times and was 10.4% of the national total. The growth of coal extraction came about by the entry into operation of two of the largest projects: the modernization of “Urgalugol” (Khabarovsk Krai) since 2005, and the expansion of the Elginskiy coal mine (Sakha Republic). The capacity of the first line of the Elginsky project is 11.7 million t of coal annually. The capacity of “Uralugol” during 2008-2016 increased by a factor of two and reached 5.5 million t per year.

There are 5 coal beneficiation plants in the region (Table 8), whose annual capacity in 2016 was 17 million t, and the volume processed was 13.5 million t.  In addition to the largest plants in the table below there are two small plants in Primorsky Krai, namely Vostochnoye with a processing capacity of 0.6 million t per year, and in Sakhalin (“Enrichment Processes”) with capacity of 0.2 million t per year.

The coal mined in the Far East is mostly consumed by the population of the region and exported.

4  Electricity Supply in the RFE

The electrical industry of the Far East is comprised of the unified energy system, including the energy systems of Amur Oblast, Khabarovsk Krai, Primorsky Krai and South-Yakutsk energy district of Sakha Republic, and isolated local energy systems and hubs in Sakha Republic (Western and Central energy districts), Kamchatka Krai, Magadan Oblast, Sakhalin Oblast, and Chukotka Autonomous Okrug. Starting from 2019, in accordance with the Decree of the government of the Russian Federation dated December 8, 2018 №1496, the Western and Central energy districts of the Republic of Sakha (Yakutia) will be attached to the Unified energy system of Russia. The data in Table 9are based on these changes.

The Unified Power Grid of the Russian Far East (OES Vostoka) includes 27 power stations with a total capacity of 11 264.7 MW (excluding the Nikolaevsky energy district), 110 to 500 kV power lines with combined length of 33 025 km, and 110 to 500 kV substations with a total capacity of 38.8 million kVA.

“RusHydro” manages the power supply of the Far East. The company owns power stations with total capacity of over 13 GW, providing more than 90% of all power in the Far East. Also, the company provides transportation of electricity, as it also manages more than 100 thousand km of power lines, and the distribution of electricity supplies to end consumers.

Starting from April 1, 2017 there were changes in managing the assets of the “RusHydro” subsidiary – “RAO ES Vostoka”. The management of the subsidiaries was transferred to the division of “RusHydro” named “Far East”.  The integration of the executive offices of “RusHydro” and “RAO ES Vostoka” is one of the steps in the “RusHydro” strategy of improving the financial situation of the Far Eastern power industry and the quality of management.

There are branches of “RusHydro” in Amur Oblast – including the largest-in-the-Far-East hydroelectric plant, Bureyskaya (2010 MW), and the Zeyskaya hydro plant (1330 MW). The construction of Nizhne-Bureyskaya hydroelectric dam is still in progress; the first three turbines were put into operation in August 2017.  In addition to producing energy, these hydroelectric dams protect the region from floods.

The “RusHydro” subsidiary “Far Eastern Generation Company” (FEGC) uses thermal power stations with a total capacity of about 6 GW in Primorsky and Khabarovsk Krai, the Amru Oblast, the Jewish Autonomous Oblast, and in the south of the Sakha Republic. Aside from producing energy, FEGC provides heat for large settlements and factories. The “Far Eastern Distribution Network Company” (FEDNC) manages transportation of electricity in these regions, and the “Far Eastern Energy Company” (FEEC) covers distribution and sales.

“Yakutskenergo” and its subsidiaries provide electricity supply in the Sakha Republic. One of the characteristics of the region is a large number of remote, hard to reach settlements, isolated from the energy system, and the task of supplying those settlements with electricity falls on diesel power stations.

“Kolymaenergo” (part of the Kolymskaya hydroelectric plant and still-under-construction Ust-Srednekanskaya hydroelectric plant) and “Magadanenergo” provide power supply in Magadan Oblast, and “Chukotenergo” provides power in the Chukotka Autonomous Okrug. “Sakhalinenergo” is responsible for supply electricity and heat in Sakhalin Oblast.

The energy industry of Kamchatka Krai is based on the “Kamchatskenergo” (thermal power plants and distribution networks), “Geoterm” (geothermal plants) and “Kamchatka Gas Energy Complex” (which uses the Tolmachevsky hydroelectric plants).

The production of electrical energy in the Far East in 2016 was 52.6 billion kWh, 71% of which (37.5 billion kWh) happened in the unified energy system. 63% of energy is provided by thermal power plants, 35% by hydroelectric dams (Table 9).

5  Energy Projections and Energy Policy

5.1  Large-Scale LNG Projects

There are several planned large-scale projects for development of LNG production and the creation of natural gas-based chemical manufacturing plants in the Far East, primarily aimed at export.

The new projects for LNG production in the FEFD are:

“Sakhalin-2”, 3 rd technological line; “Far Eastern LNG”; and “Vladivostok LNG”.

The resource base for these projects is gas from Sakhalin shelf deposits. There are also proposals to use Irkutsk and Yakutsk gas for Vladivostok project (table 10).

5.1.1  Development of “Sakhalin-2”

The chairman of the board at “Gazprom”, A. Miller, and the CEO of Shell, Ben van Beurden, met on September 30, 2014. They considered the outlook for cooperation between the two companies positive and noted the prospects of increasing the volumes of LNG production as part of the project. Objectively, increasing the production of LNG of “Sakhalin-2” is an attractive goal thanks to availability of gas reserves (their own and those of their main shareholder, “Gazprom”), gas transportation infrastructure, a shipment terminal, an available industrial zone, and a tanker fleet. The efficiency of placing the LNG plant in Prigorodnoye has been validated – the existing plant is loaded to capacity, with the full volume of gas contracted for and regularly shipped to consumers.

5.1.2  “Far Eastern LNG” – “Rosneft”

On September 23 rd , 2014, the vice-president of Rosneft, V, Rusakova, declared that Rosneft considers the construction of “Far Eastern LNG” plant as part of the Sakhalin-1 project optimal.

The advantages of the “Far Eastern LNG” project are similar to those related to the expansion of “Sakhalin-2”, apart from the availability of gas transportation infrastructure. Presently, Rosneft is fighting for the access to trans-Sakhalin gas transportation system through the Russian court system.

It should be noted that the capacity of the trans-Sakhalin gas pipeline of “Sakhalin-2”, taking into account construction of additional compressor stations should be, according to our estimates, sufficient to provide raw materials even to the 3 rd line of the LNG plant in Prigorodnoye and the Far Eastern LNG plant.

Sakhalin Island is the most attractive location for LNG plants due to the close proximity of raw materials and potential markets, and the availability of ice -free ports that allow year-round shipments.

5.1.3  “Vladivostok LNG” – “Gazprom”

The “Vladivostok LNG” project was announced by “Gazprom” in 2011 as part of the strategy of increasing the share of the company in the global market for LNG. The potential capacity of the plant is 15 million t annually. “Gazprom” doesn’t rely on the resources of other gas producers in its projects, which is why at first the resource base of the project was declared to be the Irkutsk and Yakutsk gas extraction centers – as the resources on the Sakhalin shelf had not yet been discovered. At the end of 2011 the Research Institute “Gas Economy” analyzed the plan for developing the Eastern gas program and offered corrections. The results of the analysis were that the price of LNG from the plant near Vladivostok would be 568 USD/1000 m 3 (if using Yakutsk gas), while the price of Sakhalin LNG was 312 USD/1000 m 3 . These estimates show at the very least the unprofitability of “Vladivostok LNG” and non-competitiveness of its products relative to operations at Sakhalin.

On September 10, 2014, during APEC summit in Beijing, the chairman of “Gazprom”, Miller, suggested that Russia and China consider the shipments of Russian gas to China from the Far East. Later it was noted, that there is also the possibility of delivering gas from Dalnerechensk to North-East China, that is, gas formerly intended for LNG processing (Vladivostok LNG), with further export to Japan and other North-East Asia countries.

Thus, the Vladivostok LNG project competes with the possibility of pipeline gas shipments to China. These shipments could start soon, thanks to the presence of existing transport infrastructure. It would be necessary, however, to attract “Sakhalin-1” gas, at least, at the very beginning. But this project would be bilateral, aimed only at the Chinese market. A project that includes LNG production, on the other hand, would allow diversifying shipments to other countries. The announced estimates of the costs of LNG from the Vladivostok project, however, make it very risky.

5.1.4  Creation of Gas and Chemical Clusters in the FEFD

Thanks to putting into operation extraction of the deposits of “fat” natural gas [2] in the south-west of Yakutia and north-east of Irkutsk Oblast, with large-scale exports, there is a project under development to creating a gas processing and chemical plant in the Amur Oblast (Svobodny) to process the gas delivered through the gas transportation system “Strength of Siberia”, which has a capacity of 40 billion m 3 per year.  In addition, “Rosneft” is still considering the possibility of building an Eastern oil-chemical plant in Primorsky Krai that is part oil refinery and part chemical plant. The capacity is to be 12 million t oil annually. The main indicators of all of the projects described above are shown in Table 11.

III.  ENDNOTES

[1] In accordance with Federal Law 01.05.2016 No. 119-FL every citizen of the Russian Federation is provided an opportunity to obtain free land with a total area of not more than a hectare. This land has to be in state or municipal ownership and must be located on the territory of one of the 9 subjects of the Russian Far East (except Zabaykalsky Krai and the Republic of Buryatia).

[2] That is, natural gas resources that also include hydrocarbons such as ethane, propane, butane, and pentane, as well as helium.

[3] A new version of this document is Scheme of territorial planning of the Russian Federation in energy industry up to 2030 , adopted by order of the Government of the Russian Federation № 1634-r from August 1, 2016.

[4] Voropayi N.I, Podkovalnikov S.V, Saneev B.G. “Interstate Energy Cooperation in Northeast Asia: Current State, Potential Projects, Energy Infrastructure”, Energeticheskaya politika [The Energy Policy]. 2014. No 2. Pp. 55-64. (In Russian); Asia Pacific Energy Research Centre. Electric Power Grid Interconnection in Northeast Asia . Available at:  https://aperc.or.jp/file/2015/11/27/FinalReport-APERC-Electric_Power_Grid_Interconnection_in_NEA.pdf

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