A new reason to relax: The mellow shall inherit the earth
Accomplished worriers -- the ones who went to the Woody Allen school of catastrophizing -- have something new to fret about: New research suggests that it is possible to worry oneself into an early grave.
In a study to be published in next month’s issue of Psychological Science, investigators at Purdue University tracked 1,663 men middle-aged and older over a 12-year period starting in 1988. Regularly testing the subjects’ neuroticism on a standard personality inventory, they found that men who scored above the 50th percentile in neuroticism, and whose neuroticism grew worse by 20 percentile points over the years, were 40% more likely to die during the study period than men whose neuroticism remained stable.
The study of these men, who were enrolled in an ongoing longitudinal investigation founded at the Boston Veterans Administration outpatient clinic in 1963, marks something of a milestone in behavior-mortality research, experts say. Although there’s plenty of evidence that certain behavioral traits are associated with increased risk of death, this is one of the first to suggest that a change in such a trait over time could also affect mortality -- for good, or for bad.
“This study is one of several that are marking an important shift in how we think about individual risk factors for illness and premature mortality,” says Howard Friedman, distinguished professor of psychology at UC Riverside and noted researcher in health and longevity.
In the past, he explains, most studies have looked at relatively static risk factors, such as weight and cholesterol. “But we are now shifting attention to the trajectories across many years,” he says.
The notion that neuroticism can change over the years means that not only can the tendency to worry become more pronounced, it can also be reduced -- with positive consequences.
Characterized by excessive worry over relatively minor events and setbacks, neuroticism “is a tendency to over-predict what’s going to be scary and under-predict one’s ability to cope with it,” says UCLA clinical psychologist Emanuel Maidenberg.
World-class handwringers are both born and made, he says. Most inherit a predisposition to it -- thanks, Mom and Dad -- that is affected by later environmental influences.
“People learn how to cope, first of all, by observing what their parents do,” Maidenberg says, “and then are affected by their immediate community and environment, such as peers,” who might model better, or worse, coping strategies.
Later life events, such as a serious accident or loss of a loved one, can also influence one’s level of neuroticism. “Some of us are just luckier than others,” Maidenberg says.
Daniel Mroczek, an associate professor of developmental studies at Purdue University and the study’s lead author, says the higher risk of mortality among neurotics could be accounted for by chemical changes associated with the release of the stress hormone cortisol. “When we’re under chronic stress or feeling stressed out, our bodies produce higher levels of cortisol and this does damage to our bodies.”
Fortunately for worriers, the study held some good news. Those highly neurotic men who managed to get their worry under control had about the same mortality rate as men who scored high in emotional stability -- considered the opposite of neuroticism.
The notion that neuroticism can be reined in over time has some interesting implications.
“Lowering neuroticism may be akin to lowering cholesterol for someone who has coronary artery disease or lowering salt intake in someone who has hypertension,” says Dr. C. Freeman, a geriatric psychiatrist at Centinela Freeman Regional Medical Center in Inglewood. Just as someone with high blood pressure, for example, would generally try to lower that pressure through lifestyle changes or medication, constant worriers might one day elect to do the same with their trait.
In fact, “I could see a day in the future when you go to your doctor’s office and they would do some assessment as to how you’re handling stress and make appropriate suggestions and referrals,” Mroczek says.
Those remedies might include therapy, exercise, yoga or meditation, as well as taking antidepressant medication.
There is an upside to being a chronic worrier, Maidenberg says: thinking of all contingencies. “Worriers tend to be over-prepared,” he says. “As a result, they’re often very successful.”
But this pales in comparison with the downside, says self-described born worrier Michael Kniespeck of Detroit.
A financial officer for a national nonprofit organization, Kniespeck has battled crushing, lifelong worry, caused in part by the trauma of serious childhood bullying. “It’s been a real struggle” learning to manage it, he says. “I was constantly sick.”
He finally got help through Emotions Anonymous, a 12-step support program for chronic worriers modeled after Alcoholics Anonymous. (He’s now on the board.) He also found cognitive behavior therapy and rational emotive therapy helpful. “I’m a different person today than I was 12 years ago,” he says.
In addition to creating a better quality of life for himself, Kniespeck may have bought himself a longer one.
“We all have this concept that you can’t teach an old dog new tricks,” Freeman says. “But this study shows that change is possible. It’s never too late to chill.”
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