Are Worriers More Creative? The Benefits of Neurotic Unhappiness.
Everyone knows someone who is a worrier. You, yourself, may be a worrier. Perhaps you have a high degree of neuroticism.
[Neuroticism here means having “ a tendency toward anxiety, depression, self-doubt, self-doubt, and other negative feelings.” — Psychology Today.]
Or you may be like me, someone who begins to worry when the stories in my head become intense or overwhelming. I spend a lot of time challenging my stories and have made friends with the worrier voice in my mind.
But if you haven’t made friends with your worrier voice, it doesn’t matter, we ALL know what it feels like to worry — and this worrying, our anxiety of the future, our self-doubt and imposter syndrome and even (in my case) depression may be a benefit. It may foster creativity and problem-solving!
In a newly published paper, the authors help explain why worriers worry when there is no threat present but instead perceive a threat in their mind which in turn may lead to better creativity and problem-solving.
New Science Research
Adam Perkins is a Lecturer in the Neurobiology of Personality in the Department of Psychological Medicine at my alma mater, King’s College London, is the lead author of a paper proposing a new theory…
