Anxiety is a common mental health condition that affects millions of people worldwide. It is characterized by excessive worry, fear, and apprehension, which can significantly impact an individual's daily life. One of the critical areas where anxiety can have a profound effect is decision making.
Making a decision involves selecting a course of action in some area of your life. Because you are usually selecting from a variety of possibilities, it requires the use of critical thinking. You will weigh the pros and cons. You will consider potential outcomes for each option. Often, decision making is not about making the one right choice out of all the other wrong choices. Many of the options you are considering might work, but you want to choose the one that fits best for you at this time in your life.
Decision making is not just a cognitive or intellectual process. Emotions play a crucial role.
They give you information about your preferences and your values. Excessive anxiety can distort the role of emotions in making a decision. For example, it can lead you to overestimate risks and underestimate rewards. This can lead to an overly cautious choice. If you underestimate risks and overestimate rewards, it can lead to a rash choice.
There are at least five ways that anxiety can impact your decision making.
It impacts your ability to process information.
Anxiety can impair cognitive functions such as attention, memory, and information processing. If you are anxious, you may struggle to focus on relevant details, leading to incomplete or biased information gathering.
It can make you indecisive.
Chronic anxiety often leads to indecisiveness. You may struggle to make decisions due to fear of making the wrong choice. This can result in procrastination, missed opportunities, and heightened stress levels.
It can make you overthink.
Anxiety can trigger overthinking and rumination. It can lead you to obsessively analyze and reanalyze potential outcomes. This cyclical thinking pattern can paralyze decision making, because it traps you in a loop of doubt and uncertainty.
It can make you avoidant or impulsive.
There are a couple of ways you can react when you try to alleviate the overwhelming feelings of anxiety. You can deal with it by avoiding the decision or deferring it to others. Or you can make a hasty decision without fully considering the consequences. Both actions can result in regret, which ironically can lead to more anxiety.
It can lead to decision fatigue.
Decision fatigue happens when you become mentally exhausted from the constant worry and overthinking about the decision. This fatigue can hinder your ability to make sound decisions. It can lead you to rely on habitual or default choices.
Here are some strategies to help you with the impact of anxiety on your decision making.
Practice mindfulness.
Mindfulness is being present in the moment to thoughts and feelings in an accepting, nonjudgmental way. It is normal and natural for anxiety to be a part of deciding. The decision matters, so it makes sense that some anxiety would be present. Mindfulness allows you to be present with those thoughts and feelings so you can have the space to make a good decision.
Structure your decision-making process.
Now that you have a different relationship with your anxiety, you can use various decision-making processes. These include: Creating lists of pros and cons. Setting clear criteria for the decision. Breaking down complex decisions into smaller steps.
Seek support.
It is easier to talk with trusted friends or family members about the decision when you are not caught up in anxiety. They can provide their own perspective or their emotional support. Both of those can help make a good decision.
Understanding the effects of anxiety and implementing strategies to deal with it can lead to more informed and confident decisions. My anxiety treatment specialty page can give you more information about how counseling can help you manage the presence of anxiety in your life.