What Kind of Worrier Are YOU?

Where do you fall on the Worrier scale?

Hello, friend.

Thank you for being part of the Nancy’s Point community on Substack. I’m starting to feel more comfortable here, and I hope you are too. Be sure to let me know how you’re feeling about it.

This week’s article is about Cancer’s cousin — Worry. I can’t wait to find out what kind of Worrier YOU consider yourself to be.

So, let’s get to it…

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What Kind of Worrier Are YOU?

Are you a Worrier by nature?

I bet you know an intense Worrier or two as well as a few who seem to always have it together and never appear to worry too much about anything. Or maybe it’s just that the latter keep their Worry under wraps. That’s probably it. After all, everyone has worries.

If you happen to be one who is wired to be a high-level sort of Worrier, you might very well have Worry down to a science. You know who you are. (I am not of that sort.)

My grandma was a proficient, high-level Worrier. She worried about everything, or so it seemed to me anyway. But maybe while growing up, I was too innocent to realize life indeed had stuff that warranted worrying about. I certainly have no memories about feeling overly worried as a young child. (Later, yes. We all remember high school, right?)

Do you have memories of Worry as a young child?

Is that what makes a good early childhood — lack of too much worry?

Do we Worry more the older we get?

Maybe so. But maybe not.

Thinking about the elementary-age students I had in my classroom over the years, there were definitely those who worried more than others. A lot more.

For example, some kids worried about doing the wrong thing or not doing assignments right — other kids — not so much.

As far as behavior goes, some always worried about the consequences of their actions and would never think of doing anything without permission. Those were the kids I would send to deliver important messages to the office or elsewhere because I knew they’d never consider even stopping at the bathroom on the way to or from because they hadn’t gotten permission to do that. They were trustworthy to a fault. (just kidding)

Their counterparts, on the other hand, would take as long as possible to deliver said messages, and would take as many detours as possible enroute and back as well. That was just part of their nature.

So, maybe we are destined to be high-level Worriers or low-level Worriers from birth.

I’m not sure, but I do know this…

Once cancer is thrown into the mix, how a person worries, can be thrown out of whack. Cancer causes havoc and chaos in any sort of Worrier’s life.

As I mentioned, I refer to Worry as Cancer’s cousin — both causing considerable upheaval and angst.

Cancer and Worry, they make a formidable pair.

Having said that, even after my cancer diagnosis, I still consider myself to be an average Worrier.

For example, after my diagnosis, I never worried about dying all that much. And I had just witnessed my mother’s illness and death from metastatic breast cancer. Go figure.

Was that just plain old denial?

I’m not proud to admit it, but before beginning chemotherapy, I worried more about losing my hair and feeling sick than anything.

What was I thinking?

These days, I have worries. Yes, of course, I do.

I worry about family members. I worry about my kids, my grandkids, where our country is headed, what will happen if Trump gets re-elected, women losing their reproductive rights, school shootings, climate change, the senseless wars going on — stuff like that.

For the most part, I manage to keep my Cancer Worry at arm’s length. I’ve done what I can to keep the Beast at bay, so I don’t worry much about recurrence either.

Admittedly, Worry bubbled up recently as I’ve been having some GI issues that sent me to see my PCP (Why is it soooo hard to get appointments with them? Why do we work to build and maintain these long-term relationships with our PCPs, and yet, cannot get in to see our them when we need them?)

Those GI issues, along with my BRCA2+ status meant an MRI was called for. It’s recommended that BRCA2+ patients be screened for pancreatic cancer anyway. (I've been putting it off) Hence, the MRI course of action seemed logical — killing two birds with one stone. (Yikes. It just hit me what a horrible, cruel-sounding idiom that is.)

So, yes, there’ve been health-related moments of Worry of late. Thankfully, no pancreatic cancer was detected. Another issue was detected. But that’s perhaps a post for another day. Or not.

Since my diagnosis (and before, I might add), I do what I can (or try to) regarding life-style choices and such, but what happens from here on out is more or less a crap shoot.

So, the way I see it, why waste too much time on Recurrence Worry?

Worry is part of being human. And yet, here too, we are all different.

Besides being an average Worrier, I am also a procrastinating sort of Worrier. I figure there will always be plenty of stuff to Worry about tomorrow and the day after that. No need to bother over worrying today, right?

Now, I want to know…

What sort of Worrier are YOU?

On a scale of 1-10 with 10 being a high-level kind of Worrier, where do you land?

Do you think we are all wired from birth as to what sort of Worrier we are?

What is one thing you are worried about today?

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Note from Nancy: I wrote about Worry, cancer language, survivor guilt, loss, pet grief, COVID-19, DIEP flap surgery, life as an introvert, aging, resiliency, and more in EMERGING. Available at Amazon and most other online booksellers. Click on the image below to order your copy today!

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Have a great rest of your week!

Thank you for being here with me. I’m so grateful for your readership and support.

As always, I see you. I hear you, and I care about what you have to say.

Until next time and with gratitude,

Nancy