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While coping ahead is helpful, dreading ahead is not.

Planning ahead helps manage stress; dreading only amplifies anxiety.

When you are aware of dreading ahead, you can better manage it.

You’ve heard of coping ahead? It is referenced in dialectical behavior therapy (DBT). It is often helpful to plan, think through contingencies, and determine ahead of time what will be useful for you in an anticipated difficult situation. Seminal work on coping by Lazarus and Folkman (1984) involves cognitive appraisals of situations and different coping styles that may or may not be useful. Schwarzer and Luszczynska (2008) even break down coping into reactive, anticipatory, preventive, and proactive types.

What may be easier, more automatic, and far less helpful than coping ahead is “dreading ahead.” Dreading ahead is when you continue to think about and worry about an upcoming event. It is when the time between now and the anticipated thing is filled with concern, hand-wringing, and distraction.

To be........

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