Is it because you're worried or have something to worry about?

Why are you worried about worrying? We all do it :-)

Because we have too much free time and our expections are higher. Back in a tribal society, everyone was pretty much equal and they knew everyone else. The chores were vital and more time consuming. For example, think people use to make bread, now we buy ready sliced. You didn't have time to worry.

Also our expectations are higher because of what we see on TV. We worry that people might not like us because of the clothes we wear of even the mobile phone we use.

In terms of evelution we worry because it makes us get off our butts to do something. If there was no food and we didn't worry then we would starve. But by seeing how events could play out in the future are able to react to them and prevent them.

Ms/Mr Red Omlette I must disagree. In terms of tribal society, there is plenty of anthropological and archaeological evidence to show that there is lots of spare time to do stuff other than work, the tenet that so-called 'tribal' lifestyles (small-scale society is the preferred term!) were 'nasty, brutish and short' can be relegated to Victorian arrogance.

In evolutionary terms also, I don't think your suggestion adds up, as worrying does not drive amoeba or glow worms to find food, they do it by instinct and hunger as our own pre-human ancestors would have done. There is not really a choice about whether or not to eat unless you are on a hunger strike!

The TV thing, however, I think is getting more to the point. I think that modern capitalist society is very future-looking, that is to say, people do things judged on what effect it might have 'tomorrow' or 'later' or 'next year' or whatever. So therefore people are constantly future-projecting themselves; trying to work out how their current situation and their choices will affect where they will be in the future (in terms of social position as well as literal physical location!). So all this thinking-forward makes people think of alternatives and I think this is how I would DEFINE worrying: the feeling arising from overly thinking about the possible choices available to one's self and not knowing which one will be the best to take. Of course, we can never know which will be the best to take - yes, we can base our choices on observation and experience - but in reality, we never really know outcomes until we make our choices.

So we worry so much because we are too concerned with what is going to happen in the future. If you feel this is getting to you I recommend the book 'the power of now' by Eckhart Tolle. It's an interesting take on Buddhist spirituality applied to the modern world. Realising that we live in the NOW can be a powerful way to release you from angst and stress - which are not only unpleasent but are a genuine threat to your health. We don't need to worry but all the same we do!

It is fear of the unknown. We do not know what the future holds and we fear the worst.

i would blame my anxieties on my medical condition, but that's not correct - although it is one of the symptoms. i have always worried about something. i cannot recall a time (except when under the effects of alcohol) where i did not worry. i worried about things when i was four, i worried about going into school every day from the ages of five to 16 (amongst other things), i worried about getting the right information in uni, i worried about the exams, i worried about other people's lives so much that it consumed me. so i dropped out. then i worried about getting a job, and when that had passed, i worried about the amount of time i was taking off college to go to the doctors. then i worried that what i was producing wasn't good enough, because in the art world, everything is neither right or worng, it is objectively assessed (yeah, right). i worried about my final assessments, i worried about my graduation day, and ever since then i've been worried about something.

worry and anxietry are sometimes the fuel that keeps the fire burning inside people. sometimes it is the poison that kills them before their time. sometimes it is clean water, rolling off their backs. what one person worries about, the other doesn't see the need to. it's an individual mind-set as to whether to worry about something or not.

it's all in the mind, and how we perceive life. if we changed our perceptions, we wouldn't worry as much as we do. but that is easier said than done.