Why do I always assume bad things are going to happen?
I'll try to be brief since I know many of you are busy with your own lives and may not have the time to read through an exceedingly long post.
Long story short, I'm in a fairly good position in life. I have a good circle of friends, I just landed my first full-time job, and money isn't causing me a lot of stress. I'm also in good health.
But for some reason, I have BRUTAL anxiety where I always assume the worst-case scenario will happen--no matter how unlikely. To give you an example, in the past little while I've had several issues checked out by my family doctor. I convinced myself that I had serious illnesses, only for my doctors to tell me in a matter of minutes that there was nothing wrong with me. When I did routine bloodwork for my physical exam recently, I was legitimately anxious when awaiting the results, even though I am young, have no symptoms of anything, and have no reason to believe the results would be concerning. I recently completed a consent form for a criminal background check for a job I just landed, and I feel anxious about the results--even though I have no record whatsoever.
I know it's hard to comment without more info on my background, but has anyone else experiences excessive anxiety--almost to the point of paranoia? What strategies did you use to handle it?