Do you feel the NEED to worry about something all the time?

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Sometimes I believe that subconsciously I create bad events in order to be able to worry about them so I can feed my need to worry.

Does anyone else feel this way about themselves or have any ideas how to overcome this?

I think my mind needs to be actively thinking about something or I get depressed. Whether it is worrying or not is probably context sensitive. Not everything that I burn thought cycles on is negative, even if it is intense. Maybe that's the key for you. Find things that demand enough concentration that worrying about negative stuff is impossible.

I think this is the OCD component that is common with AS. My mind needs to think all the time too.

Yes, it's a habit. You become used to being worried, and perversely it worries you when you aren't worried. I've been here.

You can break it like any habit. Hypnosis is probably easiest, self administered or otherwise. When you become aware that you are creating worry for yourself, remind yourself of the illogicality of it. Tell yourself that you would rather relax. Consciously banish worry, and be vigilant for occasions when you might fall back into your old habit.

Yoga is better, IMHO. Its focus on meditative breathing and relaxed but strenuous movement has the dual benefit of clearing your mind and removing stress hormones.

Yoga could work. If you made it a habit to do relaxed breathing, it would counteract the stress that comes with a habit of worry. In my opinion, it is better to become aware of bad habits and replace them with good ones, rather than have a good habit that undoes the effects of a bad one.

What matters is that positive change is created. Personally, I have a suite of change tools I use.. There's many ways to skin a cat.

Strange thing about adding a good habit (such as yoga) is that there is then less room for bad habits. If you are currently not doing yoga (or whatever), something else has to move aside for you to have the time to do it. Hopefully, as you point out, one would choose to reduce the bad habits. Swapping one good habit for another is a net gain of zero.

That's a good point, very true.

I feel the need to worry about something, so the focus goes to chores or money.

I have anxiety disorder pretty bad, but I'm terrified that if I get medication, I will stop worrying about everything. It's like I NEED to have my anxiety or else I may miss something important. I hate that so much.

When I don't have something to worry about I start worrying about what I forgot to worry about.

Do you worry that forgetting what you were worrying about is worrying?

... not until just this moment.

Oh yes. I have a general fear that if nothing is wrong something is going to go massively wrong too. I associate that less with being autistic and more with years of abuse, anxiety and depression though.

Yes.

It is really awful. I am always planning for worst case scenarios and they almost never happen.

I do too.

Some good feedback. Thank you everyone.

I thought (worried!) I was the only one. I'm bi-polar and have been seeings docs and taking meds for ten years. I'm trying to break worrying habits. I know it sounds corny, but for the firs time in my life I started to watch what I ate, make sure I get regulr sleep and work out 3 times a week. I gave it two weeks. It really worked. I stopped doing for a week and am worrying more. I am going to start back up at 6am tomorrow......

Take care everyone!