I always hear that worry is a useless emotion. Do you think worrying can be helpful?

yes. Worrying means that you have concern about something.

Yes, some stress can be good because it motivates you to take action when needed. Excessive worry can be a killer though. High amounts of adrenaline produced by chronic stress digs out spots in your artery walls and those damaged areas collect plaque. So the saying “stress kills” can be true.

@gravity Totally agree.

No. “Worry” as anxiety is useless. “Concern” is another thing entirely.

In fact, I’d go further and say that “worry” distracts you from legitimate concerns that you can do something about. I’ve seen people “worry” about what the weather was going to do. What can you do about the weather? But if you have concerns that an outdoor event may be adversely affected by weather, then you can make alternative arrangements, put up shelters, etc.

Worry is counter-productive.

I agree with @CyanoticWasp

Concern is far different than worry.

Worry is nothing but obsessive mind scenarios trying to control the uncontrollable, the future.

I would say worry is something we don’t always have control over, so it is what it is. However, we do need to keep a lid on it. Now as far as wasted emotions go, the number one wasted emotion is jealousy.

They say worry is like interest paid in advance on a debt that never comes due. Or, as my mother used to put it, the things you worry about the most never happen.

Still, telling yourself or someone else not to worry is a waste of breath.

My mother had those little sayings too like, “nothing is ever as good or as terrible as you think it’ll be” but she was wrong. Some things are better than you imagined and some are worse!

No. It keeps your focus from real things. Think about it,you can’t concentrate to answer your exam if you keep worrying about your future score,family issue,friends intervention,etc.

Don’t worry about it.

Worry is good. It keeps you on your toes and prepares you for anything bad that could happen.

Yes. We should all be worried about the overuse of our planet’s atmosphere. If people are not worried they’ll vote for drill-baby-drill politicians.

Yes, it can. Worry is like an alarm clock. It tells us we need to get up and do something right away. I am a worrier, but I try to use the worry as an impetus to think about solutions to my problems.

However, if you’re worrying about a problem that can’t be solved, or you have already given it your best shot, then the worry is useless. It becomes like a cancer, sapping our energy and resources while giving us nothing in return.