what is future tripping?

According to the HealthyPlace, "Future-tripping, also called anticipatory anxiety, is part of the human condition of peering into the imagined future and anticipating the outcome. Everyone does this to some degree or other. It's one of the blessings (or perhaps curses) of having a human brain with a frontal cortex."

Future tripping is the name of the game when it comes to my alcoholic brain. Yes, everyone does it to some degree, but I feel like for those with addiction issues, it can take on a being of its own. We can future trip in the negative or the positive. For example, I've been on the outs with a good friend of fifteen years. I am planning on sending her an e-mail to try to begin to repair our friendship. When writing that letter, so many thoughts go through my head - both good and bad. I imagine the worst case scenario: she never replies or she replies that she wants nothing to do with me. But I also future trip in the positive: we become best friends again and she even moves out to California and we become roommates and life is just so good. It really doesn't matter which way it goes because the result is the same - I'm not living in the present moment and I'm doing a lot of unnecessary stressing out.

My dad always says that 90% of what you worry about never happens. I think he's right. When I was drinking, I would worry about everything. Over-cataszrophizing, that was my excuse for justifying a drink. Hyper-fixating on the worst possible outcome so I could get drunk was literally an every day occurrence. Like, "I need this drink in case I'm single in a year!" I would drink in case X would happen or I would drink because what if Y happens tomorrow? Or what if Y doesn't happen tomorrow? Or what if I don't have Z by the time I'm 35?

Future tripping brings me to a really dark place mentally and I can stay off task and in that rabbit hole for hours or days. But be careful not to confuse future tripping with doing visualizations or affirmations (both extremely useful tools). Of course, there is a difference between the two. Visualizing also entails peering into the imagined future and anticipating the outcome - feeling how you will feel when you have everything that you want, the life of your dreams. The difference is, future tripping comes from a place of fear - it's a fear based emotion. It comes from a place of lack or "not enough." Doing affirmations or visualizations of what you want for yourself for the future comes from a place of love and security. It comes from knowing that you are enough and seeing the future you want to create and know that you deserve.

Affirmations and visualization = good, healthy, fun, brings contentment and security

Future tripping = usually scary, fear based, anxiety producing, can trigger cravings & depression

So what can you do when you start to future trip? The way I handle future tripping is to first become aware of when it is happening. It often begins innocently enough - like deciding to write my friend a letter. But once that decision is made, that's when I need to be aware of the spiral, and that happens when I fixate on possible outcomes. Another sign is hearing/using the phrases, "What if," or "What happens if." Those phrases are almost always a dead give away that a future trip is in progress.

Next, I focus on what lies right in front of me instead of thinking of the future. Just like when I have an urge to drink, I acknowledge the feeling and let it pass. I do the same thing with future tripping. I stop myself and try to ground myself back in the present moment. I think of what I'm doing for lunch that day, or what I'm doing in the next ten minutes. I try to bring my focus back by engaging with my dog by giving her a treat or taking a 3 minute walk around the block. Future tripping is similar to having a craving or a negative feeling. They are just that, a feeling. They are fleeting, just a moment in time. And they will pass. Just as my worries, doubts and fears about the future will pass if I stay in the present.

Most importantly, I notice that life is passing me by while I stress about the future. This is time that I will never get back. How can I enjoy my time here on earth if I'm constantly stressing about things that may or may not happen. I avoid future tripping because I no longer want to be so worried about the future that I forget to live in the present.