Don’t fret, neurotics – there are advantages to worrying

I cannot remember a time when some large worry has not cast a shadow over my day. As a young child, I would lie awake fearing everything from the impending embarrassment of gym class, to the death of my parents, to the prospect of a nuclear holocaust. The form of my fears may have changed as I age, but the tendency to see disaster on the horizon has remained.

I am far from alone in this: negative mental chatter and doom-laden fantasies are common characteristics of the personality trait “neuroticism”. Like other personality traits, this can measured using simple questions such as:

• Do you suffer from “nerves”?

• Do you worry too long after an embarrassing experience?

• Are your feelings easily hurt?

• Are you often troubled by feelings of guilt?

• Are you an irritable person?

If you answer yes to all these questions, you too may be highly neurotic, along with 30% of the population.

For a long time, high neuroticism was thought to be a very real cause for concern; it was associated with poor mental and physical