My Gen X Playlist: Basket Case – Green Day

About five years ago, someone told me about a study that found 85% of what we worry about never comes true. Quick math, that means only 15% is really worth worrying about. It may even be less than that.

…it turns out that 85 percent of what subjects worried about never happened, and with the 15 percent that did happen, 79 percent of subjects discovered either they could handle the difficulty better than expected, or the difficulty taught them a lesson worth learning. This means that 97 percent of what you worry over is not much more than a fearful mind punishing you with exaggerations and misperceptions.

– Huffpost

I wish I was armed with this knowledge earlier and maybe it would have alleviated some “mind punishment” in my early years. On the flip side, a good friend of mine who suffered from bi-polar disorder described her mindset when she was experiencing a challenging episode. She told me

I know it’s not logical, but I can’t help the way I feel

I didn’t fully appreciate these words until I experienced an anxiety attack at work, myself. I knew the thoughts running through my head were irrational, yet they continued to torment me and I couldn’t turn them off. I heard her voice. I know it’s not logical, but I can’t help the way I feel. Yep, I got it now. I’m fortunate, I’ve only experienced that one anxiety attack (knock on wood). In a weird way, I’m glad I did because I now understand the true meaning of empathy.

But yeah, I wish I knew the 85% number earlier. It would have been helpful to some degree. Now when I get inside my own head worrying about things, I do think of this stat. Sometimes reason wins over and I’ll take the “sometimes” whenever I can get it. It’s good to have a number of tools in your bag of tricks and I keep this one handy so I can pull it out at a moments notice.

Green Day released Basket Case in 1994. The song was inspired by Billie Joe Armstrong’s bouts with anxiety attacks and feelings of going crazy.

Lead singer Billie Joe Armstrong suffered from various panic disorders while he was growing up – he would sometimes wake up in the middle of the night with a panic attack and walk around his neighborhood to settle down. “Basket Case” was a cathartic and personal song for him. “The only way I knew how to deal with it was to write a song about it,” he explained.

– Songfacts

Sometimes I give myself the creeps
Sometimes my mind plays tricks on me
It all keeps adding up
I think I’m cracking up
Am I just paranoid?

– Basket Case, Green Day

Remember – 85% never comes true. That’s a BIG number. And the majority of the time, you’ll be able to cope with the other fifteen. Give this some thought the next time you’re feeling anxiety creeping up on you. It may help you get a few extra hours of sleep.

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For a complete playlist, please click here.

For the Spotify playlist, please click here.

Do you have the time
To listen to me whine
About nothing and everything
All at once
I am one of those
Melodramatic fools
Neurotic to the bone
No doubt about it

Sometimes I give myself the creeps
Sometimes my mind plays tricks on me
It all keeps adding up
I think I'm cracking up
Am I just paranoid?
Am I just stoned?

I went to a shrink
To analyze my dreams
She says it's lack of sex
That's bringing me down
I went to a whore
He said "My life's a bore"
So quit my whining cause
It's bringing her down

Sometimes I give myself the creeps
Sometimes my mind plays tricks on me
It all keeps adding up
I think I'm cracking up
Am I just paranoid?
Uh, yuh, yuh, ya

Grasping to control
So I better hold on

Sometimes I give myself the creeps
Sometimes my mind plays tricks on me
It all keeps adding up
I think I'm cracking up
Am I just paranoid?
Am I just stoned?