Second- and third-order worrying

Once you're able to think consciously, once you're able to name things, you are then able to think about and name those same thoughts, think about thinking. Whether you're conscious of it or not. Consciousness is not necessarily self-awareness but it sure helps.

Some very basic behavioral phenomena could be considered higher order thinking. Altruism, doing something that is not in your immediate (or ever) personal best interest,

Let's say you have anxiety issues, panic attacks brought on by phobias, placed in trigger situations like a door being closed, meeting new people, or something as real life as big dogs. That is a first order anxiety (whether dysfunctional or very useful). A second order anxiety is if you're worried about losing your anxiolytic medication: you're afraid of being afraid.

Another situation: you're clinically depressed, and then you read an article that says that depressed people have a higher chance of contracting disease X (I made this up. I don't know this! Don't worry!). That could be considered grounds for being depressed.

Or paranoia... you could be playing rock paper scissors all day with imaginary adversaries!

So here is the problem. What does higher order worrying do for you?

• Zero-th order: base activities. Let's say driving a car.
• First order: worrying about those activities.  worrying about car wrecks, maintenance, getting lost. All these worries together is what anxiety is. Anxiety is not the next level, it just a set of worries.
• Second order: worrying about worrying too much. Worrying if you have an anxiety problem. I Am I worrying too much? Anxiety about anxiety.
• Third order: worrying about that. Here's the difficulty, what is 'that' and what does worrying about it really mean. Spelled out it is worrying about worrying about worrying. What it means is concerns about whether your concerns about anxiety are a problem. It's not that it is hard to think about (it is hard to think about), but that's not the point. The result though is that it is not an anxiety to have concerns about anxiety, that's not a thing, you just don't do it (also it is not a problem to have concerns over anyway). Your mind just doesn't go there (even after being led there). So it just isn't a concern.

The moral: Don't worry about third order worrying. After the second turtle (and it's turtles all the way down) they're all pretty much the same kind of turtle.

So that's one thing not to worry about.