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Reasons to worry abound these days. If we're not worried about opening our mail, we're worried about getting on an airplane. If we're not worried about attending a sporting event, we're worried about losing our jobs.

Sometimes the only recourse seems to be to crawl between flannel sheets and try to sleep.

In a word: Don't.

Instead, think, as clinical social worker Clark Vinson does, about what Winston Churchill once said: "I once knew a man on his deathbed who told me his life had been full of trouble, most of which had never happened."

But Sept. 11, a tragedy beyond even the most ardent worrier's realm of thinking happened. Since then, even people who normally aren't worriers have had their share of anxiety.

Such events, plus anthrax and terrorism scares, confirm to worriers by nature that the world is unsafe, says Dr. Byron Law-Yone, medical director of addiction medicine for Baylor/Richardson Medical Center.

"Their worry goes through the roof," says Law-Yone, who is also a psychiatrist in private practice. "They have trouble sleeping, are irritable, can't function. This has re-ignited their worry."

Worry in itself isn't necessarily bad, says psychiatrist Dr. Edward "Ned" Hallowell, author of "Worry: Controlling It and Using It Wisely" (Pantheon Books; $26).

"We as humans have the gift of memory and the ability to anticipate," Hallowell says. "Because we can, we worry. We can imagine bad things happening based on bad things that have happened in the past. If your worry leads you to take constructive action, that's good."

Getting physical

Worry can and does take an emotional as well as physical toll, Law-Yone says.

"You do find more people going to doctors, emergency rooms after an event like this," he says. "They develop physical symptoms. Some are susceptible to headaches, backaches, other pain."

When you worry, he explains, your body produces stress hormones such as cortisol.

"If you're chronically worried, cortisol is chronically high, therefore causing the problem to multiply," echoes Robert Vaughan, exercise physiologist at the Baylor-Tom Landry Fitness Center. "Cortisol suppresses immune function. When there's an increase in cortisol, there are more colds."

And colds are just the beginning. Worry can be blamed for ailments of virtually every body system, Hallowell says.

Some of them include:

l Cardiovascular: High blood pressure, which often leads to heart attack and stroke, can be due to worry.

l Digestive: Worriers have trouble digesting food, Hallowell says. They're prone to ulcerative colitis and Crohn's disease.

l Respiratory: Shortness of breath is a classic sign, as are panic attacks.

l Skin: Worry can lead to eczema and psoriasis.

l Neurological: Headache clinics are filled with people suffering from tension headaches.

An optimistic take

Some people are predisposed to worry, Hallowell says. He's one of them. But he has worked hard to bring it into "the manageable zone."

"It's bred in my genes and bones, but I'm able to turn it into an ally instead of an enemy," he says.

When Vinson, who specializes in anxiety disorders, meets with clients, he tries to help them deal with problems as they arise not to obsess over whether they'll need to.

After all, he stresses, "You're just as prepared if you're optimistic and something happens as you are if you're pessimistic and something does. You're just more miserable if you're pessimistic."