Beware the Bubble: Must All Good Things Come to an End?

’Tis the season for ghosts and goblins and creepy crawlies real and imagined … so I want to talk about one of the human mind’s scariest inventions, one nearly all of us believe in from time to time.

The bubble.

As in, “I’m just waiting for this bubble to burst.”

What, exactly, is the bubble? For many, it represents a happy time in life, a time when things are going well or some relief from a problem has been realized, a too-good-to-be-true moment or relationship. But it comes with a nagging feeling, a sense that it will all come crashing down at some point. People are uneasily content inside their bubbles; believing it could burst at any moment creates anxiety, fear, and worry. They fret themselves into pretzels and struggle to appreciate good fortune because they are so preoccupied with the possibility it will end.

I’ve seen people finally meet the partners of their dreams, only to walk around terrified that their new love is too perfect, the relationship too easy. They find themselves “waiting for the other shoe to drop.” I’ve seen mothers with healthy, beautiful families who, on the one hand, talk about how much they love motherhood and how thankful they are but, on the other, are so terrified their kids will get sick or injured that they spend most of their time researching symptoms online and seeking reassurances from doctors’ offices.

At first glance, these two examples might seem to have nothing in common—a type of self-esteem issue and a form of hypochondria—but both are signs that a scary-feeling bubble of sorts has taken over and prevented each person from fully enjoying what they have.

There are many interesting things to discover about each person’s unique bubble. For someone in a new relationship, we can talk about the joys of the “honeymoon” phase and how important it is for lasting connection. We can talk about the person’s belief that he or she is not worthy of a good relationship. For the mom with an overly involved parenting style, we can connect to her sense of responsibility and her deep love and desire to protect her children. We can gently poke at the bubble and remind these folks that, like all creatures, they deserve good things in their lives and don’t have to “pay” for them with bad fortune later.

Indeed, bad fortune does come to some of us some of the time, but the bubble doesn’t prepare us. We might look back and say, “Oh, I knew my luck would run out” or “The relationship was bound to fail at some point,” but the bubble didn’t help matters. It’s imaginary. We invented it out of thin air.

More importantly, the bubble doesn’t protect us from anything. It just causes us stress. The bubble is our safeguard against all that we fear: as long as we put ourselves in this happy bubble over here, but feel impending doom (or at least some alternative, negative reality) over there, we can stay in a fantasy.

Yes, terrible things may happen from time to time, but this anxious mind-set—the bubble—does not keep terrible things at bay. Creating a doom-filled scenario for the future does not protect our happy state right now.

There is no bubble. All of these feelings and states and phases in our lives are just part of our lives.

We have grown accustomed to the idea that there is a “honeymoon” phase at the beginning of relationships and that it’s not a bubble that bursts. It is a stage that we can be grateful for, one that graduates to something else. Similarly, we should get used to the fact there will be times of health, connection, and success without expecting “payback” down the road. Just because something wonderful is happening in our lives doesn’t mean it must be followed by something terrible.

Yes, terrible things may happen from time to time, but this anxious mind-set—the bubble—does not keep terrible things at bay. Creating a doom-filled scenario for the future does not protect our happy state right now.

The best we can do when things are going well, when we have healthy children or a flourishing relationship, is to stay mindful of what we have and enjoy it. Spend more time flourishing, enjoying your good health, and cultivating happy things. This is the cornerstone of a solution-focused mind-set.

Here are some ways I help people in therapy through their bubble mind-sets:

• Use anxiety as a reminder to feel gratitude. When you think, “Nobody’s gotten sick yet this winter, so a bad flu must be on its way,” use this as a reminder to feel grateful for the health your family has enjoyed so far, and to keep doing what’s working to keep you all healthy. Try hard to translate what’s working into actual behaviors.
• When the bubble tells you that this can’t last, counter it. Identify the ways it’s trying to make you nervous, then challenge it by saying, “Nothing lasts forever, so I’m going to enjoy what I have right now. Being worried about when it will end isn’t going to help me cope in the future and will make it harder to enjoy this time.”
• Spread your confidence and gratitude to others. When you hear someone expecting the good in their life to end, counter it. Point out that nobody deserves bad fortune, and encourage the person to enjoy what they are experiencing as long as they can.
• Seek therapy and support when bad events do happen. Perhaps the worst thing about the bubble mind-set is it allows for bad fortune to feel like it makes sense. If we believe we are in a bubble that can be popped by bad luck, a wrong move, or negligence, it may always seem like we are doomed. Partnering with a counselor can help challenge this line of thinking and get to work on solving the actual problem: the bad event itself.

Remember, bubbles are every bit as imaginary as ghosts and goblins. Happy Halloween!

The preceding article was solely written by the author named above. Any views and opinions expressed are not necessarily shared by GoodTherapy.org. Questions or concerns about the preceding article can be directed to the author or posted as a comment below.