Worrying can kill you; worrying about worrying can kill you faster (but there is hope!)

Being neurotic can kill you, mellowing out can save you

Previous studies have indicated that high neuroticism is associated with earlier mortality. Recently a Purdue University researcher has found that "neurotic men whose levels dropped over time had a better chance at living longer and seem to recover from any damage high levels of the trait may have caused. On the flip side, neurotic men whose neuroticism increased over time died much sooner than their peers."

The researcher, Dan Mroczek, an associate professor of child development and family studies at Purdue University, defined A neurotic personality as a "person with the tendency to worry, feel excessive amounts of anxiety or depression and to react to stressful life events more negatively than people with low levels of the trait." He then measured the neuroticism levels using a standardized personality test.

In the study, researchers tracked the change in neuroticism levels of 1,663 aging men over a 12-year period. Using the data gathered in the first analysis, researchers calculated the men's mortality risk over an 18-year period using the average levels and rates of change.

By the end of the study, half of those men classified as highly neurotic with increasing levels of neuroticism had died while those whose levels decreased or were classified as less neurotic had between a 75 percent and 85 percent survival rate.

Even small increases in neuroticism were shown to have negative effects. Participants with as little as a one-unit increase in neuroticism over the course of the study were shown to have a 40 percent higher chance of death than a participant who showed no change.

The pysch blog "We're Only Human..." provides this additional commentary on Mroczek's study:

So what makes a healthy personality? Psychologists have been studying this important question, and at least two of these five traits appear to be directly related to physical well being and longevity: Emotional stability and conscientiousness. More to the point, wellness is linked to changes in these traits over time.

...being more neurotic than average was not enough in and of itself to predict an early death. But being a worrier and getting more stressed out over time was a ticket to an early grave. In other words, these men—all middle age or older to begin with—didn’t grow old gracefully. They got more and more fretful, and this downward spiral increased their risk for dying, mostly from cancer and heart disease.

The key takeaway is that it's never too late to change and that change needs to come from yourself.