ISIS

[ballerina]

I started to recover a little from the panic about the terrorist attacks (I live in Paris), but then I read an article about how ISIS are aggressively trying to produce chemical weapons. It's sent my anxiety into overdrive. I feel passively suicidal, I would prefer to kill myself in a more peaceful way on my own terms than be killed in such a violent way by IS.

[Emma1027]

Thats what they want. They want people to fear them and to take away your freedom. My heart goes out to you. Keep strong even thou its really hard.

[girl20]

Stay strong! You are not alone! There are quite a few of us here with the same fear!

[Peterthegreatworrier]

ISIS, or any terrorist group for that matter,love to claim anything in order to frighten the world. I've always sporadically been worried about a chemical/biological attack like that which happened in Tokyo many years ago, but the very fact that NOTHING remotely simmilar to that has ever happened again should be a big reassurance. And anyway, the threat of chemical weapons attack is almost exclusively confined to the battlefields of Syria.
No worries!

If you are feeling suicidal, you should talk to someone real about it (a friend, family member, etc.)

I wish you all the best, and merry Christmas :

Peterthegreatworrier

[debs71]

I understand your fears. I am a chronic worrier myself, and I drive my family crazy with my worrying, but my Mum has a very level headed thought on worries such as this.

Worries and anxieties such as this are an utter waste of time. It is one of those worries that are pointless as the question is 'can I do anything about this situation or can I influence or change anything?'

The resounding answer is no....none of us can, sadly.

So what do we do? Fact is that all we can ever do is get on with our lives in as productive a way possible, whilst being vigilant about our own personal safety when out and about, but as far as the bigger picture goes, these psychotic maniacs will do whatever or nothing at all (I agree that they are full of it and a whole load of bollocky bluster most of the time) regardless of how worried we are.

Some anxieties and threats you can do something about, but others are totally out of anyone on the planet's control, bar the nutjobs dreaming them up and carrying them out.

I sympathise with your worries, we all do I am sure, but to halt your life and live in fear is no life at all. Don't let them win! x

[MyNameIsTerry]

The first thing is that if you feel you could harm yourself, please contact your emergency services, helplines, etc in your country.

What you need to remember is that we have not only our own domestic & foreign intelligence agencies looking for anything that could suggest movement of things like this (as well as development) but we also have a combined approach with lots of other countries for the common good. They aren't waiting for them to strike, they are working constantly to monitor them and most likely some sanction we will never hear about takes place to remove them from the planet or destroy raw materials or suppply chains. What we hear on the news is a tiny fraction of what really goes on in the intelligence world.

Chemical weapons, bactererialogical and nuclear weaponry relies on supplies to make them that can't be bought from your local supermarket. Companies producing these materials are very heavily monitored & licenced. Any movement of these materials and they get spotted. Thats why it's so rare like the attack in Tokyo. Risks from these types of weapons come from countries just as we saw with Iraq and what did we do there? Nothing was found that was nuclear but Saddam was gassing the Kurds and massacred people and so he was removed. We now have concerns over South Korea and Syria was also a problem. It's possible that there are risks with this type of material in Syria but again everybody is monitoring them to ensure they can't get out of Syria and you can bet there is an effort to track down and destroy anything that does get into the wrong hands there.

These standard bombs can be made very easily and with materials any of us on here can buy. The more powerful ones mean munitions but these are more readily available to countries hence why these things sometimes happen.

Right now your country is on high alert so it would be ludicrous to attempt anything anyway. That should provide some comfort because these people rely on the shadows to perpetrate their crimes but in times like this they have to run or lay low.

[freshy666]

Ballerina, I am in a similar situation. I have been experiencing extreme anxiety/panic attacks over the last couple of days. I got some meds and woke up this morning feeling better. But then I read the news that Brussels (I live 20 km from there) is pretty much on lock down. No subway, all big events cancelled, people pretty much told to stay at home. I am absolutely shitting my pants over this!!! I have literally thought of every possible scenario that could happen. The one that especially is plaguing me at the moment is that they (the terrorists) are trying to divert the attention to Brussels so that they can somehow destroy the rest of the country. As if all of a sudden ISIS men will come out of the trees around my house and attack us.

It sucks because I had plans to do yoga this morning and even go out for a walk to a local village festival that is happening. Now I will literally sit here in a clenched state for the rest of the day and take a few more of my meds.

My parents live in North America and want me to go back there. At first I thought they were just being paranoid, but now I'm not so sure. But hey, I can't get myself on an airplane anyway because I have so much anxiety about flying, so it isn't even possible!!!

Thanks ISIS, you have truly succeeded in terrorizing me. Job well done.