Cowards

[uru]

I was having a bad night tonight with a lot of physical symptoms and I started wondering - how is this any different from cowardice?

I'm scared of something and I shake and worry. I'm like shaggy in scooby do. Why not call it cowardice instead of anxiety?

[MyNameIsTerry]

Why is being afraid of something cowardice? I think you are steering into negative automatic thoughts here and wil be talking about failure next.

All human beings experience fear.

Cowardice by definition could be applied to anxiety disorder HOWEVER so can failure, weakness, etc dependant on the context they are used in BUT that doesn't make YOU a failure, a coward or weak. This is why in CBT they look at something called Labelling and how powerful it is and why you need to avoid it.

[debs71]

Cowardice is a totally different thing altogether.

Cowardice is choosing to not do something out of self-worry, often something that might be in others best interests or simply the right thing to do. You have an option to do or not do it, and you choose not to.

We don't CHOOSE anxiety. We have to face it every single day, deal with it and get through it. That is a battle. I don't call that cowardice.

[CoraB]

I feel like a coward. I feel like i should be able to get on with things but I give into the anxiety a lot. Especially I avoid work.

[uru]

People always say 'face your fears' but I'm avoiding reading about news events.

[MyNameIsTerry]

I think I know where you are coming from. Cowardice is not facing something we fear but that's a general definition and doesn't take into account mental health disorders.

If we applied that definition to our disorders it would make every anxiety disorder sufferer who ever lived a coward. I certainly would be.

What I think you need look at is your mood because I know when mine dips I would start getting these negative thinking styles seeping in but when my mood would life I wouldn't think the same way.

You are not a coward. I've had that issue with the news and avoided it as a trigger but as I worked on recovery I found it went away.

Facing fears is very hard and is a matter of success & failure until you beat them. It's very easy for people who haven't felt them to say to face them but they will change their mind if they go through an anxiety disorder. Try not to label yourself as it means strong negative emotions and hinders your progress. Accept things that go wrong as "lessons learned" and use what you learn to keep moving forward.