Bill
10-05-10, 04:35
I'm just hoping this might help others....
Imagine you're standing on a pavement wanting to cross the road but you're feeling nervous because its a busy road and so you're afraid of trying to avoid the traffic. The sun is quickly disappearing though so you feel you must attempt to get across while its light because it'll be more dangerous in the dark.
Standing there you gradually feel more pressurised into making an attempt but you feel too afraid. As time ticks by you feel more and more stressed which causes you to worry thinking "What if" I cross at the wrong time. All you can think about is how fearful you feel and that you can feel your heart racing. You begin to sweat and your breathing becomes shallow and quicker.
Soon you're feeling completely stressed knowing that you're running out of time. You feel trapped and have an uncontrollable desire to run so you no longer think about the traffic and with blind panic you run to escape the anxious feelings to get rid of them.
However, halfway across the road, you suddenly feel giddy, faint and collapse in the middle of the road. The sun goes down and when you come round you're greeted by a stranger who asks if you're ok. You explain what happened and to your surprise they then tell you the road had been closed all day so you actually had nothing to fear.
You feel so stupid that you got so worked up when there was never any traffic that day anyway. However, the next day you return to the pavement and even though the road is still closed, you still worry that you'll faint halfway again. This thought makes you worry and you start to panic. Halfway across the road the same thing Does happen again and once more a stranger turns up asking if you're ok. Neither of you can understand why you're fainting though when there's actually no traffic to fear.
So to explain....
Anything that makes you feel stressed will cause you to feel trapped making you want to fight or run but when you feel there's no escape, panic results causing feelings of "being ill" that frighten you making you Worry about your health and fainting etc. This then causes "fear of feeling fear" making you want to avoid situations that frighten you because of the anxious symptoms you're afraid of that result.
We then look to meds to cure us of our anxious symptoms which are being caused by stress that makes us worry which creates our fear.
Going back to the example above...
Stress = the sun going down making us feel rushed.
Worry = "what if" we can't make it across in time.
Fear = the traffic we have to face to get there.
Once the anxious feelings make us feel afraid as well....
More stress = not feeling able to move.
Worry = "what if" we faint halfway again.
Fear = "what if" we don't come round this time.
When you analyse the example though, there never was any traffic. The stress was caused because we felt rushed. The worry and fear it produced was all created by our lack of confidence.
So the next time you feel anxious or fear panicky feelings, remember your own thoughts are creating them due to stress. If you keep thinking "inwardly" on those thoughts and keep worrying about them, the more panicky and ill you'll feel. If though you can learn to think "outwardly" at what you have to do to get where you want to go, you'll probably still feel stressed and anxious but you'll find your actual anxious symptoms won't frighten you and they'll disappear just as the traffic in the example.:hugs:
Imagine you're standing on a pavement wanting to cross the road but you're feeling nervous because its a busy road and so you're afraid of trying to avoid the traffic. The sun is quickly disappearing though so you feel you must attempt to get across while its light because it'll be more dangerous in the dark.
Standing there you gradually feel more pressurised into making an attempt but you feel too afraid. As time ticks by you feel more and more stressed which causes you to worry thinking "What if" I cross at the wrong time. All you can think about is how fearful you feel and that you can feel your heart racing. You begin to sweat and your breathing becomes shallow and quicker.
Soon you're feeling completely stressed knowing that you're running out of time. You feel trapped and have an uncontrollable desire to run so you no longer think about the traffic and with blind panic you run to escape the anxious feelings to get rid of them.
However, halfway across the road, you suddenly feel giddy, faint and collapse in the middle of the road. The sun goes down and when you come round you're greeted by a stranger who asks if you're ok. You explain what happened and to your surprise they then tell you the road had been closed all day so you actually had nothing to fear.
You feel so stupid that you got so worked up when there was never any traffic that day anyway. However, the next day you return to the pavement and even though the road is still closed, you still worry that you'll faint halfway again. This thought makes you worry and you start to panic. Halfway across the road the same thing Does happen again and once more a stranger turns up asking if you're ok. Neither of you can understand why you're fainting though when there's actually no traffic to fear.
So to explain....
Anything that makes you feel stressed will cause you to feel trapped making you want to fight or run but when you feel there's no escape, panic results causing feelings of "being ill" that frighten you making you Worry about your health and fainting etc. This then causes "fear of feeling fear" making you want to avoid situations that frighten you because of the anxious symptoms you're afraid of that result.
We then look to meds to cure us of our anxious symptoms which are being caused by stress that makes us worry which creates our fear.
Going back to the example above...
Stress = the sun going down making us feel rushed.
Worry = "what if" we can't make it across in time.
Fear = the traffic we have to face to get there.
Once the anxious feelings make us feel afraid as well....
More stress = not feeling able to move.
Worry = "what if" we faint halfway again.
Fear = "what if" we don't come round this time.
When you analyse the example though, there never was any traffic. The stress was caused because we felt rushed. The worry and fear it produced was all created by our lack of confidence.
So the next time you feel anxious or fear panicky feelings, remember your own thoughts are creating them due to stress. If you keep thinking "inwardly" on those thoughts and keep worrying about them, the more panicky and ill you'll feel. If though you can learn to think "outwardly" at what you have to do to get where you want to go, you'll probably still feel stressed and anxious but you'll find your actual anxious symptoms won't frighten you and they'll disappear just as the traffic in the example.:hugs: