Dealing with fear

M2 — Sun, 23 Jul 2017 03:19:16 GMT

Does anyone have any advice on battling debilitating fear?

I suffer from anxiety (general and social, with panic attacks when it gets particularly bad) and depression. Fear seems to be the source of all of this. If I could work out how to overcome it, I'm certain the rest (including depression) would follow.

Changing thought patterns is obviously hard, but what can be done to alleviate fear? I try challenging it by facing it but I find that introduces massive spikes of intense anxiety over a short time so I shy away. Pushing through it causes panic attacks.

I don't want to live like a recluse. I want to have and maintain friendships but I also want to live without feeling like I'm suffering heart attacks, followed by dark periods of self hatred. Life can surely be a more pleasant experience!

Any advice?

Dealing with fear

Croix — Sun, 23 Jul 2017 04:46:45 GMT

Dear M2~

I suspect at least some of the things you fear are not real physical threats, I say this because most of what I fear are small things - such as what people will think (maybe not an exact example for you, that's just me).

For me this means I can't look at the threat logically and 'talk myself out of fearing it' -because it is not logical in the first place.

Similarly trying to force through -i.e. face it - when feeling vulnerable and open to attacks just turns the whole thing into a mess. Circumstances may dictate I have to do whatever it is and then I just have to live with the result.

Taking small steps rather than forcing though, "l'll just stay for 5 minutes", gives something to work towards.

Maybe I'm lucky - in a back to front sort of way - in that in the past I have had to face some situations which were actually dangerous and scary - I reacted in a different way. So this helps me know to some extent it is me and not the situation - as does experience.

All the above is probably no help really.

All I can say is when my base-level anxiety is less the fear/panic occurs less often, so working on that though a stress-reduction lifestyle seems the best answer as does small steps and reasonably avoiding unnecessary trigger situations..

Croix

topic Dealing with fear in Anxiety

Dealing with fear

Dealing with fear