Distorted reality.

[DamienW71]

Anxiety is constantly with me. I'm a gentle suburban dad & husband with an amazing, supportive wife & two beautiful kids. I have very secure employment locally and lots of good friends & family. About two and a half years ago we went through a big financial crisis & we nearly lost our house. This seems to have had a big impact on my emotional state ever since. We managed to get through the crisis & are now in a good financial state.  I know view daily life and the world I see around me with trepidation. I have many anxious, sometimes depressive thoughts. I fear confrontation in day to day life, even just going to the shops. Much of what I see, read or hear on the news contributes largely to my current state of mind.   I see a counterculture of US gang-styled bravado amongst much of the youth in the area I live and the suburb in which I'm raising my kids, and that has a big impact on me. 

I'm told that what I have is a distorted sense of reality.  

Can anyone relate to this? Would love to hear from people with similar thoughts as mine.

[Chris_B]

Hi Damien,

Welcome to the forums.  Glad to hear you and your family came through your financial crisis, the stress must have been incredible with the threat of losing your home.

I know what you are talking about, anxiety can magnify things out of all proportion.  There's even a psychological term for it called "catastrophising" - we take elements of the world around us, everyday situations, conversations, and construct a story in our heads of the worst possible scenario to involve those things.

It would be a good idea to see a psychologist or counsellor to help work through these feelings long term and kick your brain out of the constant 'fight or flight' mode that it's stuck in.  Your GP can get you a referral for 10 subsidised sessions.

In the short term, avoiding things that you know to be triggers would be a sensible idea - the news, for example.  Perhaps limit your exposure to it, and remind yourself that the media largely deals in bad news, which can distort reality for all of us unless we keep it in perspective.

best
CB

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