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Fear the Fear was my little comment in the weekends-engagement topic.

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I'm joining in. Fear is my fear, even though fear per se is a very healthy thing cause it prevents us from harm. Biologically.
But modern fears is what we need to fear cause they often are not justified and more psychological. They hinder us to improve, to take a risk which doesn't cost a live, to move forward.
They are implemented by others so you stay calm, don't speak up or demand a change.
Fear the fear and then conquer it, the world might change for a better

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I've been thinking about it overnight and I need to deepen the topic a little bit.

I am not content anymore with my conclusion of "Fear the fear" as it is not our enemy, but rather a companion we need to acknowledge.

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As I said, Fear per se is a healthy thing we need to survive. Also it does make a difference if fear occurs once in a while or if it becomes a daily companion.

We are loaded with informations these days and to see what is happening in the world can give us the feeling that everything is a danger.

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While someone is actually in danger in a war zone or a natural disaster, another one sitting in front of the TV may not be. Yet this person might start to show symptoms of fear, as the body is reacting to our thoughts.

Anxiety is building up and can lead to a Generalized Anxiety Disorder - GAD (WHO: ICD-10: F41.1)(WHO: ICD-10: F41.3).

To be honest, I was on my way to develop a disorder like that, it often happens with sensitive personalities and it is a creeping process.

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The main risk factors of developing a GAD

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Innate factors	Environmental influences	Unsettling experiences	Others	Personal
A reserved, sensitive and rather cautious temperament	A discouraging parenting style. An overprotective-controlling style can be daunting, but also intimidation or neglect	When developmental steps in childhood resulted in painful experiences	Experiencing other anxiety disorders that over time expand into a generalized disorder	Your own tendency to attach great importance to security in life everywhere

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In most anxiety disorders, the symptoms are triggered by specific stimuli. Those could be fear of heights, social phobia, dog phobia, everything people get scared of.

It is a little different with a generalized anxiety disorder.

While a phobia and the generalized anxiety disorder have uncertainty as a common denominator, it is the phobia of uncertainty in general that makes a GAD.

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Here the fears do not depend on special situations which a person is afraid of. It is more like one is afraid of everything that could be dangerous at all.

So the core symptom of a GAD is the constant pondering of what could be dangerous or go wrong.

And that is when the suffering begins. Because a generalized fear is not healthy anymore.

The one suffering from GAD worries constantly about his own well being or that of his relatives. What if one of them gets sick or has an accident?

But not only that.

What if a volcano breaks out? What if the water shortage or environmental pollution takes over? What if I fail at the new job or don't find one? Will we starve if there is a drought in Africa?

You see, a lot starts with the thought WHAT IF...?

While abstract thinking is a main feature of us humans, it can make us sick.

Simulating a possible danger in our heads in order to prevent us from harm is not sickening itself.

It is the constant try to prevent everything that could be a danger and the overthinking.

Anyone who considers even improbable dangers in advance runs the risk of only dealing with dangers the entire time.

(Being in the security business myself, considering dangers is our job, but if you stop distinguishing the necessary job specifics from your personal life you find yourself in this cycle.)

The most fatal thing is, that the intellectual preoccupation with threatening content leads to emotional reactions.

For example if you watch a horror movie.

Although it is clear that you see nothing but illusions, you can feel the horror and we start to react like we are the victims. We get nervous, our heart beat goes up and we have the lingering feeling of threat within our safe space.

Suddenly we start thinking what if someone attacks me, let's check if our doors are locked. And you get up and check the doors.

You start dealing with dangers that probably never have to concern you, but which are worrying you when you look at them.

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This closes the cycle of generalized fear development. Dealing with danger prevention leads to a feeling of insecurity, which seems to call for precautionary defense against every supposed danger.

In the search for more security, the generally anxious person keeps an eye on all conceivable dangers, which gives him a feeling of insecurity.

Or rather,

The more security I want, the more anxiety I develop because looking at all that can be dangerous or go wrong makes even the tiniest thing a possible threat.

It is a vicious cycle.

The fearful is primarily concerned with dangers that may lurk in the future. He turns his attention to a hypothetical future, a nightmare created by himself.

But reality takes place in the here and now, and that is the only point in time at which one can assess whether reality is dangerous or not.

The little that a person suffering from GAD is noticing from reality is often soaked with symptoms of fear.

Floating fears
Nervousness
Muscle tension
Tremor
Tendency to sweat
Palpitations
Dizziness
Upper abdominal discomfort

These symptoms often lead to What ifs - What if this is a heart attack? - and hinders one from seeing the truth.

The overthinking starts again.

In order to prevent yourself from becoming a person with GAD you have to get the focus back to reality.

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A key element in reducing fears is therefore the realignment of attention to what is actually perceptible.

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• As soon as you find yourself preoccupied with future dangers, persistently return to what you now actually see of reality. Count the trees, your plates at home, tell yourself what colors you are noticing, everything that brings the focus to the here and now.

• Practice focusing your mindfulness on the here-and-now. Do what you really need to do now. Don't worry about dishes, they don't run away. The car can be cleaned tomorrow, nobody is dying of it.

• Also perceive seemingly insignificant things. Assume that there is always something new to discover even in it. It is better to watch a snail crawl along the way than to mentally design a horror scenario of doomsday.

• Don't look for anything special in the present. Notice the everyday that surrounds you. The sun that is shining, a little bird tweeting, the nice Sofa you are sitting on.

• Don't take what you think so seriously. Thoughts are often just ghosts with no real substance. Ask yourself if it makes sense to have scary thoughts in that moment.

• And most important, allow yourself to be a fearful person. Fear acceptance is also self acceptance.

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Self acceptance is an important step and brings me back to my comment that I wanted to reconsider. By fearing the fear we are kind of denying ourselves.

By thinking that fear is a weakness we become insecure. We can tackle our perception of fear, but not fear itself, because it is in all of us.

There is no need to be fearless, there is only the need to evaluate if fear is necessary or not.

It is ok to be fearful sometimes. It is not ok if fear is ruling us and if we become unaware of ourselves because of it.

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If you suffer from generalized anxiety disorder seek help, it is the bravest thing you can do for yourself and something to be really proud of.

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©bulldog-joy

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