The feeling of anxiety is familiar to each of us, not by hearsay. But where is the shaky border between a normal reaction to the potential danger caused by the instinct of self-preservation, and the torment of oneself and others around fictitious occasions? Excitement, anxiety, fear and phobias are the topic of conversation for today.
Often anxiety is an emotional reaction to a difficult situation. In this case, it is quite natural and normal. The fact is that a sense of fear, as well as the manifestation of any emotions, is an indispensable component of survival. It was nature itself, it was perfected by evolution. After all, if there was no anxiety and fear, then the body could not quickly prepare and react to the threat that arose suddenly. In the event that we do not have time to weigh everything and ponder, when there is no time for long reasoning and analysis, the work of the instinct of self-preservation is included. It helps our body to act on a clear-cut algorithm, adjusted for thousands of years, where everything is written out for the body, how and what to do, and this program works reflexively ("if you can win, or run, if the opponent is stronger").
Fears that we cultivate ourselves
However, it happens, our anxiety far exceeds the situation, in connection with which it arose. Then this condition can significantly hinder us and dramatically worsen the quality of our lives. In this case, we are already talking not about anxiety, but about fear. Fear is a more concrete and objective emotion than anxiety, which is of a general nature. Anxiety can be compared with a team of preliminary alert, leading the body into a state of mobilization. Such mobilization will be accompanied by an increase in muscle tone, increased work of internal organs and systems responsible for the active authorization of body protection (heart, blood vessels, lungs, brain, etc.). Fear, on the other hand, can be compared to the signal "Attention! We are attacked! Save yourself, who can ... ". Sometimes fear has a paralyzing effect on the body, mind and will of man. What is most sad is that in such cases we ourselves are both "boas" and trembling with terror "rabbits".
Meanwhile, fear, inadequate to external circumstances, is, in fact, a bad habit, triggered and supported by a thought program comparable to programs running on a computer. Rather, it is a kind of "computer virus", thrown into the head by "well-wishers", or "sown" there by its own oversight. Man is born without fear. A small child is not afraid to touch the fire or snakes, stumble, fall, etc. Similar fears appear later, with the experience gained. So we look, instead of living, enjoying life, "where to lay straws" and "how could you not have gone." From new acquaintances we wait for a dirty trick, from friends - treachery, from loved ones - treason, from the chief - reprimand and dismissal, in the ice - an inevitable fall. This, by the way, can provoke a real fall, as the muscles paralyzed by fear are swayed and poorly obeyed, and the brain is obligingly striving to implement a negative program. If you set out to find something or some kind of flaw, due to which you need something or someone to fear, be sure: you will find this fly in the ointment in the ointment.
A Million Tricks
When panic, anxiety and fear become too strong and regular, they are called phobias. Phobia (from the Greek phobos - fear) is a persistent and unreasonable fear of individual objects, actions or situations. People with a phobia tend to fear even from one thought about a situation or thing that frightens them. Usually they feel quite comfortable in a situation where they manage to avoid this factor and thoughts about it. However, most of these people are well aware that their fear is unjustified and excessive.
Do not think that fears are subject only to "psychos." Each of us has some areas, situations or objects that cause a special thrill and excitement. This is normal, when some things upset us more than others, it is even possible that different frightening factors will arise in different stages of our life. Than such frequent fears differ from phobias? What, for example, is the difference between the natural fear of snakes from phobia? The international classification of diseases indicates that the phobia is stronger and persistent, and the desire to avoid an object or situation with it is greater. Individuals with phobias are exposed to such tension that they can not fight it - panic, anxiety, fear seize them. This can adversely affect the personal social or professional life of these people. For example, the fear of flying on an airplane or moving in a subway can make life much more difficult. In addition, the realization that you are in some way "flawed", "not like everyone else," also does not have the best effect on the outlook of a person suffering from a phobia, increasing his torments.
In psychotherapy, a whole group of so-called anxiety-phobic disorders is singled out - when anxiety is caused exclusively or predominantly by certain situations or objects that are not dangerous at the time. As a result, these situations are usually avoided or carried with a sense of fear that can vary in intensity from mild discomfort to horror. Human anxiety can concentrate on individual sensations, expressed in the heartbeat or a feeling of faintness, and is often combined with the fear of death, the possibility of losing self control or going insane. And the anxiety does not decrease from the understanding that other people this situation does not seem so dangerous or threatening. Only one idea of the phobic situation often already causes anxiety in anticipation.
While phobias significantly reduce the quality of life, they are widespread in our society. According to recent studies, more than ten percent of the population of most countries in the world suffer phobias at the moment and up to a quarter of the population have suffered a more or less phobic disorder in their lives. Statistics show that women have more than twice as many phobias as men.
Favorite fears
In the modern international classification of diseases it is customary to subdivide phobias into several categories: agoraphobia, social phobias, specific phobias, panic disorder, generalized anxiety disorder, etc.
Agoraphobia - if translated from Greek verbatim, would mean "fear of the market square." Such problems were actually encountered and described in Ancient Greece and Ancient Egypt. Today the term "agoraphobia" is used in a broader sense: now it includes fear of not only open spaces, but also situations close to them, such as getting into the crowd and being unable to return to a safe place (usually home). Thus, now the term includes a whole set of interrelated phobias: fear of leaving the house, entering the shops, crowding, in public places or traveling in trains, buses or planes.
Why do people who feel constant excitement, anxiety, fear and phobia, are afraid to leave their home without accompanying people, use public transport and appear in crowded public places? Usually they are afraid of the appearance in their situation of some disturbing symptoms (which in such people are associated with a threat to health or life), such as dizziness and a feeling of a precarious state, rapid heartbeat, difficulty breathing, a sense of inner trembling. Fears are amplified by thoughts that they will not be able to cope with such feelings and emerging state or will not be able to get professional help on time.
In a particularly severe current of excitement, anxiety, fear and phobias, people actually become hostages of fear in their own homes. They can not stay at work, they lose friends and relatives. Patients with agoraphobia often experience depression, developing due to the hard and painful restrictions imposed by fears on their existence.
What is a panic attack?
Many people suffering from agoraphobia, as well as other phobias, experience strong and sudden outbreaks of fear, or rather horror, called panic attacks. As a rule, panic attacks are observed 1-2 times a week, although cases when it happens several times a day or, conversely, only once a year are not uncommon. People who have ever suffered this extremely difficult condition often seek medical help, believing that they have had a heart attack or stroke. In this case, after making sure that the patient does not have a somatic pathology, the doctor sends him home, just recommending a rest, a sleep, a sedative, but this is not enough to get rid of fear. Moreover, there is a high probability that a panic attack will happen again soon.
After experiencing once the stress associated with a panic attack, a person in the future often tries to avoid it, and his agoraphobia will only increase. Absorption in order to suddenly "not die" or "not disgrace" leads to the fact that the mind and behavior are completely subject to this ailment. A person goes deeper into the state of anxiety and the phobia even begins to dictate a way of life, for example, forcing a person to sit at home for fear of a new attack.
The desire to avoid situations in which panic can overcome can force a person to lead such a life, as if these attacks occur every day and every hour. The obsessive fear of a seizure is known as fear of waiting. Overcoming this fear is one of the key moments of recovery from panic neurosis and agoraphobia. To get rid of panic attacks, no matter how frightening they are, the awareness of the fact that they are not at all a sign of a life-threatening health disorder, nor a harbinger of mental illness, is very helpful. A panic attack, with all his heartbeats and other things, is just an increased reaction to mental or physical overloads, and no one is immune from this. And although during a panic attack the emerged condition is extremely unpleasant and subjectively difficult for a person, in itself, he does not present any real danger to health. Attack panic attack, accompanied by excitement, anxiety, fear and phobia, does not lead to complications, loss of control over oneself or insanity.