August 27th 2010
Reasonable And Unreasonable Fear
Anxious thoughts often lead to more serious panic attack symptoms. These psychical symptoms feed back to the mind , causing another round of anxiety attacks worse than the last . This vicious cycle repeats over and over .
Panic is defined as “a sudden fear which dominates or replaces thinking”.There is such a thing as reasonable panic, which is a panic caused by tangible reason. This is a natural instinct of every person on earth, and is not anywhere near panic attack disorder.
Perhaps you are hiking through the forest on a nice warm spring day, and hear something behind you, it’s a huge bear running full speed, you panic, try to run away, climb a tree, dive into a lake, scream, you get the picture . I would call this panic based on reason, even if it is not the smartest thing to do , it does seem reasonable.
Another example might be that unexpected phone call at midnight , awakened from a deep sleep , you feel like you can’t breathe , your heart is pounding out of your chest, knowing that voice on the other end is there to relate to you devastating news. This might not be as much of a reason to panic as the bear but those dreaded midnight telephone calls are possible .
A panic attack could be defined as “a sudden ‘unreasonable’ fear which dominates or replaces thinking”. If you are at a fancy restaurant, enjoying a wonderful meal and suddenly the thought comes to mind that something is not right with the food. The place is full , as always with everyone else seeming to be OK , except yourself .
The symptoms come on , sweating, cold chills, trembling. Now all you can imagine is that you are not going to panic, because there’s no reason. But the panic is already there and all you can feel right now . The more you try not to panic, the more you panic.
There could be physical or chemical causes for some of this, who knows ? Our brains function in very mysterious ways. How many times have you heard , “It’s all in your head”? Well, it may be, except just knowing it doesn’t stop it. Don’t forget , it’s named “unreasonable” fear; you cannot simply talk yourself out of it. Just know there is an answer , and give yourself an opportunity to seek it.
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