The horrors of your mind: how to cope with irrational inner fear

Everyone fears something, but these fears vary greatly depending on age, experience, and emotional state. Sometimes, our fears are based on the instinct of self-preservation. For example, many people are afraid of heights or fast driving. Both can indeed be deadly. However, other irrational fears seem to come out of nowhere, get fixed in the mind, and burst out at the most unexpected moment.

What people are afraid of

If you think about works of art, be it movies, games, or books, you can easily name a dozen frightening characters. Some fear alien monsters like the Alien or the monster from “Something.” Other people are more impressed by serial killers: Freddy Krueger, Jason Voorhees, or Pogo the Clown. The fear of such images is fleeting; it passes almost immediately after the film’s end. Real, realistic, though unlikely scenarios are quite another matter.

Things that can happen in everyday life. Unqualified surgeons exist. We don’t think about these people until it’s time to go under the knife. Visit. A F R I N I K . C O M For the full article .That’s when anxiety arises, which can turn into primal fear. Some are afraid of long flights on airplanes or the oppressive atmosphere in the subway. Finally, motorists are more afraid of traffic police officers than any fictional monsters.

Of course, there are also more generalized fears characteristic of an individual society or group. Residents of coastal cities are afraid of floods, and citizens of a country with an unstable political system are most concerned about possible unrest, high inflation, and the likelihood of a civil war. Fictional monsters are more likely to entertain — a movie about real fears would be boring.

Where do irrational fears come from?

The most eloquent horror story unfolds not on TV screens or book pages but in a person’s head. Your imagination is the best and most eloquent storyteller, creating scenarios of personal hell. This is the reason for discussing the likelihood of getting into a terrible accident on the way to work. In his spare time, he casually asks if you have cancer. Do your friends appreciate you or secretly despise you?

Suddenly, you only know a few things. All of the above is possible. Moreover, the world’s end may come tomorrow, but what is the probability? What are the prerequisites? This question is omitted. The voice of inner fears is almost always louder because the mind is one hundred percent aware of your weaknesses, areas of insecurity, and anxiety.

These dots are used as reminders of the worst days of life that didn’t happen. Meanwhile, the mind does not enjoy your torment; on the contrary, it becomes a faithful companion. His primary goal is not to intimidate but rather to inform. This is how an attempt is made to anticipate and forestall possible disasters. This mechanism once helped our ancestors to survive. Caution, with the gradual accumulation of experience, created a civilization.

The tendency to weigh decisions and consider actions slow down movement but allows you to move further. However, healthy fears often turn into real paranoia. There is a self-reinforcing mechanism where irrational but still fear requires an appropriate reaction and, at the same time, is proof that you really should be afraid.

How to deal with irrational fears

Although the mind has good intentions, trying to protect you from any, even the most improbable scenarios, it becomes an obstacle to a full life in practice. Fear encourages the abandonment of planned plans, isolates them from society, and shackles them to a level where all activity is reduced to maintaining biological functions. Everything else is perceived as optional rather than even harmful. In this state, life turns into existence. To escape from personal hell, it is necessary to establish a rational dialogue with the mind.

5 ways to deal with irrational fears

Attention

To effectively combat internal fears, you need to pay attention to trends. They appear only in stages. Feelings and thoughts grow on a particular soil. Gradually, the roots penetrate deeper and deeper, reaching consciousness. It is important to notice the stages of the development of fears: when they turn from an annoying thought into something all-consuming.

Pause

Usually, irrational fear arises suddenly when thoughts wander in free flight. Therefore, an unprepared person quickly succumbs to pressure and is even more afraid. At such moments, you need to switch off and take a break. Most likely, you have something to think about to reduce anxiety. There are some pending cases and unfulfilled obligations. Come back to these reflections on your own in a calm environment.

Openness

Denial is a bad way out, more like an escape. Acknowledge the existence of fears and consider them carefully. Disturbing thoughts and feelings only seem simple at first glance. Most likely, they consist of many details. These may be old memories, not personal, but a visual experience, an emotional article. The importance of this stage is to intercept the initiative. The fears have not disappeared, but they are no longer particularly frightening, turning into a subject of study.

Ironically

Try to compress a frightening scenario into a simple sentence of a few words. For example: “I’m going to die old and lonely.” After that, change the tone — let the inner voice repeat it, but wildly caricatured. You can choose the voice of your favorite comedian or a character from a parody movie about villains. The essence of the mechanism is simple: when it’s funny, it’s not scary.

Act

Some fears disappear after the requests are satisfied. Go to the doctor, call your relatives more often, and follow the traffic rules. Minimize the number of situations that arouse feelings of irrational fear. Statistics and counterarguments can defeat other horrors. The surgeon in the hospital is least interested in the patient’s death because he will be criminally responsible. Planes crash, but rarely, and the subway is one of the safest places in the city.