If your reaction to your worries is usually anxious - if you often feel fear when you are not at all in danger - does that mean that there is something wrong with you? The short answer is no. It's part of our human nature. Sometimes we are scared, even though we know that nothing is in danger.

You know it's just a movie, yet you feel fear

Viewers of thrillers are aware that what they are watching "is only a movie". It does not matter, however. They are so afraid anyway. This ability to succumb to fear, despite the belief that there is no danger, is a hallmark of our species. If it were not, Stephen King would have been writing articles for women's magazines. Take this into account if you are used to blaming yourself and self-criticizing yourself because you feel anxious about exaggerated and unjustified fears.

If you watch an extremely scary horror movie and feel fear while doing it, you may keep telling yourself that "it's just a movie", but this rarely helps to push away the anxiety. If you are really afraid of something, and a good friend advises you to "stop worrying about it", the chances of it working are also slim. One of the reasons why these methods are rarely successful is because we don't directly control our thoughts. We can focus our attention on a specific problem that needs to be solved, such as a crossword puzzle or a math problem.

We cannot force our brain to produce only the thoughts we wish and stop subjecting it to unwanted thoughts. Nobody can do that.

Our problem with anxiety isn't just about not being in control of our thoughts. The trouble is, we often feel that we should control our own thoughts, without realizing that this belief is false. This leads us to an unnecessary struggle with our own thoughts that are counterproductive.

Why do I have such thoughts?

You may already understand what I mean when I write about horror movies and yet still blame yourself for giving in to fear and giving in to your fears. Some people report that they can understand the feeling of fear when watching horror movies, but they sometimes get scared not only from horror movies, and this makes them feelfault.

Although these people do not sit in a movie theater in the real outside world, in some ways they can be considered as viewers of a terrifying movie. The projection takes place "in their heads", in the inner world - the space that is the field of the imagination of each of us. It is a private show, always open to one audience. It is a solo performance, a monologue full of "dreams" about unlikely catastrophes. Why is this spectacle playing out in your head? To understand this, you should consider the anxiety function.

Important

Why do we need fear?

What do you think: what is fear for? Where does this tendency to give in to fears come from?

You are right when you think it has to do with being vigilant in the event of an emergency. It is about identifying potential problems and threats before they develop into a serious crisis, so that we can work out solutions that will ensure our safe existence. It is a valuable ability. We need her. We have brains, thanks to which we are able to imagine different versions of the development of the situation and plan our reactions to a greater extent than other species. This is why an ancient hunter devised a method of trapping giant mammoths in pits to make them food for the entire tribe. Thanks to this ability, man became the main predator of the Earth, despite the fact that there were no shortage of larger, stronger and faster animals equipped with more powerful teeth and claws.

Wrong predictions

This ability to visualize the future course of events is not perfect. It can not be. We don't know the future until it arrives, and our ideas about things to come may turn out to be wrong. There are only two types of such errors.

The first type of error is "false presence". We are convinced that there is something when it is not there. If a caveman huddles in his cave all day, trembling with fear because he thinks he hears a saber-toothed tiger lurking nearby, but is actually hearing the sounds of several rabbits that he could devote to a meal for the entire tribe, we are talking about false presence. The caveman will not be devoured by a false presence, but may be prevented by it from going outside and getting the food he needs or discovering that he plans to attack a neighboring tribe. The second type of error is called "false absence". We deal with it when we are wrong when we believe that something is not there. If the caveman leaves his cave, he is convinced that he will not meet any tiger in the areathe saber-toothed species, while one specimen of this predatory species quietly and patiently lurks for it hidden among the rocks, we are dealing with a false absence. A caveman can be devoured by a false absence.

No mind is infallible, so you will not avoid making some mistakes. Which kind of mistake would you be willing to make? Would you rather mistakenly think that a tiger is waiting for you, or believe that there is no tiger, when in fact a predator would be hiding? The human brain tends to prefer the first type of error to the second type of error, resulting in chronic anxiety. This means that you will most likely never be surprised by a saber-toothed tiger, but you will spend a lot of time huddled in the dark, and while you are in hiding, daredevils from other tribes will steal your crops and eat your roasted rabbit.

Perhaps it was the condition of the first kind of error inherent in the human brain that helped our species to survive.

Man learns from his mistakes

This tendency, like any other trait, for example height, was shared unevenly by humanity. Some exhibit this trait to a large extent, others minimally. It is good for the tribe to have both types of people in its composition: aggressive warriors are equally valuable, fearless enough to allow them to come out of the cave and provide their tribesmen with mastodon meat for dinner, as their cautious tribesmen who will not take part in the hunt, but will live long enough. to raise the next generation to feed the corn they have grown.

It is therefore possible, at least in the scale of the entire species, to state the positive effects of fear. This is why we often become anxious. Some of us have had it genetic inheritance to a greater extent than others. If you are struggling with chronic anxiety, there is a high probability that your ancestors had similar concerns.

You may be wondering if this is a learned problem. You ask yourself if you have imposed on yourself the role of an eternally worrying hysterical. And of course you assume that you are to blame for it all.

Is it all your fault?

No. If you think that at birth each of us is a blank slate and that we develop our entire personality with all our qualities in the learning process, you are wrong. When you visit the neonatal unit at a nearby hospital and look at all the newborn babies who are visited by proud relatives there, you will see that each infant reacts differently tolight and noise. Some look directly at the direction from which the buzz and light emanate, giving the impression of being curious. Others cry and seem to suffer. There are also those that show no interest at all. These children are just born into the world, yet they undoubtedly have different understanding of the threat and interpret it in different ways.

If you are experiencing excessive chronic anxiety as an adult, it is very likely that this tendency had manifested itself in your life before you even considered it a problem. You might as well stop pondering over whether you showed any tendencies to worry excessively in childhood and adolescence, and discuss what your parents and older siblings had to say about it. It is common for a person to exhibit this tendency for a long time before even realizing it.

Accustomed to mind-engaging work, we often equate our thoughts with reality.

The human brain was not developed so that we could balance bank accounts, do quantum physics or enjoy novels. It evolved to enable our species to survive, which necessitated the ability to avoid dangers and the ability to solve problems. A brain that was more sensitive to threats - even if it saw ten times as many tigers as there were - provided an advantage, and a human with it was more likely to survive and reproduce.

Our human brain has retained this essential function to this day - avoiding dangers and solving problems. However, the environment in which man lives has completely changed. We no longer have to deal with predatory tigers, rock avalanches and swamps as much as our cave ancestors. Nevertheless, the brain still makes us watch out for dangerous situations - even the improbable, purely hypothetical - and look for ways to avoid them.

Source:Reprinted courtesy of New Harbinger Publications, Inc. (www.newharbinger.com)

The Worry Trick: How Your Brain Tricks You into Expecting the Worst and What You Can Do About It, David A. Carbonell

Worth knowing

The text comes from the book "In the Trap of Anxiety. How to Outsmart Your Brain and Stop Worrying" by David A. Carbonell (Jagiellonian University Press).The author is a clinical psychologist specializing in to treat anxiety disorders. Works in Chicago. He also wrote the book "Panic Attacs Workbook".

In the publication "Trapped Anxiety" accessible andIt explains interestingly why old clichéd anti-anxiety strategies do not work and why our strenuous efforts to get rid of anxiety usually fail. The author refers to methods taken from two main trends in the treatment of anxiety disorders - cognitive-behavioral therapy and acceptance and commitment therapy.

Category:

Psychology