subject: How To Fight Panic Attacks And Phobias By Challenging Your Mind [print this page] With panic attacks and phobias, the mind is mistaken. There generally is no real danger. However, our minds often have trouble distinguishing between what is real and what is not.
For those who have been predisposed biologically to anxiety (meaning: born wired for anxiety) it can be even more challenging at times to interpret what is a real threat and what is not.
A great example of the above is a recent incident in Italy where teenagers who viewed a recent horror movie began struggling with panic attacks and anxiety symptoms. Was this struggle based on cultural beliefs related to the movie's themes? Was the reaction part of the collective group-think? Or was it simply due to not being "desensitized" to America's horror films?
We may never truly know. But the most important reality to be gleaned from this incident is that fear and anxiety are mind-generated.
Isn't it interesting that when watching a scary movie our minds and then bodies can react as if we're in danger - when we're not in any danger at all! We are sitting in a comfortable chair, in a nice theater, maybe with a friend or someone we're close to, while possibly eating a tasty snack and reacting as if
under attack!
Doesn't this suggest that our minds often struggle with knowing the difference between when we are truly in danger and when we're not?
For those with panic attacks, phobias, OCD and social anxiety, I've got a question for you. When you are anxious, how often are you truly in terrible danger?
Anxiety is a trickster and is often based on longstanding and conditioned false beliefs. A big part of anxiety treatment is focused on helping anxiety sufferers modify their false beliefs. This can take work, but when you change the way you think, you change the way you behave (A major tenet of CBT - Cognitive Behavioral Therapy). If you change the way you think regarding what makes you anxious, you can finally respond with more calm when facing that fear. You can also behave with more courage than ever before!
To challenge the anxiety trickster, here are a few key questions to ask yourself when anxious:
1.) Am I really in any true danger?
2.) If what I fear occurs, will this be the end?
3.) If what I fear does happen, will the result be what my mind tells me it will?
Don't let anxiety continue to rule your mind and trick you!
