How to stop being afraid of something that may never happen? Psychologist’s instruction

How to stop being afraid of something that may never happen? Instruction from a psychologist

Why do people think about possible accidents or natural disasters when they are not threatened by them personally and right now?

An information field has formed around us, which regularly becomes the source of a huge number of fears, and there is nothing we can do about them – neither to defeat nor to escape. It turns out that there are external stimuli for stress and anxiety, and we are unable to cope with them with the help of some active actions.

Personal and family psychologist, educator

“Fear is an important component of our ancient defense mechanism. At first glance, everything is simple: if you notice danger, you get scared, run away or fight. But, alas, today the natural defense system often fails”.

Where do fears come from?

Such fears are often based on events that have a low probability of occurrence. These may be natural disasters, accidents or fires. Against the background of some old memories, after watching movies or reading the news, more and more people begin to fear them even when there is no objective threat. Therefore, the seemingly quite natural fear of fire or physical attack takes hypertrophied forms. People begin to feel anxious, they have sleep disorders, heart palpitations increase.

Sometimes this fear becomes obsessive and seriously impairs the quality of life: a person returns home several times to check electrical appliances, panics at the sight of an ambulance, constantly monitors news reports.

Why does this happen? First of all, the fear of an accident or natural disaster is not rationalized. This means that it is based on the feeling of “I am helpless”, “I can’t do anything”, “I won’t talk about it, in case it comes true”. To fight such fear, we need to talk it through, as well as prepare a clear plan of action in case of an emergency. That is, in order to overcome fear, we, as in the case of real danger, must enter into a “fight” with it. Only it will be of a slightly different nature.

How to fight unreasonable fears?

1. answer yourself the questions: “Why am I afraid of this?”, “What is the probability of such an event?”, “What is the worst that can happen if it happens?”. Fear is an emotion. It defies logic, and this mini-analysis will allow you to translate it into rationality and see how exaggerated it is after all.

2. Gather more information related to your fear. For example, look at statistics, study the causes and geography of certain natural disasters. Think through your plan of action in case a disaster does occur.

3. If the wave of anxiety does hit, use good old-fashioned breathing practices. Which ones? For example, the technique of “square breathing”. In it, we do four counts of inhalation, then delay also for four counts. Then follows the exhalation and delay after it, which should also fit into four counts. This breathing will help to shift attention from fear and not to hit panic.

And most importantly, try to minimize your time reading news channels as much as possible. It is better to walk more often, do sports, visit exhibitions and concerts, socialize with people you are interested in, and then fears will have much less chance to overpower you.