Anxiety, Fear, Panic
Anxiety as a Two-Component Adhesive
Anxiety as a Physical Reaction | When we enter a situation that our brain perceives as an acute danger, physical processes occur that are meant to ensure our biological survival: we become very alert, our heart rate increases, muscle tension rises, and our perception magnifies every little detail in that moment so that we don’t miss any clues to how survive this and can react quickly and correctly. Without the feeling of being threatened, it’s actually a state full of presence and vitality that some people enjoy in risky sports.
The Feeling of Being Threatened | Unfortunately, the physical reaction just described can also evoke a feeling of being threatened when there is not any real danger. This happens because we link physical states to emotions and vice versa. Some of this is instinctive, some of it conditioned. The feeling of being threatened can also originate from a completely different time and situation (e.g., trauma) and yet still trigger racing heartbeat, tensions, and great anxiety within us right now.
Now, if the physical reaction described above connects with the feeling of being threatened, this can create a loop that can escalate into wild, uncontrolled anxiety ot panic attacks. At some point, we then become afraid of these panic attacks that paralyze us, and try to evade certain situations. Thus the fear of anxiety or panic attacks can make us withdraw from more and more life situations and draw ever-tighter circles around us.
We can come to feel so much at the mercy of this loop that we become depressed. Such depression is, in a way, a protective mechanism against the anxiety and, as such, can only be successfully “treated” if the underlying fears are recognized and understood. This starts with talking about them in a carefully attuned way.
Dealing with anxieties and panic attacks requires a great deal of empathy for the enormous stress they create in our nervous system. Of course, we also need to learn how we got into this spiral of feelings in order to understand and avoid it. In doing so, we additionally learn how to regulate ourselves back out of the spiral – very actively, with specific strategies that help us to calm down and soothe our nerveous system.
In the case of panic attacks and states of anxiety that seemingly appear out of nowhere, there may be strong emotional burdens or traumas underlying them that need to be acknowledged, appreciated, grieved, and processed. The terror stored in the body can remain hidden for years and decades and then eventually flare up in anxiety states and panic attacks.
However, if we grow up in a diffuse, underlying feeling of being threatened, it can remain almost unnoticed, unconscious. It becomes so much a background feeling of our personal existence that we can only sense it in contrast to people from other countries and cultures. Then we suddenly see how we constantly go through life with our heads almost drawn in. This often happens when our parents were traumatized by wars and other catastrophes and have not processed these traumas.
The feeling of being threatened can also originate from angry, violent parents, teachers, relatives, and others. It can stem from earliest childhood or develop later. There are many reasons why we experience anxiety. And many of these reasons (for example, a political situation) are also beyond our control. But even in an insecure and dangerous external situation, we can be guided by alertness, clarity, wisdom, and compassion. Anxiety does not avert distress. It does not help us to survive or to better manage our daily lives. Fear of unemployment, for example, does not help us to improve our qualifications, have a confident demeanor, and keep our job. It gets in the way of searching for better alternatives because it makes us insecure and drains our energy.
For self-determined adults, most forms of anxiety* have no positive function, not even in crisis situations. We need awareness, alertness, and healthy, heartfelt common sense. Anxiety is the result of a kind of self-hypnosis with an extremely blocking effect.
Don’t be afraid, be alert. Don’t withdraw, do the healthy thing. Don’t be a victim to your automatic behaviours or impulses. You can do that!
*However, fear of a puma on your Himalayan hiking trail has a very vital function. That is the only fear you should never ignore.