All your fears are the same.

[xUnknown]

Since the day my anxiety started, I developed fears I never had before. Now, I would always put those fears into certain groups and thought I had to get over them individually.
Recently, I figured something out. I never had a fear or thought of my parents dying, terrified of natural disasters, nuclear wars, terrorists, robbers, diseases, and many more fears I have, before I became anxious.

All those fears developed from the first day of my anxiety, and each time I thought I "got over" a fear, a new one would pop up. Basically my anxiety was always trying to find something to be anxious of, it got to the point where (I'm kind of embarrassed to admit this but oh well) I feared of choking on my own spit...like come on.

So what does this mean? It means that these fears are all symptoms of anxiety and not something that should be treated individually. They're all the same, because they all came from anxiety. Sure, there can be a coincidence where you developed a new fear from something else at the same time with your anxiety, but that's usually not the case.

What I'm trying to say is, don't seperate your fears into groups, and don't try to solve them all at once, because all your anxiety will do is look for new fears and it will get worse. If you get rid of anxiety, most of the time, you'll get rid of your fears.

Example if someone doesn't get what I mean:
*Person A asks: I have a fear of tornadoes, how do I get over that fear?*
*Person B tells them techniques and advice on how to not fear tornadoes.*
*Person A gets over the fear and is happy*
*Next week person A gets a new fear, and asks for advice again, and the cycle goes on.*

Not sure if I explained it well, just wanted to share something from my own experience.

[jones27]

Since the day my anxiety started, I developed fears I never had before. Now, I would always put those fears into certain groups and thought I had to get over them individually.
Recently, I figured something out. I never had a fear or thought of my parents dying, terrified of natural disasters, nuclear wars, terrorists, robbers, diseases, and many more fears I have, before I became anxious.

All those fears developed from the first day of my anxiety, and each time I thought I "got over" a fear, a new one would pop up. Basically my anxiety was always trying to find something to be anxious of, it got to the point where (I'm kind of embarrassed to admit this but oh well) I feared of choking on my own spit...like come on.

So what does this mean? It means that these fears are all symptoms of anxiety and not something that should be treated individually. They're all the same, because they all came from anxiety. Sure, there can be a coincidence where you developed a new fear from something else at the same time with your anxiety, but that's usually not the case.

What I'm trying to say is, don't seperate your fears into groups, and don't try to solve them all at once, because all your anxiety will do is look for new fears and it will get worse. If you get rid of anxiety, most of the time, you'll get rid of your fears.

Example if someone doesn't get what I mean:
*Person A asks: I have a fear of tornadoes, how do I get over that fear?*
*Person B tells them techniques and advice on how to not fear tornadoes.*
*Person A gets over the fear and is happy*
*Next week person A gets a new fear, and asks for advice again, and the cycle goes on.*

Not sure if I explained it well, just wanted to share something from my own experience.


I agree completely. Dont feel bad about your choking on spit though for awhile I would get fearful of overhearing conversation even mundane ones about sports or what people did on the weekends. I still get anxious when I overhear sometimes depending on my mood. I thought I was going crazy.

I have always had a major fear in my life though. It has changed.

When i was young it was getting cancer.

Between ages 16-27 it was getting drafted into the military and dying in war intermittly cancer fear would surface.

Once I got past the draft age it was back to cancer until my neverous breakdown at 29.

Since then its been my mental state and health

My worrying about my mental health has been the worst though. With the other worries I could distract myself and find peace of mind for weeks at a time, some times with a good video game or a tv show. With the mental health I am constantly evaluating my thoughts and emotions. Seems like I can't escape it for more than 3 or 4 days till its back. I also can't play video gamesI or watch tv shows without projecting my worries into the story or characters. Its weird.

I am hopeful that prozac will help me so that I can better practice my CBT techniques. Right now my mind races too fast and I am struggling with acceptance. I hope that I will soon be able to enjoy watching tv and movies and playing video games again. I look forward to firing up my xbox without a hesitant thought of "how is this going to make me feel?"

[Teafrenzy]

Well I have to take a different view.

I have PTSD. It happened when I was woken in the early morning (5 am). I got startled by a prowler at my window. I hyperventalated but eventually went back to sleep.

My anxiety manifested as an acute fear of the dark, especially being outside around the early evening between dusk and night. I was also worried constantly about burglars in my house. I also wake up with morning anxiety. So my anxiety mirrored the events of that day. I Have been working on fixing the problem by taking a walk every evening around dusk. I think it has helped me a lot. My overall anxiety levels have dropped.