Fear causes and struggle with it. How to deal with fears are good ways. Face to face

In order to answer the question of how to cope with anxiety and fear, it is important to understand that these are two separate experiences. We often use these words without understanding the difference between them. So, let's take a look at psychologist Alina Gulanyan.

In simple terms anxiety- this is a state when we do not know what exactly we are afraid of and do not understand why this state arose. At the same time, the real danger has not yet come, but it feels like something can happen. Anxiety is of an indefinite abstract nature, that is, a person does not have a clear concrete understanding of what should happen.

Fear It is a response to threatening circumstances. It occurs during the onset of danger, has a certain character. Fear has a specific subject - we know what or who scares us. The source of fear, most often, is a traumatic experience of the past.

What is fear and how to deal with it?

To make uncomfortable experiences disappear, sometimes quite a bit is enough. If we are worried, for example, about our health, in order to get rid of tension, you just need to go to the doctor. Do not waste time reading the signs of a particular disease on the Internet. This can plunge you deeper into a state of uncertainty, thereby increasing anxiety. Tip: make the unknown clear, understandable, and then your tension will subside. If you are tormented by any question or misunderstanding in a relationship, talk to the person and you will feel better. Sometimes a lack of information or ignorance creates unnecessary tension, and vice versa, greater awareness calms.

You should not resist the struggle with anxiety or fear - they need to be explored in order to form a new life experience.

It's important to understand what happens in life and how do we react? Are these feelings appropriate for the situation? What is behind them? Perhaps shame or guilt? Anger and irritation? Try to figure out what need is not being met and what do you really want?

How to overcome anxiety on your own?

There are situations of anxiety in which we are able to help ourselves, where the experiences are not very deep and are not all-consuming. To do this, it is important to stop and try to answer yourself the questions:

1. What is happening to me?

2. What exactly am I afraid of?

3. Does fear have a real basis?

4. What is the worst thing that can happen? If this happens, what will happen to me?

5. Who can I talk to about this?

6. What other experiences am I experiencing at this moment?

7. What do I want?

It is necessary to distinguish between situational anxiety, as an emotional state that passes after a difficult situation, and a personality trait, that is, prone to anxiety quite often and intensely, perhaps even for no reason.

Feelings of Fear and Anxiety: When Should You See a Doctor?

If your anxiety- this is not a situational experience that occurs from time to time, but a condition that is present almost all the time and is aggravated by panic attacks, disrupts the quality of life - in this case, it is important to contact a specialist psychologist or psychotherapist. A person will not be able to work independently with personality traits or personality disorders.

Conclusion: it's important not just to try get rid of anxiety and fear, but to understand what underlies, to investigate the cause of the appearance of these experiences. After all, there are different circumstances under which they appear, respectively, and you need to work with them in different ways.

Be healthy and don't be afraid!

Photos used depositphotos

Are you so afraid of something that it has become a hindrance to your daily life? Mindless worries do not adorn anyone, and yet you can look at fear as an opportunity to learn more about yourself. Fighting fear gives you control over yourself, teaches you to analyze and plan, to recognize the strengths and weaknesses of human nature.

Of course, thinking alone will not make you an outstanding strategist, but gradually overcoming moments of crisis, you will learn to look at trouble more easily and become a confident and strong person.

How to overcome your fear: study its roots

The enemy, the proverb says, needs to be known by sight, which means that you will have to analyze the sources of fear as deeply as possible. What is meant?

In a calm environment, think about the following questions:

  • Why are you experiencing this particular fear? Find a rational explanation: whether you are afraid of the unexpected, the unknown, or physical harm, humiliation in public - this is an important difference from a psychological point of view;
  • Narrow the circle: what should be the situation in order to cause or not cause you to have a panic attack (for example, you can stand the rise in a closed elevator well, but start shaking in a glass one). This will help you clearly identify critical situations and not be afraid of adjacent ones - just by association;
  • Learn the mechanism of fear from the inside - how do you start to be afraid? Your task is to find a "trigger" that clings to the most unpleasant experiences. It can be something from the environment (fear of the dark, crowds of people), a particular smell, the sound of a siren, a melody, someone's thrown phrase, a threatening facial expression of a person nearby, or even a feeling that you are losing control over the situation or your body. Knowing the reasons, you can mentally prepare for an attack of fear;
  • At the next attack, find strength in yourself and focus on the ending of the panic episode - how exactly does anxiety subside? Try to remember well the thoughts and sensations that bring you back to reality and bring a sense of security. In calm moments, ponder and consolidate these sensations, learn to call them on your own, manage them at your own will.

Best of all, this method copes with common female phobias, for example, how to overcome the fear of the dark. This training seems difficult, but its practice is extremely important for overcoming the problem - by looking it straight in the eye and finding more and more rational grounds for calmness and self-control, you will become stronger and more courageous even in those moments in which you used to lose your head with fear.

How to overcome anxiety attacks and depression

Very often we are afraid because we are not mentally ready to bring out the emotions and experiences hidden deep in our souls. However, it is precisely such skeletons in the closet that can cause depression and a permanent depressed state. Think about how you would benefit if you found a way to live with them, carefully recycle or get rid of them.

In order not to become the owner of a full-fledged phobia, anxiety must be dealt with at a very early stage. The vague feeling or real emotional paralysis that you may experience during a panic attack is overcome by controlling your own mind. How to help yourself not to be afraid in practice?

Get away from emotions. We experience not so much the problem as our exaggerated reaction to it. Notice the moment when a wave of anxiety rises inside, and try to realize that this is just your personal reaction, and not part of reality. And you don’t need to be afraid of the reaction - this is a product of your own mind that does not carry any danger.

This technique has been used by mentors to train fighters for centuries, composure and control of the senses are considered the most important way to overcome the fear of a fight. Do this exercise as often as possible, and you will notice that you have become more calm and balanced.

"What will happen to me in the worst case?" This proven exercise from the arsenal of psychologists has helped calm thousands of people, and it will help you too. If you have an uncomfortable situation that usually scares you, such as a presentation in front of a large audience, and there is no way to refuse, do not panic.

You can calm down if you answer the question: what is the worst thing that will happen to me if I do what is required of me? Usually, the unconscious expectation of failure is much more painful than what actually happens to you. P

say out loud what the saddest outcome of the situation is possible, and look at it from a different angle - it's not fatal, it's just a possible plot development. Just in case, prepare a retreat plan, some emergency measures, think about how to get out if something goes wrong.

By preparing for the worst, you will feel more confident and stop giving in to the unknown.

Depressive Anxiety: How to Cope

If you are depressed, most of the tips above will probably not bring you tangible relief, and here's why. Being in a depressed state, a person loses the ability to think rationally, it is impossible to persuade oneself. At the same time, negative emotions are overwhelming, and there is no way out of the crisis at all.

The anxiety syndrome is accompanied by fears of such strength that the usual comforts of loved ones and auto-training do not work, it seems that the whole world is against you and no one can solve your problem. In this case, it is better not to wait for the sad outcome of the stressful state, to turn to a specialist - a psychologist, a psychotherapist, to be checked by a neuropathologist.

Panic attacks and severe agitation are removed only by drugs that can be purchased by prescription, for which you must first get his advice, undergo a medical examination.

It is almost impossible to defeat the anxiety syndrome and severe depression alone, do not hope for a miracle, do not wait until the psyche is completely exhausted, seek help from qualified specialists!

How to overcome the fear of death

This anxiety occurs in people regardless of their age, nationality and profession. The fear of death may bother you a little or strike you deeply, at the level of a phobia - however, do not let go of such symptoms.

For psychologists, it is no secret that the lack of clear priorities, as well as the feeling that life is mired in material concerns, is the main cause of the fear of death. Sometimes this phobia develops in those who suddenly lost a loved one or saw the death of a person with their own eyes, and this episode left a deep mark on the soul.

It is necessary to overcome the problem in both the first and second cases together with a psychologist. Building a life from scratch - defining goals, groping for your own meaning of being, seeing the hand of providence, or resigning yourself to blind chance that rules the world - this is a task that psychotherapists solve every day with their clients.

Some of the ways that people turn to - conspiracies, a reception from a psychic seem doubtful. After all, you won’t be able to find out for sure whether their help is working, or is it just quackery. And no one canceled the effect of self-hypnosis. Whatever method you choose, it is better to be sure that it will not harm your psyche.

Accept yourself and your flaws

In addition to the methods listed above, a very important achievement will be to allow yourself to be the way you are - sometimes a little agitated and confused, sometimes scared. Most importantly, feel that it is not anxiety that controls you, but you control it. There is nothing wrong with being afraid of some things, because everyone has little oddities.

And others will not be as strict with you as it might seem. Do not be afraid to look stupid in a situation that really threatens your health and well-being, but otherwise try to restrain your emotions, and loved ones will hardly notice your weakness.

Also remember to celebrate your own progress towards overcoming the problem. Leave the nit-picking to yourself, because you will not be able to completely get rid of a phobia in one day.

But small everyday exploits are a good reason to give yourself a little indulgence, rejoice at your ability to manage emotions and give yourself a nice gift, even some trifle. You can reward yourself for every small victory that you manage to win over yourself in critical conditions.

It catches the breath, cold or heat in the whole body, rapid heartbeat, everything shrinks inside ... This state is familiar to every person.

Some experience fear rarely enough, others experience these feelings every day. Fears vary in intensity of experience - it can be either just anxiety and physical anxiety, or a state that terrifies a person.

In the generally accepted view, situations associated with violence, shock events, and accidents are considered frightening. However, “usual”, seemingly favorable situations can scare and injure no less. For example, minor traffic accidents, medical or surgical procedures, domestic quarrels and scandals.

In psychology, there are several types of fears:

  1. A phobia is an anxiety condition that occurs in certain situations. A person is afraid of something specific - heights, closed spaces, large crowds of people.
  2. Fear that arises as a result of a traumatic event (accident, situations associated with various kinds of violence, emergencies, surgical interventions).
  3. Anxiety associated with events that may occur in the future (fear of death, fear of illness of loved ones, fear of failure).

Working with fears

In our society, it is generally accepted that fear is bad, and being afraid is shameful. In every possible way, people try to overcome their fears: periodically faced with the same fear, they force themselves to get used to it (train themselves not to be afraid), go in for extreme sports (so that the body gets used to the release of adrenaline and in other terrifying situations it would not be so scary) , hold their breath (again, so that the body gets used to the release of adrenaline and hypoxia and is more stress-resistant in anxious situations).

But which of these is really effective? How to deal with fears and is it worth fighting them?

Fear is a state that occurs in a person when he is faced with a real threat to his life. The first and natural reaction in this case is fading. This is the deepest and most important reaction. Freeze in order to stop and orient in the situation, to understand how to escape. Freezing, a person chooses the necessary tactics of behavior further. There are only three of them:

  1. Struggle. This is the most primitive way of protection. If the situation requires a certain aggressiveness and a person feels the strength to fight, then he enters the fight.
  2. Escape. If the threat is so strong that it is pointless to fight, then the person takes to flight.
  3. Further fading (stupor). In the event that fight or flight is impossible, or the situation does not imply such behavior, the organism switches to the only possible alternative behavior - further freezing. The energy that could have been naturally discharged in previous tactics of behavior remains inside a person, disturbing his emotional state. Some people, after some time, can still throw out these experiences, feeling helpless or experiencing outbursts of anger. For the rest, this “frozen” energy remains undischarged.

Having experienced certain traumatic events, a person intuitively begins to help himself. He avoids those places where subsequent injury can be received. This prevents him from being injured again, but creates chronic tension throughout the body. We must constantly be in good shape, try not to get into the same situation. At some point, tension will make itself felt. It may not necessarily be any disease or muscle clamps, it often manifests itself in hypervigilance (a person is constantly “on the alert”), obsessive images, hyperactivity, excessive emotionality and fearfulness, night terrors and nightmares, sudden mood swings, outbursts of anger and irritability.

There is an alternative behavior - a person, on the contrary, as if on purpose, begins to fall into similar stressful situations in order to again and again experience emotions that were not experienced in the past and try to survive them now, to complete this vicious circle of fear. Not all the consequences of the events that frighten us pass quickly and without a trace, a lot develops into psychological traumas with which a person lives for years, and sometimes all his life.

Many people expect from articles like this to be given a series of recommendations on how to cope with their own fears without seeking help from a specialist. Indeed, there are such recommendations, but it all depends on what kind of fear is present and how pronounced it is.

If it's a little anxiety when flying, or moderate anxiety before public speaking, then it is possible to overcome it on your own using various breathing techniques. Another thing is when this fear prevents a person from living a full life. For example, a person has a pathological fear of falling ill with fatal diseases, and because of this he is in constant anxiety. Or a strong fear of enclosed space, and in our time it is impossible to completely avoid them.

It is important for every person to take care of their mental health. If our body is sick, then we go to the doctors to be cured. It is clear that because of a common cold, no one will run to the laura, and if it is appendicitis, one cannot do without the surgical intervention of specialists. It's the same with mental health. If this fear does not interfere with a full-fledged life of a person and does not introduce him into a state of chronic anxiety, then you can use the following methods to reduce it, but if this fear violates the usual rhythm of a person’s life, interferes with his further development, then you can’t do without the help of specialists.

Whatever fear it is, it is needed for something, it matters for a person. And the first thing they do in working with him is to recognize his right to exist. Fear is a basic, biological, extremely necessary feeling. It is impossible to completely get rid of it. Fear helps us survive, protects us from potentially dangerous situations.

It is important to understand what is behind each specific fear, what is its real reason. If we are talking about a specific trauma, it is important for a person to experience the fear that lives in him again, but in a safe environment. The therapist creates conditions in which the client will not be so anxious, he will be able to relive the terrible events that have occurred and throw out the feelings that remain inside him. So without entering the struggle then, the individual may experience a flash of anger, despair or impotence, and instead of fleeing, he is left with a feeling of helplessness. All this is complemented, as a rule, by feelings of shame and guilt. It is important to express this bundle of feelings, while receiving enough support and sympathy. It is necessary to complete the interrupted fight-or-flight defenses and exit from the state of stupor.

In the treatment of such conditions, a lot of attention is paid to the corporality. Fear, trauma live in the body, you need to find access to them and help get out. Traumatic symptoms are created not only by an incomplete bodily reaction, but also by an incomplete reaction of the nervous system.

If for some reason it is not possible to go to an appointment with a specialist, it is important not to be alone with your own fear. You can turn to a loved one, to whom you can tell about your experiences and get enough support and understanding from him, including bodily support (friendly hugs, the feeling that you are not alone).

In case this is a sudden attack of fear and there are no close people nearby, you can follow a few rules:

  1. "Ground". A person should feel his support. They can be not only external, but also internal. Our main support is our feet, what we stand or sit on. Support is better when standing. You need to focus on your feelings and feel the surface on which a person stands, feel the strength that is in the legs and in the rest of the body.
  2. Focus on breathing. Breathe deeply and slowly, the exhalation should be longer than the inhalation. Concentrate your sensations on the movements of the abdomen, you can even put your hand on it and feel how it breathes.
  3. Specify my bodily sensations: what I really feel, what sensations I have in my body. If these are not unexpected attacks, but some specific fears, you can try to explore your fear on your own:
    1. Define clearly what the fear is.
    2. Where in the body is fear felt and what are its manifestations. The very detailed description of the physical sensation already reduces some of the fear. What exactly is felt in the body, where there is heat or cold, tingling, tension, some part of the body may not be felt at all. Under what circumstances does this fear increase and what contributes to its reduction.
    3. Draw your fear, give it a name.
    4. Try to intensify those bodily manifestations that accompany fear. If it is a tremor in the knees, then increase the trembling in the knees.
    5. Feel what you want to do because of this trembling (to approach someone, or vice versa to express aggression).
    6. You can also imagine yourself as a fearsome character, such as a spider or a bully. Often a person is afraid of what is in himself.

In conclusion, I will give a few examples of working with fears from personal practice:

1

Irina, 29 years old, came to psychotherapy with a panic fear of dogs. “When I pass by yard dogs, I start shaking all over inside, I shrink, I have a feeling that they will all pounce on me and bite me. I’ve been afraid of dogs for a long time, but I used to bypass them and that’s all, and recently we moved, we have a yard dog in the entrance, everyone says harmless and kind, the neighbors feed her, but I’m still afraid, every time I get out of the elevator with horror and I think she's there. Don't even leave the house."

In working with her, we found out that once in her childhood she was attacked and bitten by a dog, moreover, a friend. The first step was to work with her childhood trauma and the fact that then in childhood she did not receive enough support and comfort. Then we worked out the fear of getting stabbed in the back by familiar people, those whom you know and trust. And at the last stage of the work, I asked Irina to identify herself with her image of fear - to imagine herself as a dog. In the course of this work, such hidden features as anger and aggression were revealed. After working with fear, when she met dogs again, of course, she experienced anxiety, but not panic horror.

2

Dima, 9 years old, was brought by her mother with a fear of the dark. “Afraid to sleep without light, afraid to enter a room when there is no light, cannot turn on the light himself, asks someone to do it, often has nightmares.”

With Dima, we explored where his fear lives in his room, what it is. And at home, he and his mother in a dark room with a candle checked all the scary and frightening places. In working with children, the technique also helps well when, in fear, there is someone strong next to the child who will protect him from all dangers. In one of the classes, we made up stories with him from pictures, where he made up some scary stories. In one story, a superman appeared who came to the boy's aid and destroyed the spiders. Dima said that he would like to become such a superman himself in order to protect everyone.

In the course of further work, it turned out that the boy would very much like to protect and protect his mother from all experiences. Dima's parents divorced 4 years ago. According to his mother, the boy took this event calmly, but in reality he had strong inner feelings. We continued to work with Dima on his revealed experiences, but the image of Superman helped him in the future when he encountered situations that frightened him.

3

Maxim, 41 years old. He asked: “I get anxious when someone swears or clashes, when I meet aggressive people on the street, I want to run away, I’m afraid that if a situation arises when I have to protect my family from hooligans, I won’t be able to stand up for my loved ones. An adult man, but I'm afraid like a boy.

The work was carried out with the body, with bodily clamps, because the man was clamped in his shoulders, hunched over, complained of frequent pains in the abdomen. Once in childhood, when he was still a very young boy, his parents often clashed, it happened that it came to a fight. At that time, he was sitting huddled in a corner, hunched over and holding his stomach. The quarrels ended, and the parents did not consider it necessary to talk with their son, explain to him what was happening and somehow support him. He was alone in this horror.

In the course of a long therapy, when we established trust and Maxim realized that I care about his experiences, he was able to cry and survive with support the difficult reality that he faced as a little boy.

There are a lot of methods of working with fear, all existing methods and techniques cannot even be described. Behind each specific fear, different people can have completely different traumatic situations, which, often, are not always on the surface. One person's fear of heights and another's fear of heights can have completely different roots. It is important for everyone to assess how strong their fear is and how much it affects the quality of a person’s life. If this fear does not interfere with a person’s full life, you can try to deal with it yourself, but if fear greatly affects the quality of a person’s life, you can’t do without the help of a specialist.

There are big differences in how believers perceive various traumatic situations. For them, these are not just annoying troubles, fears that need to be overcome. We understand that God does not give suffering beyond our strength, they are all bearable and have meaning. One has to go through these sufferings in order to experience spiritual transformation.

Psychologist, gestalt therapist Elena Serova

When a person experiences unjustified, irrational fear, his right hemisphere of the brain is activated. Therefore, to restore peace of mind, you should use the left hemisphere, which is responsible for logic and rationalism.

Rational therapy is the treatment of fear by persuasion through logic and reason. In the fight against fear, it is important to cool emotions and turn on reason.

The basic principles in overcoming fear are as follows:

  • Let go of worrying about fear. Don't multiply anxiety.
  • Identify the object of fear and try to understand how ridiculous and unreasonable it is.
  • Try to identify the shortcomings in yourself that provoke fear and defeat them by self-education.
For example, resentment and fear of looking stupid is the result of morbid pride. Fear of illness is treated by the belief that medically speaking, health indicators are normal and there is no reason for fear.

When a person is not able to accept logical arguments, the most productive methods are suggestion, self-hypnosis, autogenic training and neurolinguistic programming, in collaboration with a psychotherapist.

How to overcome fear? It is important to assess the chances that the worst will happen and understand that they are always negligible. For example, in air crashes, according to statistics, 1 person per 1,000,000 transported by air fleet dies, which is only 0.0001%. This is significantly lower than the risk of dying from a heart attack or in a car accident. Therefore, when experiencing fear, it is important to analyze the magnitude of the risk.

1. Compare your fear with a stronger one.

Sometimes it may seem to a person that the whole world is against him. At risk are material well-being, career and relationships with loved ones. It seems that the situation is so hopeless and nothing can save. How to overcome fear in this case? Do not exaggerate and dramatize your situation! Compare your situation with real tragedies, and you will understand that you are still very lucky!

People who were able to survive truly terrible moments, being one step away from death, say that they no longer know how to worry about trifles and appreciate every day they live.

2. Imagine that everything you fear has already happened.

In the most critical and impasse situation, cast aside fear and assess the current situation calmly. Imagine the worst that could happen. Now try to come to terms with it. Now you need to relax, discard unnecessary tension and collect all the energy to try to correct the very worst situation that you imagined.

By doing this, you stop wasting all the reserves of your body on inappropriate experiences and free your mind for useful activity - finding ways out of this situation. Believe me, as soon as you calm down, there will be a way out of the impasse very quickly.

3. Load yourself with as much work as possible.

The danger that awaits us is terrible only until the moment it is unknown. As soon as it becomes clear, all forces go to fight it, and there is no time to worry.

How to overcome fear even in the most dangerous situation? Don't give yourself a minute of free time. When the activity completely fills the consciousness, it displaces fear. Intense activity is one of the most effective ways to overcome anxiety, worry, and fear.

As D. Carnegie wrote: “A person suffering from anxiety should completely forget himself in work. Otherwise, he will dry up in despair. Roll up your sleeves and get to work. The blood will begin to circulate, the brain will become more active and very soon the vitality will increase, which will allow you to forget about anxiety. Be busy. This is the cheapest medicine for fear - and the most effective!

4. Remember: you are not alone in your fear.

It seems to every person who comes to a session with a psychologist that his problem is the most complex and unique. It seems to him that only he has problems with communication, sex life, insomnia, courage, while others have nothing of the sort.

In this case, group therapy is a very effective remedy for fear. When people meet, get to know each other and discuss common problems together, the severity of the experience is significantly reduced.

5. Act as if the fear is gone.

Physiological and emotional reactions of a person are interconnected. Even if you don't feel the way you want at this moment, you can pretend and this will gradually bring your inner feelings into line.

The best conscious way to be cheerful is to sit with a cheerful air, and speak and act as if you are overflowing with cheerfulness. To feel courageous, act like you are inspired by courage. If you exert all your will, the attack of fear will be replaced by a surge of courage.

6. Live here and now.

This advice applies more to those who are worried about an uncertain future. As the English philosopher Thomas Carlyle said: “Our main task is not to look into the vague future, but to act now, in the direction that is visible”.

Frightening yourself with a terrible future is one of the most stupid things to do, and yet many people enjoy spending their time on it. The burden of the past, and the burden of the future, which a person takes on himself, turns out to be so heavy that it makes even the strongest stumble.

How to deal with the fear of the future? The best thing is to live in the present, enjoy the present and hope for a better future. Even if it does not turn out to be so, in any case, you will not be able to reproach yourself for spoiling the present, too, with your painful experiences.

For "here and now" psychologists advise taking not literally a minute and a second, but the current day. As Carnegie wrote: « Any of us can live with hope in the soul, tenderness and patience, with love for others until sunset ».

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The number of life situations that frighten us, the possible consequences of the decision made, the responsibility for the perfect act, the fear for loved ones is difficult to enumerate.

  • insurmountable obstacles in achieving the set goals;
  • reduced quality of life;
  • activation of internal brakes, if necessary, to quickly respond to a changed situation.

It is important to realize the nature of this negative feeling and answer the question - how to cope with fear?

One of the effective ways to combat this phenomenon will be to study the nature of fears, their classification and methods of overcoming.

Writer, psychologist, psychotherapist Vladimir Levy created an original classification of fears in the form of a tree.

How the phobia tree works

  1. root system of this tree is formed from an unreasonable fear of something. This is where all the panic comes from.
  2. At the very bottom of the trunk general fears are located - the fear of darkness, loneliness, aging and the most depressing feeling, the fear of death.
  3. At the top are evaluative social fears. They are also called fears of life.

The real situation is not always connected with our panic and its manifestations in everyday life. A common cause in many cases remains a fundamental anxiety, laid down from birth by a genetic character.

Irrational fear has no real reasons and seems to be a phenomenon that cannot be corrected. But it is quite possible to fight it, the main condition is a person's focus on the result.

Some of Levy's recipes are joking but have a great effect. Try visualizing yourself in the role at least three times a day:

  • trainer of predators in the circus - where predators are your fears;
  • a night watchman at a zoo, where phobias are represented in the form of ward animals;
  • a doctor in a psychiatric hospital, holding patients in submission, i.e. your fears;
  • kindergarten teacher - where, respectively, phobias are small defenseless children.

Ways are comic, but having positive results even when deciding how to cope with the fear of death.

How to deal with fear

  1. You should calmly and logically consider the worst option. developments in a situation where you begin to act, despite the presence of fear. What will be the result of your analysis? It turns out that everything does not look so scary - the unknown, the expectation of the bad and the fear itself are much worse than the most negative consequences. The specificity in this matter allows you to get rid of the fear of the unknown. In the case of remaining bad feelings, do not forget that fear is a defensive reaction, and there are times when it is more correct to listen to its voice.
  2. Learn to make decisions. Fear dwells only where uncertainty and emptiness reign. The mood to complete the task and make a decision cast out fear. Fear guides our emotions and programs thoughts on everything negative. Once you can make the right decisions quickly and irrevocably, your mind will be focused on the positive and constructive, and it will be possible to deal with fears and anxieties. Drive away any negative thought. It is enough to appear one, so that hundreds of others immediately appear behind it.
  3. Learn to deal with fear not only with logic, but also with emotions. The presentation method is a visualization of what might happen to you in the future. In a calm environment, scroll through your mind pictures of what causes anxiety. Having overcome your fear many times in this way, it will be much easier to cope with fear in reality.
  4. Train your courage. It is necessary to realize that this is such a process, like training muscles, memory or professional skills. Each stage should correspond to the basic principle - from small to large. Fear of communicating with people can be overcome with the help of classical training. Try talking to a stranger on the street. He will definitely utter some kind of response in response. The next day, try to make contact with two or three passers-by or fellow travelers in transport. Gradually increasing the number of interlocutors, you will soon forget about your prejudice.

Non-standard methods of overcoming

  • Don't dwell on your phobias, and treats them with some sense of humor will help transforming into a director, skillfully staging a future performance, in which there must be a happy ending.
  • You hesitate to start a conversation with a girl for fear of rejection? Such behavior is quite natural, because in my thoughts there are only imaginary troubles from such a step - her neglect, ridicule, insulting words, a request to forever forget about the opportunity to communicate. And you can cope with your fears on your own and very easily - imagine how you are reproached for something completely different. For the fact that the girl has been waiting for your decisive step for so long, that she lacked a declaration of love, like a sip of water in the heat, that you are the best and most desired in the world for her. Paint yourself a delightful picture of waking up in the morning with a strand of your loved one's hair resting on your shoulder. Won't fear disappear with such delightful thoughts?
  • Way to bring the situation to the most negative option will give unexpected results. Fear looks in this case a real absurdity. Mentally replaying your actions in a similar course of events will help you clearly imagine what you are doing at the climactic peak of trouble. Surprisingly, there is a calm. Troubles managed to survive and even somehow cope with them. And then a bright streak loomed.

Face to face

This exercise will help you get closer to your anxieties, which are embodied in funny drawings. Being able to see fear "face to face" makes it less intimidating.

In some ways, the exercise is akin to the Halloween holiday, where all the horror movies look funny and even attractive:

1.Draw on three pieces of paper with colored pencils or paints, the most important three fears that torment you.

2. Study your drawings carefully. Each of them should sound, enter into a dialogue with you. During this conversation, try to hear the answer to the questions:

  • what a specific fear is trying to protect you from:
  • what impact does it have on what happens in life;
  • where did the fear come from;
  • What will happen if the phobia is not overcome.

3. Determine where in the body the dwelling place of a particular fear, and put
a leaflet with his image on this part of the body. Thank you for your help and
danger warnings and let go of fear forever.

Why is it important to know how to deal with fear? Because, having got rid of his dominance over his consciousness, a person is able to work miracles, use all the chances presented by fate and move forward.

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