Living in constant worry: When fear dominates everyday life

Fears are natural - each of us is afraid of something. It only becomes critical as soon as the fears are no longer controllable and take over. When fear dominates everyday lifeit is time to act. With even simple methods, life in constant worry can be diminished.

Fears - what's behind it?

Our fear is a feeling that is deeply anchored in our instincts: primeval people felt it already, because it could save their own lives. Fear helps us to recognize risks in everyday life and to deal with them accordingly; it makes us more mindful and cautious.

Our body also reacts to this: our heart starts pumping faster, we may get hot, we feel stressed and we unconsciously tense the muscles - in this case our senses work at full speed and we are ready to react immediately.

Does this feeling sound familiar to you? You have certainly already experienced situations in everyday life in which you felt anxious - be it before an upcoming exam, before a visit to the dentist, before a conversation with the boss or even before a trip by plane.

It can also frighten us not to know whether the loved one is doing well or whether an illness is worse than expected. While some people experience only a slightly queasy feeling, other frightened people feel paralyzed.

Sometimes the suffering can even degenerate into physical complaints: Not everyone can calmly board an aircraft, some people actually force themselves to do so. It is the same with exam situations or before conversations with persons in authority. But here the important question arises: When does fear have a pathological effect?

Fears - when are they still normal & when are they pathological?

In most cases, fears relate to a specific situation and therefore decrease again when it is over. It can even become a burden to people who otherwise seem relaxed and courageous. Fears can be a hindrance in everyday life, but you can always work to reduce them or maybe even conquer them completely. Under certain circumstances, there is a deeper disorder that needs to be treated.

Serious illnesses in particular frighten many people: you are surprised with a diagnosis, you don't know how to deal with it, you feel paralyzed. Anyone who has had problems several times should consider seeking the help of a therapist under certain circumstances to help them regain peace of mind.

This is especially necessary when it becomes clear that fears are getting out of hand, affecting the entire everyday life and perhaps even restricting a person so much that they can no longer carry out their usual activities. It is very likely that there is an anxiety disorder or that the reason is to be found in another psychological problem. Fears can, to such an extent, destroy one's life.

How is fear expressed in everyday life?

Fear has many faces - and it meets quite a few people in everyday life. We present the most common anxiety disorders here.

• Panic attacks

Anyone who suffers from panic disorder is often plagued by anxiety attacks that occur again and again - usually in very comparable situations. This can be a crowd, but also fear in the dark, in an elevator or in a tunnel. A fear of spiders can also be very pronounced - this restrictive extent is then referred to as a phobia.

A panic attack often brings with it not only a psychological but also a physical reaction. You start to breathe quickly, you shiver all over your body, you have the feeling that you are running out of air, you feel pressure in your chest or you get circulatory problems - even fainting or seizures are possible.

As a rule, such a panic attack only lasts a few seconds or minutes, but in extreme cases there are also cases in which those affected suffer from it for several hours. After the attack has reached its peak, it will gradually decrease again and you will become calmer.

• The generalized fear

There are also fears that do not manifest themselves in a panic attack, but rather develop more and more over time. When the restlessness grows, one has a queasy feeling or is constantly tense, one is full of fear - or when one thinks back and forth, cannot sort one's thoughts or constantly thinks about the worst.

Certainly each and every one of us has experienced such fear at some point, be it in our private everyday life or in a certain professional situation that was very stressful. If this fear persists for a long period of time and does not go away, it is called generalized fear.

Mostly a serious anxiety disorder is hidden behind it, which is worth treating - because it can get worse over time and then also disturb the social environment.

Where do strong fears come from?

Fears can have very different origins. If you get a bad diagnosis from your family doctor, for example, it is understandable that you get scared. This can be cancer, but it can also be another threatening disease that one now has to deal with. The same problem often occurs in pain patients, whose pain symptoms are even more pronounced because of the fear and can further limit them.

Therefore: fears are not always normal and within limits, but often also a sign of physical or psychological disorders. These should be discussed with a doctor as early as possible so that appropriate countermeasures can be taken before they get out of hand.

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What can you do about fear yourself?

The first step is always not to simply dismiss fears as nonsense or to ignore them - they should be heeded and taken seriously. Take the time to examine where the fear might be coming from. Perhaps you have had a bad experience in the past that made you worry?

As soon as you have identified the cause, you can try to eliminate it yourself - or you can seek medical help directly before the fears dominate everyday life and limit it too much. Unfortunately, this often happens faster than expected.

Fears that relate to a specific situation, such as a visit to the dentist, an exam or the classic fear of flying, can be managed well. In such a case, you can usually fall back on a certain therapy that recognizes light and deeper fears and treats them accordingly. It is best to talk to your doctor about it first.

You can already contribute a lot by thinking about where your fears come from and how you can overcome them. If you have always been shy of certain situations, it can be worthwhile to consciously deal with them.

For people who suffer from fear of spiders, there are, for example, seminars in which you can deal with the animals together with others - or alone - in order to lose your shyness. Another possibility is to find the cause in stress. In this case, it is important to change something in the current lifestyle.

Do you work a lot at the moment, do you have a stressful everyday life or perhaps also private worries? In all these cases you can make changes yourself in order to go through life less stressed and with more serenity in the future. Think about what can be optimized and where you can confidently take a break - everyone needs this.