Self Help Anxiety: Fear Management

Anxiety revolves around the idea of fear, whether real or imagined. Self help anxiety can go deeper than treating the symptoms. You can go beyond breathing in and out.  Start treating the cause more than the symptoms. A proper fear management can have a lasting effect and hopefully relieves you the symptoms of anxiety.

Fear as your worst enemy

Fear is behind most failures, sickness, and dysfunctional human relationship. Your anxieties are caused by your fears. Unfortunately, your anxieties prevent you from being happy and fulfilled.

• How many times have you refused to do something because you fear something?
• Have you passed up on a free vacation because you are afraid of airplanes and heights?
• Are you afraid of talking to someone because of your fear of rejection?
• Did you sabotage your public presentation because of your anxieties?
• Did you hide your talents because your fear people’s judgment?

Normal Fear vs. Abnormal Fear

Not all fears are bad for you. Some fears are important in avoiding undesirable outcomes. While some fears have no important purpose. Your anxiousness from fears can either help you or break you depending on the validity of your fear. There 2 types of fear: the normal fear and the abnormal fear.

Normal Fear – These are fears based on real threat. Normal fears are good for you. You have the right to fear things that can pose true dangers.

• Fear from wild animals
• Fear from pain
• Fear from dying

Abnormal Fear – These are fears deeply rooted from your subconscious. It tends to generalize everything that resembles your object of fear as a cause of anxiety. These were usually caused by bad experiences or passed along by your parents, relatives, teachers, and other people that are around your childhood years. People with abnormal fears exaggerate normal fears. A healthy dose of self help anxiety techniques may help you cope with this type of fear.

Example: The fear of dying can be translated to an abnormal fear. People who have abnormal fear of dying might take numerous amounts of vitamins and supplements. They might exaggerate a simple headache into a possible symptom for a terminal disease.

Fear Management

Fear management is a process to differentiate normal fears from abnormal fears. It allows you have a healthy and real perception on your fears. You will be required to challenge some of your abnormal fears. Your abnormal fears will be strip down of its unreal qualities. Fear management is like taking your make up out of your face. It unmasked certain fears so that you can easily see the real threat of the object or situation. Here are some self help anxiety techniques on stripping the power of fear over you:

• Accept that you have a problem – You will be empowered by taking responsibility of your situation. You cannot fix yourself unless you recognize that there parts of you that are broken.
  
• Challenge your fears – Fears are merely thoughts. Don’t accept every thought as valid. Your head can come up with multiple thoughts in a fraction of a second. However, not all thoughts are valid. Don’t make the mistake of treating your thoughts as real things. Learn how to differentiate valid thoughts from trash thoughts. This self help anxiety technique will allow you to differentiate normal fears from abnormal fears.

Visit Self Help Book Reviews for more information | Back to Anxiety Disorder Self Help.