As someone who often has anxiety: that anxiety is often irrational.
Extrapolating fears rooted in one environment to another in which there is no danger is: 1) very human 2) irrational.
Extrapolating fears rooted in one environment to another in which there is no danger is: 1) very human 2) irrational.
So it's quite unempathic to think about someone being irrational because he's anxiously, and you don't have anxiety because you're rational.
I find it extremely uncomfortable to admit to myself that my own mind, my 'self', can actually be the source of self-sabotage. My rational side, irrationally, often 'solves' the problem by simply denying this fact and carrying on dysfunctionally.
What makes all this worse is people who in various ways encourage this denial, even if they mean well.
Thankfully, I have at least two people in my life, as well as my mother, strange as it feels to admit this as a grown man, that I can confide in, and whenever I take the courage to at least express the irrational fears in all their irrationality, they help me by, well, observations like yours. Somehow merely the acknowledgement that my irrational fears are legitimate despite their irrationality is a tremendous help in dealing with them. I'd encourage everyone to keep this in mind when dealing with people suffering from what I guess we'd call 'mental disorders'. You have no idea how much just acknowledgement can do for them/us, and it doesn't have to take much effort!
And my solution isn't, "be more rational." But acknowledging that they're not rational is important in investigating the issue.
Are you sure? I find that mentally walking through a checklist of true-true facts makes my sweating/shaking/vomiting go away (for a while)
Calming thoughts certainly can help, that's the whole idea behind the Cognitive Behavioural Therapy.
But it might not work that easily for everyone and for every fear, and it also depends how much you're feared, because you certainly can't calm down a panic attack with a few thoughts.
One should just be aware that what works for one person might not work for another.
Anxiety is a relatively easy to address problem, and Cognitive Behavioural Therapy (CBT) works pretty well. It's also amenable to short-term talk therapy, usually.
The alternative view is that it's actually a clear view of society and its systemic violence, and a recognition of that causes distress.
If someone wants to kill you, then you're just worried?