The Most Reassuring Thing You Can Say To Someone Experiencing Fear And Anxiety

Posted on February 15, 2016

Fear and anxiety are emotions that can trap you. The more you give in to it, the stronger it grows. Your world gets smaller and smaller and after a while, you’re avoiding the discomfort of the fear itself, rather than the thing you fear. This may result in you not doing anything that is out of your comfort zone and you end up not living life the way you would really like to.

Dr Suma Chand, a clinical psychologist who helps people with phobias had a patient once and this was the recount..

" I saw an elderly lady who had a fall and broke her hip. It was very traumatic for her. After she recovered, she didn’t want this experience to repeat itself. She became very cautious and avoided walking anywhere where there was a possibility for falling.
Although the fear had initially translated into rational attempts to exercise caution it turned into avoidance as she went overboard with being cautious. The avoidance made her feel safe but caused her fear to grow. She stopped going to the store, the mall and to yoga, all of which she had enjoyed. Her social interactions became restricted as she began to stay home more, and avoided her favorite activities, because she was overly fearful about falling. She began to feel low and hopeless as she saw her isolated, limited existence stretch ahead of her. While the treatment is to face the fear, it is done in a manner that does not overwhelm the patient.

The graded approach made this patient feel less overwhelmed and also more willing to face her fear. Once she began to attain success in facing her fear and recognized that what she feared was not happening, it was like a switch was turned on, and she went faster. Soon, she was fine and back to her old activities again.”


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Category(s):Anxiety, Fear

Source material from PsyBlog