Consequences of stress, How to cope with stress, Fear Irina Vasilyeva A sudden feeling of fear is called sudden because it happens unplanned, exactly when you are least prepared for it. You can think that this won’t happen to you, but this guarantees absolutely nothing. What to do if sudden fear suddenly becomes a reality for you or your loved ones? How to help yourself or another person? We'll talk about this today.
Good afternoon, dear reader! Today I will not start my story by describing signs, symptoms and quick help. This will also be, but a little lower. I will begin by describing three completely different cases of sudden fear in healthy, mentally stable people.
I will do this so that you understand that an attack of intense irrational fear is not necessarily a symptom of an illness or psychiatric disorder. After reading about the examples, you will understand much better what exactly leads to the experience of fear.
And at the same time, we will together analyze what influenced the person and how negative experiences could have been avoided. This will help you better understand where sudden fear comes from and better cope with it.
You want to constantly move
Many patients with anxiety disorders literally cannot sit still (this is especially pronounced in children and adolescents). Having studied the behavior of 128 children with a similar diagnosis, scientists found that this particular symptom occurs in 74% of them. By comparison, 70% of participants reported abdominal pain and 45% reported increased sweating. Sometimes such behavior can be quite normal, but if bursts of excessive activity occur in a child every day for six months or more, this is a reason to visit a psychotherapist.
Symptoms
Among the most common symptoms of the disease are a rash around the eyelids in the form of papules (they are also present on the forehead and neck), the patient’s voice becomes hoarse, there is a decrease in the regenerative ability of the skin, thickening of the mucous membrane and compaction of brain tissue in the temporal region. The last symptom is the most dangerous, as it can lead to temporal lobe epilepsy.
The disease first manifests itself in childhood (3-7 years). This is when skin rashes and hoarseness appear.
It is worth noting that these symptoms are ambiguous and can vary greatly from patient to patient. Since Urbach-Wiethe disease is transmitted in an autosomal recessive manner, it does not manifest itself if there is a normal dominant allele in the genotype. Often people do not even realize that they are carriers of a mutant gene.
The symptoms of this disease vary greatly. Both neurological and dermatological symptoms are present.[12][13] These may include a hoarse voice, skin lesions and scarring, easily damaged skin that heals poorly, dry, wrinkled skin, and papules around the eyelids.[5][14][15] All these are the results of thickening of the skin and mucous membrane.
Because Urbach-Wiethe disease is autosomal recessive, people can be carriers of it without any symptoms.
You feel physically ill
If the experience not only “tickles” your nerves, but affects your physical well-being, everything is serious. An anxiety disorder can provoke nausea and dizziness, weakness, dry mouth, headache and increased heart rate. This occurs due to overload of the sympathetic system, which regulates our breathing, blood circulation and digestive processes. Simply put, sensing danger, the brain begins to urgently prepare the body for a stressful situation (fight or flight). But in cases where there is no real threat, such “mobilization” hits the body very hard.
Diagnostics
Urbach-Wiethe disease is difficult to diagnose because its symptoms are not universal. In the case of a rash (papules) on the eyelids, a papular rash on the skin of the neck and forehead, diagnosis includes a visit to a dermatologist.
If Urbach-Wiethe disease is suspected, an MRI without contrast is prescribed, which can detect the accumulation of calcium salts in the body. However, this symptom does not necessarily indicate lipoid proteinosis. Calcification is also characteristic of herpes simplex and encephalitis.
Genetic testing plays a key role in making a diagnosis. It is this that makes it possible to determine for sure whether there is a mutation in the ECM1 gene, and if so, whether this mutation really led to Urbach-Wiethe disease.
You find it difficult to concentrate
Sometimes the inability to concentrate is not due to your lack of self-discipline, but to the same anxiety disorder. In an experiment involving 157 children with excessive anxiety, it was found that more than 2/3 of them experienced serious difficulties concentrating. And another study involving 175 adult volunteers also confirmed this fact. 90% of its participants complained that it was very difficult for them to concentrate. But at the same time, problems with concentration can also be symptoms of depression or attention deficit disorder.
History of discovery
The first case of a disease whose symptoms were consistent with Urbach-Wiethe disease was reported in 1908.
It was described by the Swiss otolaryngologist professor Friedrich Siebenmann. And in 1925, Swiss histologist and dermatologist Johann Miescher described three more similar cases. However, this rare recessive genetic disease was officially registered only in 1929 by dermatologist Urbach and otolaryngologist Wiethe. It was Erich Urbach who called the pathology lipid proteinosis, since he believed that it was associated with an imbalance of lipid and protein deposits in the tissues of the body.
Since its discovery, according to various sources, from three hundred to four hundred cases of this disease have been registered around the world.
You are constantly straining your muscles
This symptom of anxiety disorder is not yet fully understood, but its development seems quite logical. In response to stress, the body contracts its muscles as it prepares for any eventuality (again, fight or flight). If you have excessive anxiety, of course you won’t have to run anywhere, but your muscles will remain tense. In advanced cases, it comes to the point that a person cannot even get up from a chair or sofa.
Regular exercise helps to control muscle tension, and to relieve tension here and now, you can use relaxation methods, says Sally Winston, Doctor of Psychology at the Institute of Anxiety and Stress Disorders.
Story one
“We are a young family, my wife is on maternity leave. Our baby recently turned seven months old. I work two jobs and am very tired. The baby's teeth began to cut. We hardly sleep. At least my wife gets enough sleep during the day while I’m at work. One night I thought I was having a heart attack. I was out of breath, short of air, had a strong heartbeat, trembling, and my hands were shaking violently. We called an ambulance. They took a cardiogram and everything was normal. That was the first time I heard the term “panic attacks.” I realized that something needed to be done. I won’t survive a second night like this.”
Remember, in many articles I said that our negative emotions and feelings, if suppressed, do not disappear anywhere. They freeze deep inside us and wait in the wings.
Now think about how many negative emotions our hero has had lately? Of course yes. Fatigue at work, constant lack of sleep, inability to do your favorite things...
Dissatisfaction with all this was hidden deep inside, so that there was not the slightest opportunity to disrupt family well-being.
So negative emotions arrived when control over them was weakened. But since a person is not used to expressing them directly, they are reflected in the somatics of the body (strong heartbeat, excessive sweating, disturbances in the respiratory cycle). The unexpected symptoms contributed to a feeling of sudden fear, which intensified them even more.
What to do if the attack was caused by suppressed emotions?
First of all, learn to express them correctly. You can read about this in detail in my book “How to allow yourself strong experiences, emotions and feelings without destroying yourself and others.”
- First you need to admit to yourself that you feel them. It would seem that at first glance it is quite simple. However, try to admit to yourself that there are times when the most beloved people in the world annoy you terribly, and you will understand that this is serious internal work.
- The second step will be admitting to yourself your own imperfection. Allow yourself to sometimes allow yourself to not meet the highest requirements and demands of friends, relatives, and managers.
- The third step towards a harmonious state will be to organize periods of rest even when this seems impossible. In the case described above, a young family should make every effort to prevent emotional burnout. This could be a distribution of responsibilities in such a way that each family member can afford a little rest, or a request for help from the parents of the young. And, perhaps, a revision of the family budget. Is there really a need to work two jobs or do you just need to learn how to save money?
Are you afraid of something?
A phobia is an inexplicable fear of specific things, objects or situations. Phobias can greatly spoil life and practically subjugate it to themselves. It is quite simple to distinguish a phobia from simple fear: it suppresses you from the inside and you are not able to realize that the fear is in no way commensurate with the real risk. Psychotherapists identify a huge number of phobias, ranging from fear of insects or heights to social phobia (fear of society). According to statistics, 15 million people in America alone have this disorder, but only a small percentage of them seek help.
Anxiety and fear
It’s worth starting with the fact that fear and anxiety are basic emotions that a person needs to survive. Simply put, if our ancestors did not experience these feelings when danger approached, then the survival rate would be very low. And perhaps it would not have reached modern civilization.
In case of danger, the presence of these feelings gives the body a huge energy resource. It allows you to either “engage in combat” with a potentially dangerous enemy, or run away from danger.
However, recently the term panic attacks has become increasingly common in the scientific literature. This is the same feeling of fear and anxiety, but it arises without an objective reason. Despite the fact that there is no reason, the body reacts in the same way as our ancestors preparing for a fight. The level of adrenaline in the blood increases, blood pressure rises, blood vessels narrow, the number of heartbeats and blood sugar levels increase.
But since there is nowhere to relieve tension, the unspent energy charge begins to destroy the body from the inside. It is for this reason that people who are often in a state of anxiety, over time, have problems in the functioning of the cardiovascular system, and may develop diabetes mellitus.
Simple recommendations
What to do with constant anxiety and fear? If you have recently started feeling very anxious and panicky, but you have no other symptoms and you have not been exposed to emotional turmoil, you can try to get rid of the problem on your own. A few simple exercises and tips will help you forget about constant fear and anxiety. What to do to find harmony and tranquility? Start simple:
