scared about the news

[Stoppressingrepeat]

I suffer with anxiety

But I'm starting to feel super scared - I live in London and my DS(3) and I have to travel through central London fairly often.

I recognised exactly where the women on that c4 documentary last night were.

I don't drive (im learning) - so the people telling me there's statistically far more danger in getting in a car is not helping at all

Is this anxiety disorder spiralling or is it normal to be glued to the news and trying to avoid public transport?

I want to move out of London (it's not that simple) but I'm really really scared

[RainbowBodyDouble]

Ah lass.

Most people are scared, it goes in waves.

Try to tell yourself when the panic comes that the only thing you can possibly do to help the situation is not give in.

It doesn't matter if you try and it doesn't work, keep trying to carry on.

I saw the ch4 program too, I recommend you watch Monty python life of Brian especially when John Cleese asked if any women are at the stoning (it will take the sting out of those 'Islamic Circles' that were shown

[Stoppressingrepeat]

Thanks

Yes I guess I can try and watch some humour instead

Iv just cancelled a hospital appt we had on Friday in central London - realising its Black Friday on top of being central London and peak travelling time.

[LovelyBath]

Sounds like it might be a good idea to avoid that day anyway as it would be stressful

[hefzi]

Don't forget, because of 24/7 rolling news and social media, everything is magnified to a point where it feels so much bigger than it really is, so it's not surprising it's really preying on your mind.

I don't know how much explanations etc help you balance your emotional with your rational responses, but if they do, this is actually one of the safest times in history, in terms of violence/war etc, and someone put a calculation on one of the other boards showing how, if an event the size of the Paris attacks were to take place every day for the next fifty years in Europe, you'd have something like a 5% chance of being involved: so 365 days of attacks with 80 odd death toll, for the next fifty years. Trust me - you wouldn't bet a horse at those odds :-)

If you find those sort of "logical" explanations don't help, then I recommend trying your best to minimise your interactions with news media and things like FB (I don't use it, but from what I've seen on others, there's often a load of blooming rubbish spouted that will only intensify people's anxieties). Also, do not compulsively read/watch the news - there's a lot of evidence that survivors going over trauma in the early days after an event actually increases the chance of someone developing PTSD (they were evaluating the effect of early intervention in traumatised individuals, and discovered that it's counter-productive), and this relates to you in terms of how the brain works: our brain copes appropriately with traumatic events by processing them in a certain way, and by reliving these events (through keep watching news/ISIS videos/whatever) you are actually preventing your brain from coming to terms appropriately with these atrocities, thus fuelling your own anxieties in the process. I know that when something happens, you want to be glued to the news and analysis, but it's not actually mentally healthy if you are more leaning towards an emotional than a rational approach.

Finally, long-term, you might find CBT very useful indeed: it's great for when anxieties come from suppositions that aren't actually based on evidence - so things like "my boss didn't say hello, it must be because he hates me, why does everyone hate me, oh no, I bet I lose my job" etc rather than, "ah, he's busy with the new contract - ugh I know what that's like" etc - where you are looking at the worst-case scenario all the time, even though it's terribly unlikely. It really helps with this kind of catastrophic thinking (or at least, it did for me) and especially in helping you react and respond to intrusive thoughts.

[leopardstick]

I feel this way too X