Lived Experience Forum

[BPDSurvivor]

Question 2:

How does fear show up in your life?

For me, fear can show up as frustration, avoidance, anxiety, rapid speech, racing heart, a feeling as though blood has drained from my body head-down.

So when this happens, I practise B-R-E-A-T-H-I-N-G to slow things down. It's taken me many years to even contemplate using this technique. Now, it's about pracitising it when I'm well so that it works when i'm not well.

@BlueBay @Meggle @SJT63 @MIFANTCARER @Arizona @pinklollipop15 @RedHorse @utopia @BPDSurvivor @Shaz51 @Millieme @Owen45 

[Oaktree]

For me fear shows up a lot around the safety of loved ones. If they are late home I get very fearful. Also just recently I have experienced an extreme amount of fear surrounding the prospect of commencing trauma therapy with my psychologist. I got a very intense desire to run away. I experienced a lot of fear growing up so it's a bit of a trigger for me. @cloudcore 

[Arizona]

Question 2:

Fear shows up in my life as severe anxiety and symptoms of post-traumatic stress disorder. I'm in that state right now and it is hard to write.

[utopia]

Fear can stop me from doing things. Often it is the things I need most. Sometimes I am able to push myself through my fears and talk to people at the shops, in public. Sometimes the fear is too scary, so I purposely tend to avoid talking to males.

Trying something new, like returning to study, but my fear of failure, of doubting myself, is strong, so after more than a year of talking about returning to study, I still haven't done anything about it.

It is hard to move past these fears that are due to earlier experiences. And very hard to move forward when you don't have anyone cheering you on.

[JungleGiants]

@cloudcore feeling scared, anxious, nervous most often. Paranoid or on alert too. Can have physical side effect of heart racing/feeling extreme palpitations

For second question, when feeling too fearful to go to work in the morning at old jobs, when hard conversations need to happen, walking later at night then expected, wondering what to do in the future

[BlueBay]

Hi @cloudcore 

when I fear something eg going out for a walk I think if all the "bad" things that can happen. So I end up staying home in my own cocoon. 
Sometimes fear will freeze me. It brings up past trauma. 

[RedHorse]

Q2. Fear often shows up in my life around uncertainty and change.

Fear can also be triggered by (seemingly) random events/interactions that initially take me by surprise.

Physically, the ground seems to fall away beneath me leaving me feeling dizzy, shaky, heart racing, difficulty breathing and swallowing and a tight stomach. @cloudcore 

[wellwellwellnez]

I'm still picking up the pieces of my continously blown mind about the difference between burning air and burning sugar (aerobic and anaerobic) in order to think and move. It explains, like, 90% of tai-chi stuff.

When I look at this topic and chart, I think fear is definately a sugar-burner. That's why breathing is harder but also the best thing to improve. I'm not even sure if the oxygen-burning slow-twitch muscles even do fear. Maybe slow-twitching = courage. It feels like that's kind of the thing.

[Anastasia]

Hello @cloudcore , all

My psychiatrist told me I grew up living in fear. I still live in fear now around losing my boy. When I go out and come back I have anxiety around walking into the house. When I wake and go into his room I have anxiety.

When he's in the shower/ bathroom I have anxiety.

Fear is awful to live in.

I am a work in progress around turning it around, not at all easy...

[Jorge]

Fear is awful.
I'm cheering you on!
Remember to go easy on yourself : )