When does Fear & Anxiety become a Mental Illness?
Fear and anxiety affects all of us every now and then.
It is human and normal to be affected by these emotions.
However, if it becomes severe and long lasting then we may have to become concerned about it.
In other words, if we find that our fears are preventing us from getting about our day to day activities or that we are anxious all the time for several weeks, then, it may be that we have allowed these emotions to get to a level where it is now affecting our mind.
This is when it may then get categorised as a mental illness! So how do we avoid a normal human emotional reaction of fear and anxiety from accelerating into a full blown mental illness?
Well, if we always avoid situations that scare us - we might stop doing things we want or need to do on a regular basis.
For example, if a phobia has been making it difficult for us to get about our normal life - avoiding that situation will only strengthen that fear.
As a result even a thought of coming in contact with that situation will only bring about an overwhelming need to exhibit extreme behaviours of anxiety and panic or to completely avoid any contact.
If we continue to keep it this way - it is never going to get better.
It will only accelerate into something more serious such as a panic attack.
These panic attacks will then accelerate into something even more severe like being anxious all the time for a long period of time, because now we not only have a phobia for a particular situation but also panic attacks that make us anxious and concerned of where and when the next attack would be.
So fear and anxiety which are supposed to be normal human reactions to help us navigate life in a healthy way - have now become cultivated by us to bloom into serious emotional conditions!
Fear and anxiety issues are like that.
It will keep increasing in intensity if we keep cultivating them rather than facing them.
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