Irrational fears

Yesterday I had a very interesting discussion where I discovered quite a number of things about myself. For years I have had momentary slight panic attacks in certain situations, and the situations have changed throughout the years. Each time I felt fear and/or distress, but managed to forget about the incident immediately thereafter and did not give it much thought afterwards. And when I eventually gave the panic situation more thought, I subconsciously slowly changed my habit into not being afraid anymore.

At the moment I can only recall three specific situations where I get this feeling, for example when walking in the street and a big heavy truck passes by, I am afraid that I might put my foot in front of the wheels of the truck. It sounds rather silly, and it is, but the fear is real. The funny thing is, I only realised today that all my current momentary panic situations are all of the same kind: I am afraid I might do something that will hurt myself.

The reason that this revelation makes me extremely happy, is that I know already that my earlier fears diminished as soon as I started to realise my compulsive behaviour and acknowledging it. And, on another note, it is also always very nice to be able to make sense of your senses. :o)

This kind of symptom of irrational fears and obsessive thoughts of danger are known from Obsessive Compulsive Disorder (OCD). The webpage of OCD-usa explains very well how fears and anxiety can develop to obsessive thoughts and compulsive behaviour.

Image courtesy: Heavy Truck Home Page