Unreasonable Fears

[glatt]

Originally Posted by Undertoad

Panic attacks are like a cycle of unreasonable fear, where you start to fear the onset of fear itself. It's due to a certain sort of brain laziness where you fail to move on - like being stuck thinking of one particular song, you can't distract yourself from the anxiety.

I don't get panic attacks like that, but if I sense that I might be getting a little sick, like if my stomach feels a little funny, I start to do exactly the thing you describe where I focus on it so much that a tiny little blip of a sensation in the background becomes a tidal wave of nausea.

As far as fear goes, I don't like heights that much, but that's not irrational. It's a sound instinct. I hate climbing up on my roof to repair a loose shingle or something. Get all tense and weak at the same time. We have a spiral staircase at work with glass railings that reaches from the 5th floor to the 11th floor. Every once in a while I'll look over the railing down those six stories and give myself an enormous adrenaline rush and get a little weak in the knees.