Re: Okay, now...
Exactly, Folkert.
One of the things you have to do is convince yourself you are safe, which I'm getting better and better at, (or at least as safe as you can be under the reasonable circumstances).
One of the things that's really helped me is determining the root of my fears and tackling those, i.e. fear of fire, (as in the house suddenly being on fire), fear of being shot in a drive by shooting, etc. And once you have the root of it, (i.e. Dad scared me as a kid, drive by shootings in the news), you can then process the probability factor that it will or won't happen. (i.e. we keep our house safe and check for fire hazards, and have fire extinguishers and alarms, and there haven't been any drive by shootings on my street).
And then when the fear does hit, you can talk yourself through it. I haven't had a full-blown Anxiety attack now in years, not even when my dad's car caught fire a couple years ago while I was driving it.... not bad, really, considering I used to have to go to the hospital for hyperventilation regularly in the 80's and 90's.
Nightowl >8#
"I learned to be the door, instead of the mat!" "illegitimi nil carborundum"
Comment by Nightowl
