What is the "inexplicable fear" in anxiety disorders?

From the perspective of mindfulness, it is a sign of insufficient awareness.

After patients with anxiety disorder see certain information, they will unconsciously process and imagine it in their minds, and quickly draw conclusions. This process is completed almost instantly. These conclusions often vary from person to person and are strange. But generally speaking, they are conclusions that are threatening to oneself.

for example:

I'm seriously ill；

The other party wants to harm me；

The means of transportation I take are subject to major traffic accidents.

Over time, patients with anxiety disorders become accustomed to this process, and they will instinctively panic when seeing some information, so that they rarely take the initiative to notice: What am I panicking about? What am I afraid of? Instead, describe it with words like: I'm scared, I'm nervous, and so on. This process is called "abstraction". A simple understanding is to remove the specific object of worry and only describe the state you are in.

Let’s carefully compare the differences between the two:

Abstract language: I get nervous when I see strangers；

Specific language: When I see a stranger, my hands shake uncontrollably, and I worry that the other person will laugh at me. I feel nervous and anxious about this.

Abstraction is an automatic processing process of human rational logic. It was originally intended to save cognitive resources, integrate a larger amount of information, and even predict the future. Summarize the laws of things, such as Newton's law of universal gravitation and Einstein's theory of relativity. However, patients with anxiety disorders use the abstract power of rational logic to expand the scope of their defenses. Abstract summary of many things will result in inexplicable tension. Tension and anxiety can help us avoid more disasters.

How do we resolve this so-called "inexplicable tension"?

Perception from abstract to concrete

When you begin to find yourself nervous or fearful, don’t rush to control your emotions at this time, but ask yourself, what specifically am I worried about? What thoughts have gone through your mind? As long as you try to find these specific things, then you have achieved mindful awareness.

For example, if you feel nervous when you see a stranger, then ask yourself, why do you feel nervous when you see a stranger? Answer to yourself: I'm worried that the other person will think I'm weird when they see my hands shaking. Why is it weird to see shaking hands? Answer yourself: Because under normal circumstances, people generally don’t have trembling hands. Shaking hands means it’s abnormal. The other person will think I’m sick and feel a sense of shame.

In fact, after you complete the perception from abstract to concrete, you will deconstruct your thoughts like a cocoon, and the thoughts will disintegrate in an instant.

Gain insight into your own mental models

The above content is a specific application of the thinking deconstruction method. From abstract to concrete is just a small skill. This also benefits from the "Dharma" aspect of mindfulness. The premise is that we understand the way humans understand the world.

When your thoughts are broken down, then you can see the underlying logic of how you understand things. Sometimes we care about other people's opinions, sometimes we are narcissistic, sometimes we want to maintain a better image, and at the same time we feel inferior because we know our own weaknesses. This is actually nothing. Improving your own awareness does not mean what kind of person you are, but it means seeing clearly how the process of judging ourselves proceeds.

When you understand your own mental models, you can remove the labels these "mental models" have placed on your world in a targeted manner.

(The article comes from the "Youlai Psychology" public account, follow it to get more popular science. )