What Are Your Greatest Fears?

[Changing4Best]

What are your biggest fears, and what do you do to deal with them?

Mine are that our U.S. government will collapse and our benefits like Social Security, Food Stamps and such won't be paid anymore. (I have no other income and am not able to go back to work, should something like this happen). Also, that my most recent abuser will find me and try to worm his way (or force his way) back into my life. I also fear being homeless again, like I was for 3 years once.

Fear drives me sometimes, and I think it is the essence of PTSD. Panic too. And anxiety, oh how awful that is. It is painful and I fear it alone sometimes, as I recall one whole summer that I felt nothing but anxiety, and it is happening too often now again, I wake with it sometimes even.

How do you try to avoid anxiety?

 

[arfie]

My fears ooze like slime through a sewer. Every time I put my finger on a fear it oozes and morphs into something else. You might be right about fear being the essence of PTSD, but in my own case, it is an essence. It does not have enough substance to hold a single shape. I believe my fears and anxieties are so connected that there is no point to sorting them. I feel that my fear is anxiety all growed up. In my case, avoidance flat out doesn't work.

Talking and/or writing about them is my mainline defense. Putting it into words gives them enough substance that I can let them go or at least establish that here, in the moment, I am safe.

Hope you find what works for you, Sheila. Fear and anxiety are no fun, to put it mildly.

 

[Deleted member 1860]

Biggest fears? They're financial in nature. I literally can not work for one more year. (Long story.) I fear losing my family as I'd be on the streets. I'm at the bottom end of SSDI so it would be hard to get by with what little I get. My food stamps were drastically cut. :(

I was strapped with a large amount of student loan debt which has been taken care of except for one loan that I'm now paying back. At one point I was getting harassing phone calls about paying for bills in the future! (How is that even legal?!?...considering I'd made all my payments on time in the past.) It added to my financial stress and still affects me to this day. (I thank god that my loan was sold in toto and the new loan company has never bothered me.)

That is my biggest fear. I have other smaller fears but this one is the biggest. I was in a state of panic last year before the presidential election as one party suggested drastic changes to the system. I probably would have had a meltdown if Obama lost.

 

[Miss_Understood]

Being abandoned.

I fear that I may lose my temper one day and go down a dark path.

I fear getting back into hard drugs.

 

[bell]

That my meltdowns will leave me alone because I've driven everyone away.

 

[Hashi]

Being traumatised again in the ways I was before.

Having a terrible experience after I die.

Not being able to look after myself financially, physically or psychologically, and therefore being subject to other people making decisions about me.

Killing or maiming someone because of uncontrollable anger.

 

[Chincho]

That my husband's cancer will win the battle.

That one of both of my sons will be traumatized by my PTSD and my husband's illness.

That my family will get tired of me and my symptoms and leave me.

And so many more fears...

 

[foodmonger]

That no matter how hard I try, no matter how much I endure, things just don't get better and no progress is made. That things beyond my control engulf me and squash me entirely.

 

[Jenfa]

My fear is that as people run around worrying about social monkey stuff, something catastrophic like a million foot tidal wave will put us in our place. Then, the true 'hillbilly' will be the only ones left. That's not scary, though. I could live on squirrels and moonshine. It's not so much scary for me, but I'm scared for people as a whole. The word 'society' doesn't apply to today's world. It's been replaced by 'media'. With no media, I don't really see my sister following the scent trail to a fresh carcass for dinner. I see her curled up, bawling in a tree, but that's about it. I mean.. as a whole, we really don't run shit. The part that scares me is that we think we do.

 

[digger]

• That these years struggling with my mental health will have long term negative effects on my son
• That no matter how hard I look I won't find myself again
• That I can't protect my son from the world or prepare him for it
• That one day I will fall into a black hole that I can't get myself out of again

 

[DharmaGirl]

That I have destroyed my son because of my PTSD.
That I will lose my house and not be able to find a place to live that would take my dogs.
That I will kill myself.
That my therapist will fire me.

 

[Britt.f7]

That my children will die before me.

I have many more fears but that is my biggest.