The fear of losing control is widespread in people who are constantly under pressure either in the workplace or in housework, in studies, or while performing any activity that generates anguish that they cannot achieve and that gets out of hand.
Many people suffer from this disorder; They do not even dare. In most cases, they do not complete the assigned tasks for fear of solving each situation with the appropriate decisions, which is why many specialists recommend attending therapies to end this fear.
Index
Symptoms of anxiety and fear of losing control
- This symptom may seem like you may lose control of your mind, thoughts, and actions; that he is about to go crazy; that you are about to “lose it,”; and you will become uncontrollably hysterical.
- You can also feel like you lose control and do something horrible to someone you love, or like you “lose it” and do something to fool yourself.
- Being in uncontrollable fear, having to run away, pass out, vomit in public, gag uncontrollably, stumble, choke uncontrollably, lose control of your intestines, “freak out,” etc.
You may also feel like you can’t control what you say or do.
- The thoughts: “What if I lose control?” What if I do something horrible? What if I go crazy? What if I make a fool of myself? And ‘What will people think of me?
- These thoughts can be fleeting, frequent, or persistent and can be slightly perceptible, moderately annoying, or troublesome.
- They can be associated with an active stress response, an increase in anxiety and stress, or they can occur for seemingly no apparent reason.
- These thoughts can change from one day to the next and even from one moment to another.
- All combinations and variations of the above are common.
What causes fear and the feeling of losing control?
- Being stressed and anxious (worried, apprehensive, irritable, fearful) causes the body to produce a stress response.
- The stress response secretes stress hormones into the bloodstream. They travel to specific points in the body to cause specific physiological, psychological, and emotional changes that enhance the body’s ability to cope with a threat, whether to fight it or flee from it, which is why the stress response is often called the fight or flight response.
Part of this change affects how the brain works.
- For example, the stress response causes the brain’s fear center (amygdala) to become more active and the rationalization areas of the brain (cortex) to submit.
- This change causes a greater sense of urgency and danger and a decreased ability to rationalize information; it is safer to take immediate action to fight or flee from danger than to think about it before acting.
- As the level of fear increases, so does the magnitude of the stress response.
- Consequently, you will most likely experience severe thoughts of urgency and danger if you are severely frightened, even though it may be more difficult to rationalize them.
- This reaction can make you feel like you are about to “lose it” (lose control of your thoughts and actions) and “go crazy.”
- But even if you feel like you’re about to lose your mind, lose control, or go crazy, you won’t.
- The worst that can happen is that you are afraid of being able to do it, and that’s it.
- There is NO relationship between being afraid and losing control.
Important information
- Although you may feel like you may lose control, you are always in control of your behaviors (thoughts and actions). Learning to contain your behavior gives you total control.
- When experiencing these elevated thoughts and fears, remember that this is how the body responds when danger is perceived, that you cannot lose control, and that as the nervous system calms down, your thought patterns will return to normal.
- You are ALWAYS in control of your actions, no matter how “out of control” your impressions may seem.
- Also, when the body becomes overstimulated in response to stress, brain function changes can persist.
- So while the body is overly stressed, you can experience any symptoms of high stress, including this one, even long after the initial stressor has passed.
You may also be interested in reading: Fear Of Freedom: Causes, Characteristics, Complaints, Treatment.
Treatment
How to overcome the feeling that you are about to lose control
When this anxiety symptom is caused by anxiety and stress, the best way to eliminate it is to recognize that it is caused by an active stress response or an overly stressed body.
- Then calm down and reduce stress on your body.
- As your body calms down, this feeling should decrease.
- However, keep in mind that it can take a long time for the body to calm down once it has become overly stressed.
- Therefore, the feeling that you are about to lose control may linger until your body is much calmer and less stressed.
- However, when this symptom is caused by an active stress response and persistently high stress, it is not a cause for concern.
- Most people experience this symptom when overly anxious and stressed.
- The difference, however, is that anxious people worry about this feeling and what it might mean, while non-anxious people don’t.
- If you want to eliminate this feeling, calm down, reduce your stress, and don’t worry about this feeling.
- It will calm down when your body is sufficiently rested. A medical or mental health problem does not cause it.
- It is caused by how the body responds to stress, and an anxious person responds to the feeling.
- Much more could be said about this symptom.
- We have a complete explanation in Chapter 9 in the Recovery Support area of our website, including what you can do to overcome this feeling for good.
- Combining good self-help information and working with an experienced anxiety disorder coach, counselor, or therapist is the most effective way to treat anxiety disorder and its many symptoms.
- Until the root causes of anxiety (the underlying factors that motivate apprehensive behavior) are addressed, the fight against anxiety disorder can come back again and again.
- Identifying and successfully addressing anxiety’s underlying factors is the best way to overcome problematic fear.
Hello, how are you? My name is Georgia Tarrant, and I am a clinical psychologist. In everyday life, professional obligations seem to predominate over our personal life. It's as if work takes up more and more of the time we'd love to devote to our love life, our family, or even a moment of leisure.