Fear of killing someone: symptoms and causes of this psychological disorder

Obsessive thoughts are among the psychological alterations that people who come to psychotherapy present the most. Although technically they do not constitute a mental illness, they can become the symptom of one of them, as well as present a wide variety of forms.

In this sense, some people may suffer at some point in their lives from the obsessive concern that they are going to kill someone in a moment of lack of control, an intrusive thought that has to do with the fear of "going crazy".

In this article I will talk about the fear of killing someone as a psychological alteration that can become a reason to seek professional psychotherapeutic help.

• Related article: "I'm afraid of going crazy: what to do?"

What is the fear of killing someone?

It is relatively common that, at certain times, disturbing images pass through our heads about what we could do if we did not control our actions.

However, for other people these kinds of negative thoughts they stay for some time in your head in the form of obsessive and recurring thoughts

, something that greatly influences their mental health and both emotionally and socially, family or work.

The fear of killing someone is a psychological alteration that some people suffer in their day to day and that can be placed within the category of obsessive thoughts. In some extreme cases, they lead the person to suffer from suicidal ideation, since they begin to consider death as the only recourse to protect their loved ones.

This type of recurrent thinking can affect anyone regardless of their life circumstances, socioeconomic position or family situation, and it is usually associated with high levels of stress, the fact of having developed a trauma, or other alterations studied by psychiatry and psychology clinic.

fear of killing someone it is an alteration that can be treated effectively by a qualified psychological professional, and despite the catastrophic thoughts that usually emerge in those who suffer from it, it does not have to be the prelude to a disconnection with reality or a psychotic pathology associated with schizophrenia.

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Characteristics

The fear of killing someone is a very specific type of obsession, an intrusive thought that the person sometimes cannot get out of their head.

This obsessive phenomenon is associated with high levels of discomfort or anxiety, and in these cases, the affected person seeks certainty at all times that he has not lost his mind and real guarantees that this thought will never be put into practice. That is, he adopts a defensive attitude trying to maintain control at all times, and testing his sanity.

This means that in ambiguous situations in which one's own judgment cannot be "validated" by oneself, the person considers the worst possible scenarios, which only alters his emotional state and further distorts his perception of what is happening to him. it happens.

Thus, this type of obsessive thoughts they become stronger in the person's mind the more they try to get it out of their head.

Some other fears related to killing someone can be the fear of going crazy, suicide, running over someone, etc.

• Related article: "Metacognition: history, definition of the concept and theories"

Possible causes

As I have anticipated, there are many causes that can lead to the appearance of this type of fear or recurring thought; Below we will see the most common.

1. Exposure to high levels of anxiety

Living with high levels of anxiety caused by day to day, whether in the personal, social or work sphere, is one of the main causes that explain the appearance of this type of obsessive thoughts.

Both anxiety and stress are true generators of worry, emotional or psychological discomfort and also of obsessions that in the long run can decisively affect the mental health of the person who suffers.

Similarly, having recently experienced a highly anxious or even traumatic situation It can also have an emotionally unbalanced effect on the person to the point of becoming obsessed with very specific negative thoughts, such as killing someone.

• You may be interested: "What is anxiety: how to recognize it and what to do"

2. vital transitions

Another of the causes that generate stress, anxiety or discomfort are usually the vital transitions of great importance that happen in the life of a person at a certain moment.

These types of experiences or stages of change are often related to the death of a loved one, the birth of a child, or a major job change, either promotion or loss of it.

Some important experiences can consciously or unconsciously mark the person and this Imprinting often generates an emotional imbalance that can have very relevant causes for your health mental.

• Related article: "The 8 types of grief and their characteristics"

3. Know a case nearby

Knowing first-hand a crime in which a person has killed another or simply seeing this type of events on the news, for some people it can be a great shock or a deep trauma.

In fact, some of the aforementioned obsessive thoughts have their origin in situations that the person has lived and on which he obsesses.

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4. Detect any symptoms of your own

Some people can generate obsessive-type thinking just by reading information on the Internet on the subject, learning about the symptoms of a certain disease or detecting in themselves some type of real cognitive alteration or imagined. This leads to the “self-diagnosis” trap. by people without training in mental health.

This type of intellectual mechanism occurs frequently in people with some level of hypochondria or predisposition to suggestion, and can often develop a fear of killing someone or any other obsessive fear.

• Related article: "Hypochondria: causes, symptoms and possible treatments"

5. Lack of sleep or unhealthy habits

Poor sleep over several days and weeks is often associated with certain psychological, physical or cognitive disturbances. That's why lack of sleep can also be a possible cause of strange or unusual thought patterns.

In the same way, some unhealthy habits such as eating little or badly, not exercising or having a non-existent social life can also favor the appearance of negative obsessive thoughts, since when the body is weakened the mind is also affected and it is difficult to focus on the most objective and rational interpretation of the facts.

6. Substance abuse

Finally, it is worth emphasizing how substance abuse of all kinds can also have a very negative to the mental health of a person and be the beginning of a series of negative, maladaptive and recurring.

Cannabis is one of the substances most associated with the appearance of psychological disorders associated with paranoia and transient delusions, but the recurrent use of other classic or designer drugs also ostensibly affects the brain of the person who consumes them and can cause the irruption of these types of thoughts.

• Related article: "Marijuana: Science reveals its long-term effects on the brain"

Treatment

The fear of killing someone can be treated through psychotherapy; psychologists have techniques and strategies that help people question their biases and deal with anxiety and intrusive thoughts without giving them more power than they have, so that they end up dying out and leaving just as they have I come.

If you are interested in having this type of psychological assistance, please contact us; in Azor & Associates We serve people of all ages and offer face-to-face and online sessions.