Why am I afraid and do not dare to do anything?

Why am I scared almost every day? “What makes you afraid of the most everyday situations?”. These kinds of ideas are part of the concerns of many people who, without really knowing why it happens, notice that fear is an emotion that constantly wears down your quality of life, even in seemingly harmless

Throughout the following lines we will see what the nature of fear of everything is and what we can do to combat this feeling.

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Why am I always afraid?

Emotions exist because they fulfill a function, and although sometimes the disadvantages they present outweigh the advantages, these situations are the exception, not the rule.

Fear, in particular, is one of the most powerful emotions we have. Whether we like it or not, its existence conditions our lives, sometimes for the better (it helps us avoid danger) and sometimes for the worse (it helps us find excuses not to make an effort to improve).

However, there are extreme cases in which this psychological factor becomes everything.

an obstacle with which we self-sabotage over and over again when we intend to leave the comfort zone and start something new that will do us good. Go talk to a person we like, start a university career, go to the gym, go to the dentist...

On these occasions a strong feeling of frustration appears and a thought that we cannot get rid of: “why am I afraid and why don't I face my fears?”. Among the main causes, we find the following.

1. traumas

The emotional imprint that traumas leave on us They make us direct our attention to everything that hypothetically can lead us to live that experience. (or a similar one) again. For this reason, many people with trauma have a great facility to enter a state of hypervigilance from which it is complete to leave.

2. Lack of selfesteem

Lack of self-confidence contributes to the person expressing fear about many things, since feel unprepared to face some areas of life. Specifically, those involving personal relationships are typically a source of fears and insecurities.

3. Situations of mistreatment and abuse

In some cases, the fear is rooted in a relational problem that by definition goes beyond the individual.

****When you suffer the attacks of another person or a group of them, the state of hypervigilance appears as a protection mechanism, although at the cost of psychological well-being. Of course, this does not mean that the person suffering from it is to blame for this; just the opposite.

4. genetic propensity

Do not forget that the genetic factor also counts. This does not mean that having a certain DNA structure predestines us to be constantly afraid, but it does mean that certain sets of genes make us more likely to develop persistent fears.

Signs that you live in fear

Some of the typical characteristics that these people present are the following. All of them are similar to those that appear in most phobias, in which there is a specific stimulus that triggers anxiety attacks.

1. Fear from early hours

At the beginning of the day, they are already thinking that they will have to go through something that scares them.

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2. Feel physical discomfort of all kinds

Living with constant fear generates physical wear and tear that accumulates day after day: muscle tension, poor sleeping and eating habits, etc.

3. Avoidance of normal situations

Many people tend to expose themselves to common day-to-day contexts at the prospect of things going wrong and something capable of damaging them appearing.

What to do to combat this anxiety?

When it comes to taking measures against this discomfort and solving the psychological causes of this fear, you can follow these steps.

1. Practice breathing exercises

Controlling the breath helps to "tame" the emotional state in which one is. Therefore, getting into the habit of doing controlled breathing exercises can help a lot.

2. Expose yourself to your fears little by little

Start with situations that make you a little scared, and go facing others that generate more fear in you, following an ascending difficulty curve. This way you will learn through your experience that there are not so many reasons to feel that way in any minimally anxiogenic situation.

3. go to the psychologist

This option should not be discarded either if there are no significant advances with the previous ones. Fortunately, the power of psychotherapy in offering help to people with fears and anxiety problems is very high, and effectiveness has been demonstrated through the use of various techniques performed under supervision professional.

Bibliographic references:

• Hofmann, S.G., Dibartolo, P.M. (2010). "Introduction: Toward an Understanding of Social Anxiety Disorder." Social Anxiety. pp. xix–xxvi.
• American Psychiatric Association (2013). Diagnostic and statistical manual of mental disorders (5th ed.). Arlington, VA: American Psychiatric Association.