Fear of fear
For many, anxiety is maintained through a process of constant, anxious self-talk, but psychologists have also discovered recently that dysfunctional beliefs about the nature of a person’s reactions to anxiety can be a significant maintaining factor in itself.
For example, if I tell myself continually how awful it would be to re-experience my anxiety I am even less likely to confront the immediate source of my fear. Sufferers often elaborate such dysfunctional assumptions by developing exaggerated beliefs that they will not be able to cope with symptoms or that their anxiety will drive them mad.
These beliefs about one’s own thought processes are called metacognitive beliefs and if you suffer from anxiety you need to be aware of them. ...
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