Our fears have a way of overtaking our lives, bringing us all kinds of inner turmoil and emotional distress. Many of our fears are unconscious, and we aren’t aware of just how powerful they can be and what kind of impact they can have on our lives. We tend to want to avoid thinking about the difficult things in our lives, our fears included. The longer we go without addressing them, the more pain we cause ourselves. When we don’t confront our fears with the intention of healing them, they have a way of accumulating and becoming compounded and worsened over time. They can contribute to depression, anxiety, panic attacks, and other mental health issues. Our fears can also mutate into anxiety disorders such as Obsessive Compulsive Disorder, where our fear presents itself as obsessive thoughts and compulsive behaviors.
When we suppress our fears and don’t process or express them, they tend to cause us much more pain than if we were able to confront them head on. Our being afraid of our fear ends up giving it more power over us. We start to develop unhealthy coping mechanisms for our pain. We use avoidance and denial because we’re afraid to face ourselves. We self-medicate in an effort to numb our pain. Our fears can be a major catalyst for the development of our addictions, because we turn to addictive substances and behaviors to avoid having to face our fear and all of the pain it can bring along with it. We fall into patterns of escapism and avoidance. We develop behavioral patterns, including thought patterns and emotional patterns, that hurt rather than help us. Our habits become destructive rather than serving our highest good.
When we manifest out of fear, we attract unwanted outcomes, problems in our relationships, difficult circumstances, and emotional imbalance. Exploring our fears openly and honestly means we can start uncovering the causes of our pain, and the reasons why our lives have turned out the way they have. We can start changing our mentalities and our behaviors to reflect the lives we want for ourselves. We can leave behind the old lives we were living where we were manifesting from a place of pain. It is only through exploring and examining our fears that we can fully heal them and stop them from controlling and overpowering us.
Riverside Recovery is committed to helping you get back the life you love. Our treatment programs include multiple forms of therapy, family workshops and mindfulness-based relapse prevention education. Call (800) 871-5440 for more information.