News has me scared again

[Grace360]

Back at it again with me being scared of everything I read. Up tonight is about an early 20 something woman who died in her sleep. Todays worry, what if that happens to me? Similar to worrying what if im just going about my day, fall out and die. Its out there but im so genuinely afraid of it. Not to mention my anxiety is acting up lately to where I feel like I have to force breaths. Also been having acid reflux.
I just don't know how to truly stop this fear

 

[bin_tenn]

One key to quelling this fear is acceptance. Accept that the risk exists for every human on earth, regardless of age, overall health, etc. Accept the fact that these things do unfortunately happen to others, but that your own chances - barring any preexisting health condition(s) - are extremely slim. These things happen more often than we know, and we don't worry about most cases, because we don't know that it happened.

When my friend was killed by a drunk driver on March 1, only then did I realize that I, too, could simply back out of my driveway and never live another day. Before that, I had really never thought about it at all. But it does happen.

That woman you read about is not you. There have been school aged children who went into cardiac arrest, because they have an undiagnosed heart defect. Some people get cancer. Some are in serious car accidents. Some have unknown heart problems. It can happen to anyone, but we have to accept that fact of life, and enjoy every moment while we can. Instead of worrying constantly if it will happen to us next.

 

[Bobnnat]

I once read an article on health anxiety that struck me. The author said to imagine that we are 90 years old, and we think back on how much time and energy we wasted in our lives worrying about the “what if’s”, and how the vast majority never happened, and the handful that did were far less catastrophic than we feared.