The fear of going crazy is common among anxiety sufferers.
Actually, and unfortunately, this fear is almost universal among the nervous. However, this fear is also unjustified because anxiety does not cause insanity.
No part of anxiety can make you crazy, even if you sit around thinking that insanity is imminent.
What I want to share with you is that you think that you’re going to go nuts not because you are, but because you’re under a lot of stress.
This in turn causes a great deal of worry and introspection. But that’s about it. The fear of insanity is the end of the road for the stressed out, the confused, and the fatigued.
It’s understandable why an anxious person could develop this kind of idea. In some ways it’s natural and to be expected.
But I want to assure you that this terrible fear you have will not come true.
I wrote about this back in 2008, but I never produced a podcast about this important topic, so the other day I sat down and recorded my thoughts on this issue. I hope that if you’re afraid of going crazy that you take a listen.
In this podcast I discuss:
— My own experiences with the fear of insanity.
— Why people develop this phobia.
— How to get rid of it.
Enjoy.
Home Tonight by DoKashiteru is licensed under a Attribution.
Thanks for this podcast! I’m going to listen to it in later this evening! The brief article on the matter was great and ensuring…
Great one again, Paul. I think we’ve all had these thoughts at one time or another. I think even people without anxiety have these thoughts occasionally. Seriously.
Congrats on the new gear. You deserve it!
Very glad to hear you’re putting the e-book on audio–will there be a way to purchase the audio alone if one has already purchased the e-book?
Hi Micheal, I sent you an email regarding a discount for everyone that purchased the ebook in the past. If you didn’t get it please let me know.
Paul
The young girl reminded me of me. I really hope she gets better because listening to your podcasts has practically cured my anxiety – I hope this doesn’t sound too ‘crazy’ because it’s true. I thought about going crazy or something bad happening about 90% of the time for a year until I had some counselling. I don’t think it helped as I didn’t feel like my counsellor fully understood what I was going through. But during that time I came across your podcasts and some brought tears to my eyes at the realisation that I am not alone and you understood. I hardly ever think about it now the fears literally faded away. It didn’t happen over night but it did happen over a few months of listening to and reading all the interesting information your website provides. I still like listening for a little reassurance every now and then. Thank you so much.
Thank you so much, also brought me to tears. I have lived with these problems for over eleven years. It does go away but also comes back. This is a lonely and terrifying affliction when you can see no good solution. Listening to your podcast helped me through a very dark day.
Soph12, I totally agree with everything your saying.
Hey Lenny, I know it’s hard, but you have to know that you’ll be OK. I used to think that I would never recover and look at me now. I could only imagine how tired you are, but if you make a commitment to getting rid of abnormal anxiety than it can be done. I hope you do.
Cheers Paul, i keep trying to remind myself i`ve done it before. Just hard to find the strength sometimes. I am determined to keep trying to get better. Seems AG has lots of great info to help!
My experience contradicts what you say. I worked in a very high stress job for over 17 years and what started out as anxiety ended up with periods of insane reactions. You assume that insanity can not be caused by long exposure to intense stress, but my experience proves otherwise.
Eventually my stress threshold was lowered so much that I just couldn’t work anymore. It literally caused brain damage. Today I can only study about 2 hours a day or I will suffer burn out and then cannot study or work at all. Even with limiting my mental efforts I have bouts of insane reactions.
It’s the old chicken and egg question – what came first. Did the insanity cause the anxiety or did the stress cause the anxiety and later the insanity. Was the anxiety the body’s warning sign to stress damage?
I applaud your efforts to help people, but I don’t agree with your conclusion that insanity can’t result from stress.
Hey paul, thankyouuuuu so much for this, i have been suffering very bad lately with anxiety and lately it has turned into going carzy fears, if i can just ask you one question? in this podcast at one point you said “if your not hallucanating or hearing things that atent there ir feeling unreal then ur not losing it” well i read alot that feelings of unreal can come with anxiety… better known as depresonlization…. i feel this, so does the feelings of unreal mean i am going crazy? lol or?
No Way Chris! Feelings of unreality and racing thoughts, etc are all normal when someone is anxious. Nothing to do with insanity, at all. I’d say the bigger problem is the worry that you’ll go crazy, that’s what gets people.
Hello Paul i’m new to this web so i did’nt know were to post this so forgive this off topic question.I really dont get stress or anxiety but recently i have had a couple of anxiety attacks and one thing that it caused my to cry. Now when i’m stressed i would shed a few tears on porpose to relive some stress every month or two but with my recent anxiety attack I have cried multiple times in one day. So i was wondering what is causing this?
Hi Timothy,
In a word: Stress. Plus a mixture of anxiety and depression. This is common as anxiety is often accompanied by depression. Both anxiety and depression are highly treatable, so I hope that you seek help soon. Hope that helps.
Where can I find this podcast? im having trouble pulling it up. I really need to check it out. Im new to anxiety and I have no clue why its been getting to me really bad lately. It’s interfering with my everyday life.
Great Podcast… Keep up the good work..!!!
Dear brother , my name is rasmita das.i am staying in aurangabad. I suffered severe depression from last 4months. For this reason I am in constant fear, nervous, worry and anxiety. I think I lost my control and I am mad. This thinking continuously haunting my mind. For this reason I am in great fear. I am thinking that I will kill my husband as I can’t understand anything Due to fear all my leg, mouth, and hand tremble and panic attack comes. I think I will never be heal. Actually I was fasting one day and with fasting I did pranayam. That night I woke up nervous and thought that I am mad. Do really I am mad or its only fear. Please answer me
Thanking you
Rasmita das
does anxiety land You or I in a psychiatric Hospital