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Fear of brain damage
Hi,
I have this really irrational fear of brain damage. I do not smoke or drink. I have pretty bad anxiety and every time I get a weird symptom in my head, I always assume brain damage. Just today I felt spacey and my brain felt foggy and I started worrying about brain damage. How do I stop this fear?
Also, please don't say therapy because I'm pretty sure it will not work for me.
I have this really irrational fear of brain damage. I do not smoke or drink. I have pretty bad anxiety and every time I get a weird symptom in my head, I always assume brain damage. Just today I felt spacey and my brain felt foggy and I started worrying about brain damage. How do I stop this fear?
Also, please don't say therapy because I'm pretty sure it will not work for me.
I have held a similar fear for a long time. The belief is that I have damaged my brain and am subsequently less intelligent. Therefore I am less equipped to be successful in what I choose to do and when I choose to do it. i.e. Being distressed when my brain isn't always firing. As the brain determines one's personality and ability it is easy to catastrophize over the effect of damage to it.
However what you think about your brain may not be true. It is easy to misinterpret physical symptoms, which are primarily driven by anxiety. The starting point is to see a GP. They may recommend a scan of your brain e.g. an MRI to rule out the cause being physical/ reassure you that the cause is psychological. It is difficult to separate the two as it hard to imagine that such convincing physical symptoms could be caused by a way of thinking. Anxiety can however cause physical symptoms; indeed a number of benign or unrelated conditions can lead to physical symptoms you may be experiencing. The GP can then referred you to a clinical psychologist or other mental health professional who specialises in challenging the thinking and behaviour, which supports this fear.
If you do not wanting or not in a position to obtain specialist help, you should consider:
- What else could else might be causing the physical symptoms you are experiencing?
- What evidence is there that your brain is not damaged?
- Is it likely that you brain fogginess is due to you being focused on the consequences of this fear as opposed to what you need to focus on? i.e. - Does the anxiety come before the brain fog?
- What level of headaches can you tolerate and do you think they automatically represent brain damage?
- What would you be doing if you didn't have this anxiety?
This fear is a form of health anxiety, which is on the OCD spectrum.
The best forms of treatment are Cognitive Behavioural Therapy (CBT) where you seeking to change your thinking and Exposure and Response Prevention (ERP) where you seek to change your behaviour (if you have compulsions for this fear e.g. Avoiding activities which can cause brain injury, but may not and can also be worthwhile/ fun) These types of treatment are best done under the supervision of a therapist. If you can get specialist help; there is nothing to lose by trying it.
This is also a helpful workbook on health anxiety- it is a common problem!
http://www.cci.health.wa.gov.au/resources/infopax.cfm?Info_ID=53
However what you think about your brain may not be true. It is easy to misinterpret physical symptoms, which are primarily driven by anxiety. The starting point is to see a GP. They may recommend a scan of your brain e.g. an MRI to rule out the cause being physical/ reassure you that the cause is psychological. It is difficult to separate the two as it hard to imagine that such convincing physical symptoms could be caused by a way of thinking. Anxiety can however cause physical symptoms; indeed a number of benign or unrelated conditions can lead to physical symptoms you may be experiencing. The GP can then referred you to a clinical psychologist or other mental health professional who specialises in challenging the thinking and behaviour, which supports this fear.
If you do not wanting or not in a position to obtain specialist help, you should consider:
- What else could else might be causing the physical symptoms you are experiencing?
- What evidence is there that your brain is not damaged?
- Is it likely that you brain fogginess is due to you being focused on the consequences of this fear as opposed to what you need to focus on? i.e. - Does the anxiety come before the brain fog?
- What level of headaches can you tolerate and do you think they automatically represent brain damage?
- What would you be doing if you didn't have this anxiety?
This fear is a form of health anxiety, which is on the OCD spectrum.
The best forms of treatment are Cognitive Behavioural Therapy (CBT) where you seeking to change your thinking and Exposure and Response Prevention (ERP) where you seek to change your behaviour (if you have compulsions for this fear e.g. Avoiding activities which can cause brain injury, but may not and can also be worthwhile/ fun) These types of treatment are best done under the supervision of a therapist. If you can get specialist help; there is nothing to lose by trying it.
This is also a helpful workbook on health anxiety- it is a common problem!
http://www.cci.health.wa.gov.au/resources/infopax.cfm?Info_ID=53
You know...it is always hard for me to answer a post that says "please don't say therapy because I'm pretty sure it will not work for me." Have you ever tried therapy or is this just another one of your irrational thoughts?
In any case, we don't wake up with brain damage. What you are describing to me sounds like a panic attack. Panic attacks can alter our vision, create a brain fog. Basically with a panic attack you are hyperventilating without even knowing you are doing it. So you need to learn how to slow your breathing down. One deep breath in through your nose, hold it for 5 seconds and count this out in your head, and then let it all out through your mouth. You continue this breathing until your heart rate slows back down and that "fogginess" goes away.
As to the thought of brain damage you have to learn how to self coach your way through it. At some point you need to say "ENOUGH" and move on because you don't want to live your life this way.
There are a whole host of techniques that you can learn to help yourself and they can be taught by a psychologist but you have ruled out therapy.
So you can go out and purchase the book
The OCD Workbook: Your Guide to Breaking Free of OCD
and
Self Coaching by Joseph Luciani.
Here is another good article about OCD in general.
http://www.wsps.info/index.php?catid=0:&id=82:ten-things-you-need-to-know-to-overcome-ocd&option=com_content&view=article
In any case, we don't wake up with brain damage. What you are describing to me sounds like a panic attack. Panic attacks can alter our vision, create a brain fog. Basically with a panic attack you are hyperventilating without even knowing you are doing it. So you need to learn how to slow your breathing down. One deep breath in through your nose, hold it for 5 seconds and count this out in your head, and then let it all out through your mouth. You continue this breathing until your heart rate slows back down and that "fogginess" goes away.
As to the thought of brain damage you have to learn how to self coach your way through it. At some point you need to say "ENOUGH" and move on because you don't want to live your life this way.
There are a whole host of techniques that you can learn to help yourself and they can be taught by a psychologist but you have ruled out therapy.
So you can go out and purchase the book
The OCD Workbook: Your Guide to Breaking Free of OCD
and
Self Coaching by Joseph Luciani.
Here is another good article about OCD in general.
http://www.wsps.info/index.php?catid=0:&id=82:ten-things-you-need-to-know-to-overcome-ocd&option=com_content&view=article
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