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[NT] What makes you panic?!?

theadoor

*hmmms*
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586
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long term panic: routine, lack of choice
panic rush: rooms full of people, flying in a jet (heights in general)
 

Lark

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Great thread.

Its interesting because I've experienced panic a couple of times in the last year or so, previous to that I'd have thought, no, I couldnt really experience it because I can keep my head more easily than others in a crisis or challenging situation, calm, cool and calculating composure characterise me for the most part. I've got good supports too. Often I think about situations which are disasterous as challenges, exercises to try in and grow and develop as a consequence or talk to others about afterwards or write about.

However, this last year I had two bad climbing experiences in which I experienced my body physically rebelling against me, the gasping, dizziness, even wretching and barfing, I've discovered that its become part of my psyche now so similar situations which are strongly associated with the original traumatic events will trigger physical stress. Its good to find and know your limits.
 

Malice

Boldly Gone
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- Tight spaces (I have a minor claustrophobia issue)
- Walking alone in the dark (I have minor issues with paranoia as well)
- Emo friend statuses on FB (I'm serious, I'm always the first to call and make sure they're ok)
- Dentists when they're poking around in my mouth.
- Getting needles
- Loss of control

More to come likely, but that's what I've got off the top of my head.
 

TheCat

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I guess it's similar for me a what has been mentioned several times. In real emergencies, I calm down completely and simply do what has to be done. It's also about the only time I actually take charge of anything, I usually follow the herd, but in an emergency I just go "you do this, you go there, calm down, I got this". Would be convenient if I could tap into that more often, but oh well.

The situations that cause me to panic are also the more social kinds. My girlfriend wanting to talk to me about our relationship, or asking me what I honestly think of her, or us, just shuts me down. It doesn't even have to be that something has gone wrong or is going wrong, sometimes she just wants to talk, but it sends me into a state of blind fear. I get frightened to death of giving "the wrong answer", even though I know she just wants to know what I think, regardless of what it is. But I always end up staring off into the distance and become incapable of forming thoughts, let alone words. It's very hard to answer "all right, let's start easy: what are you thinking right now?" when your mind has become wiped clean with fright.

But besides "honestly opening up", there's not really anything that scares me or causes me to panic.

Edit: Wait, yes there is. Dancing people. I have an irrational fear of people dancing near me. This probably sounds really weird, but it's the truth. I never dance, and people who try to get me to dance (beyond tapping to the rythm with my right foot) creep me out and cause me to panic.
 

Libertine

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Apr 18, 2011
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I can't think of anything that has made me panic, or even imagine something that would. Generally I can handle stressful situations well, because my mind is constantly "dozing off" and needs to be sort of activated by external stimuli to fully function. It is like the only time I feel really stable is when the world around me is really hectic.
 

Valiant

Courage is immortality
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Something in the forest, once. I just knew it was a bear, but I can't be sure. My hair was standing straight up.
 

Thalassa

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fear of doing the same thing over and over again or getting "stuck" somewhere

being rejected or "abandoned"

the thought of dying alone

mac trucks, and people who drive recklessly

lack of money
 

Thalassa

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I can be pretty highly strung so i get panicky when i have too much to do which generally comes about as a result of taking too much on and not having enough time to fulfil it. It's just that everything seems so important i find it hard to prioritise.
Also being late to pick up my kids is a trigger. I'm never actually late but i panick if i think there is a remote possibility that i will be.
In emergencies, i become calm, aware, and think uber quickly in the most organised fashion. I step outside the situation as if it is in slow motion. I think the slow motion thing has been mentioned already.

I do the same thing in a real emergency! Usually what drives me into a panic are either intangibles (like being rejected/abandoned) or imagining "what could possibly go wrong."

A lot of times when a real emergency comes I just become clear headed and do things. I was talking about this in another thread, about NFPs becoming STJs under stress, and in that case of real emergencies, it seems to be quite literal.
 

Thalassa

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Actually, I don't normally panic in emergencies. There was one car accident where my car went on it's left two wheels on the highway and I flew back and forth at 75 mph and landed in a ditch. (After a little piece of tire or rubber or something came out of the back of the pickup in front of me and caught my wheel.) That was the first out of body experience I've ever had, though I didn't identify it as a panic attack because I obviously had other things on my mind. Shortly thereafter I went into a fairly stressful time in my life, and I woke up in the middle of the night feeling frozen and numb, (as if my blood stopped flowing). Dissociated from my body and blacked out. Lots of chest and abdominal pain and it felt as if my throat was closed off. So that was my first identified panic attack, and ever since then, my brain can still access the panic mode. Usually it's when I'm just watching TV or sleeping though. In more acute situations, i'm actually quite calm. It's weird.

I relate to this too. I think my panic attacks may have begun after a series of car accidents, in none of which I was seriously injured, but in the first I was hit in the driver's side (while I was driving) and my car was totaled, and I was also in a car that flipped over on the hood and back on to the tires, and luckily I was wearing a seat belt. This probably ties into my phobias of pretty much anything car related - accidents, mac trucks getting too close, et al. I was also almost hit by a car as a pedestrian in Las Vegas, and I jumped up on their hood instead of being knocked to the ground (another example of how well I handle a real emergency.)

Yet another panicky FP becoming clear headed when it comes down to "acute situations."

Right on. This is so interesting.
 

cascadeco

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I don't know that I've ever *panicked*... as others have mentioned, the times that I have felt most alarmed about something - i.e. physical danger - are also when I know I must keep it cool and be totally in the moment, dealing with it because there's nothing else to do but deal. A recent example was driving over the mountain passes last November, and the roads were covered in slush/ice, some precipitation was coming down, there was poor traction, there was a dropoff down the side of the mountain on my side of the road, and other cars flying past me in the other lane, which I couldn't really comprehend because the roads were crap and I was also worried that the other drivers' idiocy would be the cause of me being pushed off the road down the mountain. I really, really felt at that moment that I had entered at least a 10% chance of death scenario, which was very nerve-wracking for me.

The other physical safety thing was when I was hiking on my own last year and a few miles in thought I saw a mountain lion cross the path a hundred feet or so in front of me. For the next couple of miles I was totally on edge and constantly scanning around me, holding a rock in my hand in case I saw something. (yes, I know, totally feeble and lame but what else was I to do in that situation, other than not having been on my own in the first place, which was a moot point by that point? lol)

Generally speaking though I tend to just get anxious about various things - social anxiety, especially in groups, although 1:1 I tend to be ok. And more long-range things sometimes, although it isn't deeply engrained or 'panic' at all -- I just occasionally wonder whether I'll have enough income and such in my older age, to be able to survive without dying on the street or something, particularly if I don't have family or a sig. other. Also, 'worry' about what the world is going to be like years from now, as well as decades from now - will any of my current ways and means even be applicable by that point? Will the world have changed so completely that what I'm preparing for right now is totally worthless by that point? I become concerned sometimes about water shortages. Or what will happen when there are no longer fossil fuels (all tied to the world as we know it having to be turned upside down into something new as a result) Various things like that. But again, not panic, more just.. things I become concerned about every now and then.
 

Xyk

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Definitely don't usually panic, but when I do, it's just awful. I say and do things that just make no sense in any context. I mean I haven't been in any life-threatening situations, but I used to panic when talking to pretty girls. I've gotten better at it, but if I say something wrong, my reflex is still to say ridiculous things, and that only makes the situation worse.
 
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