How many times have we said “I’m going crazy!”, “I will become crazy!”, “I’m out of me!” During excited moments, of strong stress or emotional load?!
In this case, most of the time, colorful expressions to indicate our mental state – the fear of going crazy – that they do not turn into a loss of hindsight.
Other times the feeling of being able to really losing control of their mental faculties It becomes more threatening. It looks real and leads to consequent broods or ruminations, which do nothing but increase the state of anxiety and alert. But even in this case it is more the fear of the condition we are experiencing and its consequences, than the actual danger.
A particular emotional, physical or physiological state, can in fact lead the person to alarmed, believing be able to go crazy. This judgment does nothing but increase the previous state, in a vicious circle that self -fulfillment.
Usually the people who fear going crazy they tend to observe themselves very carefully. They interpret altered mental states as a sign of the imminent “madness”. During a state of anxiety they interpret the typical mental confusion as a loss of control. Or they read thinking continuously in the past (rumination) as an indicative of the fact that they will not come out. Or they still evaluate the concerns for the future (brooding) as a trap that will lead them to “become crazy”.
The fear of crazy finds origin in history
First of all, let’s try to understand the story that expressions like crazy, crazy, crazy carry behind. In ancient times the condition of madness It was associated with spiritual, religious and mystical causes. Deviant behaviors were interpreted as divine punishment, so the crowd had to be removed from society, if not burned alive.
Towards the beginning of the 19th century, the sick began to be interned in special places, but treated with methods such as lobotomy, electroshock, physical restraint and isolation. Only in the middle of the last century were the first psychotropic drugs and given dignity to the psychiatric patient synthesized.
Historically, it is not difficult to understand how, even on a cultural level, the fear of going crazy And of its consequences they are threatening. This further increases the fear of being able to become crazyeven if there are no objective reasons to believe it.
How to become “crazy”
In reality we know that we hardly become “crazy” from one day to the next. Losing one’s mental faculties, as during a psychotic debut, is a rather rare event. It is certainly very different from the belief that you can lose control during or followed a strong emotional activation or a state of mental confusion due to anxiety.
Usually the serious psychiatric problems, such as to lose contact with reality, are already manifested along the course of development. However, there are symptoms and signs preceding the debut, which act as a alarm bell. For everything else, these are emotional, physiological and cognitive alterations that can be understood within a psychopathological functioning, but which do not lead to the loss of their mental skills.
Disorders associated with the fear of becoming crazy
There fear of going crazy It is present transversely in various disorders, where we can identify vulnerability factors that promote the onset. At cognitive level there are some factors that promote the vulnerability of the subject when the thought of being crazy emerges. In particular, the beliefs regarding:
- the probability of developing mental diseases
- the terribility and unbearability of the condition of mental illness
- to the inability to face this possible condition materially and emotionally
- to the incompetence of the medical class (distrust),
- to the non -whimpering of physical and physiological sensations, considered a danger signal (Anxiety Sensitità)
There may then be beliefs that increase the very fear of crazy. For example, the fear that the other will move away and that worrying about his mental faculties will help to remain healthy.
The anxiety disorder for mental health (hypochondria)
Among the various disorders, in health anxiety disorder (called hypochondria), which is characterized by fear of having a serious illness, there is also the fear of being able to become crazy. There is talk of anxiety for mental health.
Somatic symptoms generally emerge that do not have an organic basis or are disproportionate in intensity compared to the existing problem. Body worries and excessive awareness of what happens in the body. Fear of being able to contract a serious mental illness. This leads to Resistance to medical reassurances and hypochondriac behaviors (requests for reassurance, search for information on the Internet).
In this disorder, the stable tendency to erroneously interpret information relating to body symptoms and any other information deemed relevant for mental health is centrally. This determines selective attention on the body and lowering of the sensory thresholds, with the greatest perception of apparent “oddities” than they feed the fear of crazy. The safety research behaviors induce an increase in anxiety -making symptoms, in turn judged as a sign of mental illness.
Emotional activation and fear of crazy
Another (non -clinical) condition that leads people to believe they lose control of their faculties is to live a strongly altered emotional state.
In fact, we all have one emotional tolerance window within which we can experience our emotions and to have the feeling of being able to manage them. This has been structured by children in the interactions with our parents. The more they were able to accommodate and contain the emotions, the more they favored the expansion of this window.
For example, if the parents responded with depression to the child’s activation did not promote their expansion. Therefore, those who have a closer window, it is easier for the emotions to perceive as threatening and difficult to control. The moment they leave this window are perceived as dangerous unleashing the fear of crazy.
Also in this case it is not a question of “madness”, but to train to expand our window in order to be more flexible, and to be able to experience our emotions without the fear of becoming “crazy”.
How to help and get help
Welcome emotions and not fear them
First of all, we can try to change the perspective through which we observe our emotional, physical and physiological reactions.
These are only normal responses of our body, which if we learn about and accept they are not so terrible. I can be unpleasant, but they still want to communicate something and as such, we must learn to listen to them.
Being curious helps us to observe what happens to us without judging it by dangerous and threatening force, but simply a new experience. Nobody has ever become crazy about having experienced anxiety, sadness, joy or anger.
Learn to meditate and normalize somatic symptoms
Mindfulness meditation can certainly help from this point of view allowing the person to stay in the “here and now” and observe themselves by suspending the judgment. Obviously it is a practice that must be trained and used fully understanding the theoretical principles of reference.
Identify the stimuli that favor the onset of the vicious circle (physical/emotional state – perceived threat – increased physical/emotional state), can help to be ready in times of greater vulnerability, to deal with them with opening and acceptance.
As we have seen, psychological factors have an important role in incorrecting somatic symptoms. If we evaluate a turning of the head as terrible, we will be more likely to shake and ensure that this turning continues.
Targeted psychotherapy
Cognitive-behavioral therapy from this point of view offers useful tools to better face physical symptoms and reduce the general stress that can aggravate them. It is therefore recommended to rely on a professional with whom to acquire the techniques most functional to us.
The therapeutic objective is twofold: learning to normalize the somatic alterations, without frightening and reducing the sense of self in a vulnerable person and at the mercy of one’s emotions. The fundamental purpose of the work is therefore to train the patient with normalization the symptoms, rectulating them to harmless causes. Accepting to be with their own emotions and physiological reactions, living them for what they are, without being dominated by the fear of crazy.
