Dear sophronia:

Fear is the most powerful emotion there is, I believe. Not only from personal experience (five decades of anxiety: this ongoing excess fear), but from my understanding of Nature. Animals are engineered, genetically, to attend to danger first, as first priority. Fear, triggered by a possibility of danger, motivates them/ us to attend to danger.

When feeling fear, the part of the brain that is able to solve problems is activated: locating the problem and solving it will resolve the fear. So we think and over think, and for as long as we don’t locate the real problem, the real danger, that is, we keep looking for it, and not finding it, the fear is not resolved.

When anxious, we get breaks. The brain cannot handle ongoing fear without a break. When you do something with your hands, your attention is on playing the guitar or drawing. And so the part of the brain looking for the danger (and not finding it) is dormant, for as long as you are engaged in a task. Otherwise there are other breaks, but the anxiety comes back.

There is a way through it, only it is not instant. It takes time and work and practice of skills. It takes insight and understanding and practice.

Please let me know your thoughts about my input and I will reply again, if you do.

anita