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Anxiety Community
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does anyone else have a super fear of storms?
by aprilr, Jun 08, 2007 12:00AM
i am 21 and recently have been dealing with horrible anxiety and panic and stress and when it storms i freak and dont know how to deal it could just start sprinkling and i freak and i live where it storms all the time i just wanna know if anyone else has this problem and how the heck do you deal with it?
I had this problem when I was younger, around 10-12 years old. My biggest fear was a tornado. I knew nothing about how weather worked at that time. My fears were fueled by the unknown, that any low hanging dark cloud would spawn a twister.
The way I got around that was to learn how weather works and when it really was time to be scared. I'd suggest that as a way to try and ease the fear of storms.
Storms are natural and occur all over the Earth all day long. There should always be a healthy fear of storms because lightning is the most dangerous part of the average storm. Use common sense in that case, stay indoors, away from trees and windows, off the phone. Don't be the tallest object in a field. All that stuff we learned in elementary school. Being inside a vehicle is sometimes regarded as the safest place to be regarding lightning because of the rubber tires.
At any rate, learn about the weather and how it works. That way you can be the one telling fellow family members/co-workers/etc when it's time to get to safety :) I enjoy thunderstorms now because I've learned to find the beauty in them. I respect them. I also know when it's time to take cover which I've only had to do once in 20 years.
The media gravitating to terrible weather stories certainly doesn't help matters...
I also understand your fear and that it's easier to say it than do it. That's my advice because it really worked for me. www.nws.noaa.gov is a great site to keep up to date tabs on weather in whatever area you might be in too (if you're in the US that is). Best of luck to you! :D
Cori
How so? Well, while everyone HAD panic, no one other than she had it about the weather. Someone had it about driving west (but not east) believe it or not. And someone else had it about a particular bridge (and that guy was a delivery driver). My deal was about receiving communion in church, and someone else had...
...you get my drift. Everyone had SOMEthing. So, what did we do? What we did was to hold her and kiss her and let her know we would lay down our lives to take that first hit of lightning. And so, we gathered around her to protect her. And we also learned that panic IS as panic DOES. We all got better, eventually.
The teaching point here is that, while someone else's panic trigger may make no sense at all to you, in your experience, yours doesnt really fit, either, with theirs. BUT, as every true devotee of the panic arts knows, it doesn't matter: panic IS as panic DOES. That said, you DO get a tiny bit of helpful data. Should it really matter that you drive east, instead of west? Yes and no. Westbound may have more intinsic danger, such as falling rocks or cliffs. But east may be smooth sailing. And that bridge may be basically the same as any other bridge -except for the chunks of concrete falling away from the sides. And communion? But you have SINNED! And are not worthy.
The list goes on.
But, what you get out of this is the realization that the thing that freaks someone ELSE -does not freak you. And the thing that freaks YOU does not bother them. So, obviously, it is something IN YOU that makes the difference.
It is not about the weather, April. It is about YOU. Start with that -and work forward. One day, one great day, we'll walk in an April shower together. Until then, you can bet I'll cover your back. Just make sure you cover mine.
all i do everyday is sit in the basment with the blinds open so i can so wut it look like outside and have the weather network on, and my laptop on my lap searching about tornadoes, its achualy so annoying my mom always says your wasting you life, but it true, and i dont know wut to do,PLEASEE HELP ME! =(
What use to scare me was not the wind or the rain or even the thunder.. it was the way the clouds looked.. what scares you about storms??