Fear, Take the Wheel

[DISCLAIMER]

As Rational Emotive Behavior Therapy (REBT) is informed by Stoic philosophy, this blog entry is part of an ongoing series regarding a book entitled The Daily Stoic: 366 Meditations on Wisdom, Perseverance, and the Art of Living by Ryan Holiday and Stephen Hanselman.

The authors quote ancient Stoic philosopher Seneca who stated, “But there is no reason to live and no limit to our miseries if we let our fears predominate” (page 277). Of the negative emotion addressed by Seneca, the American Psychological Association thusly defines fear:

[A] basic, intense emotion aroused by the detection of imminent threat, involving an immediate alarm reaction that mobilizes the organism by triggering a set of physiological changes. These include rapid heartbeat, redirection of blood flow away from the periphery toward the gut, tensing of the muscles, and a general mobilization of the organism to take action.

Fear differs from anxiety in that the former is considered an appropriate short-term response to a present, clearly identifiable threat, whereas the latter is a future-oriented, long-term response focused on a diffuse threat.

Some theorists characterize this distinction more particularly, proposing that fear is experienced when avoiding or escaping an aversive stimuli and that anxiety is experienced when entering a potentially dangerous situation (e.g., an animal foraging in a field where there might be a predator). Whatever their precise differences in meaning, however, the terms are often used interchangeably in common parlance.

REBT uses the ABC model to illustrate that when an undesirable Action occurs and you Believe an unhelpful narrative about the event, it’s your unfavorable assumption, not the occurrence itself, that causes an unpleasant Consequence. This is known as distress or disturbance.

There are four predominate irrational beliefs which people often use to self-upset: global evaluations, low frustration tolerance, awfulizing, and demandingness, as you may consider the acronym GLAD when thinking of these Beliefs. Also, one REBT source states (page 71):

REBT conceptualizes [distress] as healthy even though it is intense. Other approaches to therapy have as their goal the reduction of the intensity of negative emotions. They take this position because they do not keenly differentiate between healthy negative emotions (distress) and unhealthy negative emotions (disturbance).

Now, REBT keenly distinguishes between healthy distress and unhealthy disturbance. Healthy distress stems from your rational beliefs about a negative activating event [Action], whilst disturbance stems from your irrational beliefs about the same event.

Complete elimination of distress is highly unlikely in an impermanent and uncertain world wherein people conceptually suffer, struggle, and battle with, or merely experience hardship. Still, individuals often make matters worse for themselves by disturbing about such instances.

Additionally, from a psychological standpoint, people distress or disturb themselves using a Belief-Consequence (B-C) connection. Of course, this isn’t to suggest that in the context of the naturalistic or physical world there is no Action-Consequence (A-C) connection.

From an A-C view, someone instantly lunges toward you from around a corner (Action) and you automatically become fearful (Consequences). As one of the core emotions, constituting healthy distress, fear can precede Belief.  Now, let’s look at unhealthy disturbance involving fear.

From a B-C outlook, you become fearful after someone lunges toward you (Action) and Believe, “I’m worthless for reacting [G], and I can’t tolerate fear [L]! It’s so terrible [A] that I mustn’t react that way ever again [D],” as you’re then afraid of repeating your behavior (Consequence).

Addressing how people upset themselves with unhelpful attitudes, the ABC model incorporates Disputation of unproductive philosophies of life in order to explore Effective new beliefs. Whereas rigid beliefs cause self-disturbance, flexible beliefs result in an un-disturbed condition.

Seneca discussed predominating fears, presumably both of the distressed and disturbed variety. When further contemplating this matter, I’m reminded of the song “Jesus, Take the Wheel” by singer and songwriter Carrie Underwood, from her album Some Hearts (2005).

Describing the track, one source states, “Lyrically, the song tells the story of a woman who survives a car crash, seemingly as part of a miracle of divine intervention.” For a brief period of time, people made memes of Jesus taking over their daily activities as Underwood’s song played.

In this regard, I consider an imaginary track called “Fear, Take the Wheel” in which unhealthily disturbed fear is allowed to drive a person crazy, to use a dated figure of speech. Unlike automatic fear resulting from an A-C startle response, B-C fear is caused by wacky Beliefs.

Of this topic, authors of The Daily Stoic state, “The Stoics knew that fear was to be feared because of the miseries it creates. The things we fear pale in comparison to the damage we do to ourselves and others when we unthinkingly scramble to avoid them” (page 277).

I argue that it’s virtually impossible for most well-adjusted individuals to altogether avoid A-C healthily distressed fear. All the same, we can Stoically and actively turn toward B-C unhealthily disturbed fear and say, “You aren’t taking the wheel! I’ve got this.”

If you’re looking for a provider who tries to work to help understand how thinking impacts physical, mental, emotional, and behavioral elements of your life—helping you to sharpen your critical thinking skills, I invite you to reach out today by using the contact widget on my website.

As a psychotherapist, I’m pleased to try to help people with an assortment of issues ranging from anger (hostility, rage, and aggression) to relational issues, adjustment matters, trauma experience, justice involvement, attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder, anxiety and depression, and other mood or personality-related matters.

At Hollings Therapy, LLC, serving all of Texas, I aim to treat clients with dignity and respect while offering a multi-lensed approach to the practice of psychotherapy and life coaching. My mission includes: Prioritizing the cognitive and emotive needs of clients, an overall reduction in client suffering, and supporting sustainable growth for the clients I serve. Rather than simply trying to help you to feel better, I want to try to help you get better!

Deric Hollings, LPC, LCSW

Photo credit, Designed by Freepik, fair use

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