Confronting the Demon of Doom...

You can't run from it, because you made it real and now you feel as if it would consume you.

You didn't know it was growing, but with each month and the stresses of your life, the demon grew in power then one day, seemingly out of nowhere, it dropped you to your knees.

Heart palpitations, bradycardia, arrhythmia, shortness of breath, dizziness, brain fog, stuttering, dry mouth, hot and cold flashes, double vision, chest contraction, gas, bloating, tremors, shakiness, tingling arms, profuse sweating, mucus buildup with runny nose, diarrhea, social anxiety, depression, loneliness, muscle aches, stiffness in joints, headaches, frequent crying spells, anger, feelings of hopelessness and helplessness, insomnia, racing thoughts, vomiting, fatigue, irritability, mood swings, inability to concentrate, muscle tension, sensitivity to light and sound, disorientation, muscle spasms, lethargy, dehydration, derealization and depersonalization, coppery taste in mouth, frequent urination, easily exhausted, suicidal ideation, all defining....

... stark raving terror.

This results in your becoming obsessively internal and severely interoceptive, with heightened awareness of your inner physiological states, consistently scanning the body for abnormalities, subsequently, resulting in Shifting Symptoms, in which pounding heart is replaced by hot and cold flashes one week, replaced by tremors and muscle pain the next, only to then be replaced by insomnia and racing thoughts, but always there is that gnawing sense of impending doom, centered in the chest and branching outwards, that never leaves you.

Your daily state of High Anxiety keeps plunging you into episodes of "fight or flight," resulting in overactive Adrenal glands pumping cortisol, adrenaline, neurepiniphrine, epinephrine, throughout your bloodstream. Overactivity can lead to adrenal fatigue or adrenal insufficiency.

Yet, it seems the demon simply came out of nowhere...

But, make no mistake, a demon this powerful does not simply arise from nothing. Month after month, even year by year, you have been molding and shaping this demon to take up more and more space in the neuro-circuitry between your ears.

Work stress, financial stress, chronic relationship conflicts, medical complications, chemical and behavioral addictions (caffeine and nicotine in excess), poor eating habits, sleep deprivation, lack of exercise, (winter!), all generating maladaptive neural hard-wiring, slowly mass together to breathe life into the Demon of Impending Doom and once it is strong enough it will leave the brain and enter your body.

Each complaint makes it stronger because each complaint confirms that it is real and not an unrealistic and irrational figment of your imagination. How many trips to the ER to confirm it is not your heart or some other Googled ailment, disorder, disease? How many psychiatric meds, i.e., antidepressants, minor tranquilizers, mood stabilizers, each one the demon overcomes (brain tolerance) resulting in symptom persistence and intensification, requiring more meds at higher doses?

You will accomodate the demon by taking a leave of absence from work. You will avoid public places and remain at home, clearly informing the demon of its power to control your life. You will stop doing the things you enjoy and friends will fade away, unable to understand what you fear, simply because you don't really know what you fear, but fear, you do.

Over time mild worry circuits grow and slowly find their way to survival circuits deep in the mammalian centers of your brain, in which normal worries become death defying.

Every attempt to escape the demon accommodates its growth and power.

You have only one choice and that is to stare deeply into the black hole.

You must recognize, on an intellectual level, the monster you have subconsciously created and you must face it. You must embrace the fear on a daily basis. You must sit with it and ride it out, while at the same time making lifestyle changes conducive to lowering of daily anxiety levels. Meditation, breathing exercises, diet changes, increased water consumption, exercise, psychotherapy, etc.

But the plumbing is in place, the circuits are hard-wired. You can shut down the electro-chemical current but, if you are not vigilant in abstaining from worry, it will all light up again.