Absolutely petrified
SilverProteus
Veteran
Joined: 20 Jul 2007
Gender: Female
Posts: 7,915
Location: Somewhere Over The Rainbow
Do you go to a therapist? Maybe talk to them about how to emotionally process these events...don't end up with PTSD or another anxiety disorder over this.
Are you familiar with Mean World Syndrome?
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mean_world_syndrome
There are so many fallacies in that post I don't even know where to begin.
You can not statistically determine ones chances of dying in a terrorist attack because you don't know the scale and casualties of a potential attack. There could be one person being stabbed, ten people shot, a hundred blown up with a bomb or even more.
There is also now way of knowing when and where an attack will happen. You'll never know if terrorists will strike just after one attack or space them out over time, or if they will attack in proximity to the previous area or somewhere else altogether. Terrorism itself uses fear and therefore it has to be unpredictable by nature.
Avoiding crowded areas is generally a good idea. Why spend more time there than you have to, especially if you can get your errands done elsewhere? Very few people have to spend much time at all in very crowded areas. There is no harm in harboring suspicion and being careful.
Take the number of people who die in car related accidents per year and compare that to the number who die in a terrorist attack (both in the Western world).
_________________
"Lightning is but a flicker of light, punctuated on all sides by darkness." - Loki
1) ISIS is a bad thing, we can all agree on that part. No one here that I am aware of supports what they're doing. And if they do, guaranteed they're on the government watch list for it, or doesn't fully understand the implications of their position.
2) There is some truth to the "severe anxiety disorder" bit my wife mentioned. While not necessarily a disorder per se, I do believe one of her long-standing medications (that she is weening off now thankfully) is the root cause of her anxiety and inability to communicate effectively. That being said, as of Wednesday, she has started taking Zoloft now that the doctors cleared her for it, and is still weaning onto it. Last night was the first full dose she took (before was half-doses to help her onto it). I personally have already noticed a vast improvement over the past few days with regards to anxiety, but we still have a ways to go before she reaches my level of (I don't know the word for this) non-anxiety.
3) I do want to apologize for her behavior and the way it made you feel, and so does she. Truth is, she latched onto one statement you made and ran with it. Was it overboard? I'd personally say so, but not as much as I told her last night when I only got brief glimpses of this thread's content. Please accept my sincerest apologies for everything that happened in this thread.
4) As for the "why" this thread took this turn, well, it looks to me like a perfect storm of circumstances. My wife has, since they became a thing, had a fear of ISIS. Particularly with regards to local attacks. She also has a fear of premature death. Honestly, I used to, but deep faith changed that because I believe I'm in good hands and it'll all work out (not to start a religious discussion here however). Not that Iive my life as if I'm invincible or anything, but I don't worry about the possibility of that kind of stuff because in the end, I want to (safely) live my life to the fullest. Anyways, these two fears, plus a bit of jealousy over those that seem to lack them, was factor A. Factor B is that her two worst fears combined overseas.
In short: worst fears realized + people not having those fears + misunderstanding the intent of what was posted online (typical spectrum stuff ) = this thread.
I will say that I saw your post Earthling, I understood what you were getting at, and honestly, it's how I feel too. If I not mistaken, what you were essentially saying is that you shouldn't live your life in fear of what will happen tomorrow. What happens is going to happen and nothing we do can change that. Totally get it, and that's my stance on things too. That being said, my wife hasn't reached that stage yet, and still does, to an extent, live her life avoiding places that give her anxiety. Not as much as, say, a month ago, but she's improving. I love her to pieces, but I do want her and everyone else here to be friends on good terms, and for everyone to have a good time here. Well, besides the occasional trolls that pop up, but I don't see any in this thread.
So, all in all, while things started to get out of hand and seem to be resolved now, I just wanted to clarify a few things so they don't flare up again, and also so all parties involved feel better about what happened. We're all in this together!
It's good to know that my initial gut feeling was right.
Thanks for clearing things up. I accept your apology.
Do you go to a therapist? Maybe talk to them about how to emotionally process these events...don't end up with PTSD or another anxiety disorder over this.
Are you familiar with Mean World Syndrome?
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mean_world_syndrome
There are so many fallacies in that post I don't even know where to begin.
You can not statistically determine ones chances of dying in a terrorist attack because you don't know the scale and casualties of a potential attack. There could be one person being stabbed, ten people shot, a hundred blown up with a bomb or even more.
There is also now way of knowing when and where an attack will happen. You'll never know if terrorists will strike just after one attack or space them out over time, or if they will attack in proximity to the previous area or somewhere else altogether. Terrorism itself uses fear and therefore it has to be unpredictable by nature.
Avoiding crowded areas is generally a good idea. Why spend more time there than you have to, especially if you can get your errands done elsewhere? Very few people have to spend much time at all in very crowded areas. There is no harm in harboring suspicion and being careful.
Take the number of people who die in car related accidents per year and compare that to the number who die in a terrorist attack (both in the Western world).
That is too general. The chances of dying in a car crash increases if you drive, then increases depending on where you drive.
It is the same with terrorism, except the factors are even more unpredictable, because a terrorist attack has to be unpredictable in order to cause shock.
That is why it makes no sense to tell everybody to calm down and pretend nothing is going to happen.
There is a middle ground between hysteria and naivete, and I think advocating for that middle ground is the common sense approach.
People always bring up car crashes whenever I'm worried about a deadly misfortunate. Driving a car is mundane, and car crashes just happen. Terrorist attacks feel more like a threat to people when there has currently been a big terrorist attack somewhere and being threats that there are terrorists now in your country or area and could kill again, using bombs.
Also it doesn't help when you hear of some refugees posing as genuine refugees just so they can have an excuse to be welcomed into "non-racist" countries like the UK and cause more suicide bombings, killing another 100 or 200 innocent people. David Cameron needs to open his eyes here.
And I don't even watch much telly. It's the internet I hear all this from, for example Facebook. People post new news links about the terrorists and what they're planning on doing next.
I think I may have that Unsafe World Syndrome or whatever it's called, as one of the posters here said. I'm not the sort to think "oh it happens to all these people but it won't happen to me." But I have more imagination, I overlook things and think that I'm not going to be a lucky person who lives a full life and dies of old age or old age-related diseases.
And that doesn't just mean terrorist attacks, it means other deadly things like cancer, fires, traffic accidents, freak accidents, sudden heart attack, severe weather, the list goes on. But all those are mostly accidents (except for murders by insecure weirdos, or traffic accidents caused by lunatics on the road). Terrorist attacks are no accident. They all need to be dead. The world doesn't need them, and it's upto us as humanity to stop these monsters with trained armies. These ISIS freaks want to die, so give them what they want.
_________________
Female
Don't fall for the scare mongering. Our governments are gearing us up for another ME invasion.
Seriously. If they were dead set on avoiding terrorism in their countries, they wouldn't let millions of unchecked people pour in and knowing full well that ISIS has been threatening for a long time now that they would "infiltrate".
Simple and obvious stuff people, yet our governments take the other path. It's because they do it on purpose.
SilverProteus
Veteran
Joined: 20 Jul 2007
Gender: Female
Posts: 7,915
Location: Somewhere Over The Rainbow
Do you go to a therapist? Maybe talk to them about how to emotionally process these events...don't end up with PTSD or another anxiety disorder over this.
Are you familiar with Mean World Syndrome?
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mean_world_syndrome
There are so many fallacies in that post I don't even know where to begin.
You can not statistically determine ones chances of dying in a terrorist attack because you don't know the scale and casualties of a potential attack. There could be one person being stabbed, ten people shot, a hundred blown up with a bomb or even more.
There is also now way of knowing when and where an attack will happen. You'll never know if terrorists will strike just after one attack or space them out over time, or if they will attack in proximity to the previous area or somewhere else altogether. Terrorism itself uses fear and therefore it has to be unpredictable by nature.
Avoiding crowded areas is generally a good idea. Why spend more time there than you have to, especially if you can get your errands done elsewhere? Very few people have to spend much time at all in very crowded areas. There is no harm in harboring suspicion and being careful.
Take the number of people who die in car related accidents per year and compare that to the number who die in a terrorist attack (both in the Western world).
That is too general. The chances of dying in a car crash increases if you drive, then increases depending on where you drive.
It is the same with terrorism, except the factors are even more unpredictable, because a terrorist attack has to be unpredictable in order to cause shock.
That is why it makes no sense to tell everybody to calm down and pretend nothing is going to happen.
There is a middle ground between hysteria and naivete, and I think advocating for that middle ground is the common sense approach.
You say "It's the same with terrorism", yet don't allow me to compare the two. I don't think we're on the same frequency here...
(I said car-related accident, btw, which includes being a passenger or even crossing the road.)
I don't have a crystal ball, neither does Joe and neither do you. If anybody knew beforehand that they were going to be in an fatal accident or a victim of a terrorist attack, everybody would avoid doing certain things and particular circumstances, obviously.
Even car accidents can be unpredictable even if they are more likely under certain circumstances - and I assume that the thousands that die worldwide in car-related accidents every year didn't expect to die that day, otherwise they wouldn't have even gotten in their cars in the first place.
Some people do develop anxiety related to cars and driving while others don't just as some people are more vulnerable to develop anxiety over terrorism. People who are too anxious to drive or get in a car may have their quality of life diminished. If you believe that there's a terrorist around every corner than your quality of life will certainly be less.
Are you more likely to suffer a car-related accident than be a victim in a terrorist attack? Yes. Are you more likely to suffer a car-related accident than be in a plane crash? Yes. Are plane crashes predictable? No.
And yes, I know that it's a general assertion and depends on whether a person actually goes on planes or not. But this is besides the point.
In my first post I said that terrorism is apt at making people amplify their feelings of fear and the media plays a part in this. I even linked the Wikipedia page on Mean World Syndrome, which superficially explains what happens.
I never said pretend nothing is going to happen. It can happen as it happened to the innocent people who lost their lives in Paris the other day. People just have to maintain perspective.
_________________
"Lightning is but a flicker of light, punctuated on all sides by darkness." - Loki
SilverProteus
Veteran
Joined: 20 Jul 2007
Gender: Female
Posts: 7,915
Location: Somewhere Over The Rainbow
Yeah, it's rather cliché, I just brought that up because most people drive and even if you don't most people in the civilized world are exposed to cars and can suffer accidents. So even if it's overused, I think it's a good example.
Anyways, I hope you're able to sort this out. Living with such anxiety is a terrible thing.
_________________
"Lightning is but a flicker of light, punctuated on all sides by darkness." - Loki
Also, this is another thing that has always plagued me for years, and I've always wanted to ask why. Here goes:-
So people usually say that the worst case scenario is death. When I'm worrying about some mundane thing, people say "oh it's not like you're going to die", or "it isn't the end of the world." Also people hold on for dear life. They do anything they can to save themselves from death. So if death is this bad when comparing everyday situations to death, and doing anything you can to avoid death, then when there IS a situation where you could die, people say "oh if you die you die, you won't know much about it."
If dying is actually completely simple and an end to all life's problems and you won't know anything about what will happen after you die, then why do people avoid death and don't want to die?
Excluding terrorists and very depressed people.
_________________
Female
SilverProteus
Veteran
Joined: 20 Jul 2007
Gender: Female
Posts: 7,915
Location: Somewhere Over The Rainbow
So people usually say that the worst case scenario is death. When I'm worrying about some mundane thing, people say "oh it's not like you're going to die", or "it isn't the end of the world." Also people hold on for dear life. They do anything they can to save themselves from death. So if death is this bad when comparing everyday situations to death, and doing anything you can to avoid death, then when there IS a situation where you could die, people say "oh if you die you die, you won't know much about it."
If dying is actually completely simple and an end to all life's problems and you won't know anything about what will happen after you die, then why do people avoid death and don't want to die?
Excluding terrorists and very depressed people.
I think people (like other animals) are psychologically primed to survive. Assuming the animal/person is healthy, one of its/our strongest instincts is to survive no matter what. This, I think, is also what's at the root of beliefs in the afterlife and why it's difficult for some people to accept that maybe after life ends it just...ends.
In my opinion, when people say stuff like "if you die, you die", then it's almost like a distant possible and almost unreal future. It's one of those things that's easy to say, alluding to the fact that there are some things in life that you can't control. If death were staring people in the face I doubt most would think that and accept death so easily.
_________________
"Lightning is but a flicker of light, punctuated on all sides by darkness." - Loki
Do you go to a therapist? Maybe talk to them about how to emotionally process these events...don't end up with PTSD or another anxiety disorder over this.
Are you familiar with Mean World Syndrome?
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mean_world_syndrome
There are so many fallacies in that post I don't even know where to begin.
You can not statistically determine ones chances of dying in a terrorist attack because you don't know the scale and casualties of a potential attack. There could be one person being stabbed, ten people shot, a hundred blown up with a bomb or even more.
There is also now way of knowing when and where an attack will happen. You'll never know if terrorists will strike just after one attack or space them out over time, or if they will attack in proximity to the previous area or somewhere else altogether. Terrorism itself uses fear and therefore it has to be unpredictable by nature.
Avoiding crowded areas is generally a good idea. Why spend more time there than you have to, especially if you can get your errands done elsewhere? Very few people have to spend much time at all in very crowded areas. There is no harm in harboring suspicion and being careful.
Take the number of people who die in car related accidents per year and compare that to the number who die in a terrorist attack (both in the Western world).
That is too general. The chances of dying in a car crash increases if you drive, then increases depending on where you drive.
It is the same with terrorism, except the factors are even more unpredictable, because a terrorist attack has to be unpredictable in order to cause shock.
That is why it makes no sense to tell everybody to calm down and pretend nothing is going to happen.
There is a middle ground between hysteria and naivete, and I think advocating for that middle ground is the common sense approach.
You say "It's the same with terrorism", yet don't allow me to compare the two. I don't think we're on the same frequency here...
(I said car-related accident, btw, which includes being a passenger or even crossing the road.)
I don't have a crystal ball, neither does Joe and neither do you. If anybody knew beforehand that they were going to be in an fatal accident or a victim of a terrorist attack, everybody would avoid doing certain things and particular circumstances, obviously.
Even car accidents can be unpredictable even if they are more likely under certain circumstances - and I assume that the thousands that die worldwide in car-related accidents every year didn't expect to die that day, otherwise they wouldn't have even gotten in their cars in the first place.
Some people do develop anxiety related to cars and driving while others don't just as some people are more vulnerable to develop anxiety over terrorism. People who are too anxious to drive or get in a car may have their quality of life diminished. If you believe that there's a terrorist around every corner than your quality of life will certainly be less.
Are you more likely to suffer a car-related accident than be a victim in a terrorist attack? Yes. Are you more likely to suffer a car-related accident than be in a plane crash? Yes. Are plane crashes predictable? No.
And yes, I know that it's a general assertion and depends on whether a person actually goes on planes or not. But this is besides the point.
In my first post I said that terrorism is apt at making people amplify their feelings of fear and the media plays a part in this. I even linked the Wikipedia page on Mean World Syndrome, which superficially explains what happens.
I never said pretend nothing is going to happen. It can happen as it happened to the innocent people who lost their lives in Paris the other day. People just have to maintain perspective.
I meant the same in regards to there being too many variables into play that you can generalize the risk.
Driving? depends on the circumstances.
Terrorism? depends on the circumstances. Taken into the account that the element of suprise is integral to the desired effect, it becomes even more unpredictable.
However, we can observe political development and determine that the risk of terror attacks is on the rise. But it's difficult to tell if there will be any pattern in frequency or area. Since the element of surprise is key, a terror attack will likely happen far away from Paris next time, and probably not too soon. But since this is the general idea, terrorist might strike nearby and soon just because of that, to break the pattern that is the general idea of when and where.
Being easily overstimulated by crowd noise due to my autism, I generally avoid crowded areas anyway, so it's not like taking precautions is anything out of the ordinary for me
I remember feeling this way immediately after 9/11. During the days/weeks after, every time I saw an airplane, I would wonder if it was heading for a building.
Some refugee families are moving to my area by Christmas, so now I'm terrified that some might be terrorists and will go around shooting people. Where I come from, it always gets really busy, and crowded places are what terrorists target with bombs or guns. I'm so f*****g terrified. Why the f**k do we have to be part of f*****g Syria's s**t???
And the refugees are going to be housed. What if me and my partner wanted to rent/buy a new house? Bet they won't let us (British people) have one because they're ''for'' these f*****g Muslims that will probably f*****g bomb us anyway.
I f*****g hate terrorists. David Cameron wasn't going to go through with letting the Muslims in, but then he backed out because he doesn't want the UK to be ''heartless''. Who f*****g cares? For once this country needs to put it's foot down. Also the government are getting rid of police, so that's going to go down well ain't it - less police and increased f*****g terrorism.
I wish I could move right out to the country. It's not fair, I don't want to be shot by a terrorist.
_________________
Female
I understand your fear.
But the vast, vast majority of these refugees are not terrorists. They are victims of terrorists. All they want to do is to live a decent life, have meals every day, get a job, raise kids properly, stuff like that.
They are not able to do that because they were displaced from their homes.
Governments have to be watchful and wary----but, it really is not a good thing to think that refugee=terrorist--
Because it's not true.
Imagine if you, yourself, were rendered homeless by bombs, explosions, ISIS, etc.