Misplaced panic and wrongful fight or flight

Hi @Mimi95

Nice to meet you and welcome to the Forums. I used to suffer the same anxieties as you do about rather similar situations. Its all about thinking of these situations in a new way, take for example going shopping, remember you are the shopper and they want your money, so generally they will always try and please you to get that money from you.

Lets say the motorist yells at you, its not you he is yelling at, its probably some incident in his own life that he is yelling at and it has nothing to do with you.

Reverse parking, i'm a crap parker so if ever I attempt a parrallel park, I always make sure that the space is plenty big enough and if I can go forward in, I will always do that.

If someone yells at you on the phone, I would always let them yell to their hearts content and say nothing, and then continue to say nothing, they will invaribly say 'hello, are you still there' to which i would reply 'just waiting to see if you have finished' if they yell again, i would let them yell -- eventually they would always calm down.

So dealing with stressy situations, its all about looking at them in different ways.....Asgard

Hi @Mimi95 and welcome to the forums

I'm interested to hear when you first started noticing these responses, is it more recently, or something that you have managed for a long time?

There are lots of things that can cause our bodies to sense danger in seemingly safe and mundane daily activities, sometimes they're linked to our past experiences and sometimes they are due to hormonal imbalances etc. Understanding where this stress response is coming from can really help us know the best way to address it. I wonder if you've ever thought about speaking to a therapist or your GP about this?

In terms of regaining some more mind-body connection, something that comes to mind is practicing mindfulness. It can be both calming and encourages greater connection with oneself. If it's something you find might be helpful there are lots of ways to practice it, from Mindfulness Based Stress Reduction (MBSR) therapy, to meditation and breathing exercises, or physical practices like yoga.

Just saw @Asgard's response as well and I definitely agree with the usefulness of reframing thoughts. Being an anxious person myself I've definitely used some of these too