Overcome the Fear of Going Mad

Going crazy, insane, mad, nuts, losing it and going loco. There are many ways to express what happens to the human mind when it is stressed. But we often talk about madness or craziness when we really mean just stressed out. True madness is something else. And fear of madness or going crazy happens often when people just don't truly understand what true madness is and how much they can do for themselves to feel better and more sane.

Fear of going mad can be terrifying. Having a sense of control is so important and people everywhere fear 'losing it' and going mad. We all behave irrationally sometimes but when we start to feel overwhelmed it's easy to fear going mad or 'crazy.'

It's important to know that just about everyone has seriously thought they were going mad at some time or another.

Maybe there is someone in your family who had emotional difficulties and you fear that it will happen to you just because it happened to them. Having emotional problems isn't the same as 'being mad'.

What does 'mad' mean?

Madness means 'psychotic' which is a disorder in which people hallucinate visual images or sounds or even smells. During proper psychosis the contents which originate from within the mind seem to originate from outside of the mind to the point at which the person experiencing the psychosis really believes that images and sounds produced by their imaginations are actually produced by the environment. We all experience this when we dream at night-we believe that our dreams are real when we are dreaming them. The psychotic person dreams whilst awake and believes these 'dreams' or hallucinations to be real.

In fact the human brain is designed to simulate reality and make imagination seem real. During dreaming your brain simulates images, sounds and other sensations. It does this in a controlled way. So dreaming is controlled 'reality simulation' and psychosis is uncontrolled reality simulation. In order for psychosis (madness) to be happening you'd need to believe that hallucinations weren't hallucinations but in fact real.

This happens in an uncontrolled way during waking consciousness it is seen as madness if the person believes the hallucinations to be real and starts to act on them.

People can hallucinate without being crazy.

• Perfectly sane people will hallucinate if they haven't slept for a couple of nights. This isn't madness just a sign they need to sleep.
• Perfectly sane people can sometimes feel anxious for no obvious cause. This is not a sign of madness just a sign that you need to calm down.
• Perfectly sane people will behave irrationally. Sometimes this is not insanity, just a part of being human.

We might describe someone as 'mad' or 'crazy' because they experience strong anger or anxiety and, indeed, any strong emotion makes us irrational but this is not the same as madness.

Of the 1% of the population who do 'go mad' (have a psychotic episode) many of them will go on to live normal healthy lives having just had the one 'break down' so even people who do experience 'madness' at some point don't necessarily become mad forever. They move on from it.

We all have needs in life which, when they are fulfilled, make us feel more normal and 'sane.' This session will describe some of those needs so you can begin to see what you really need to feel better and more settled in your own mind.

Strong emotions make us irrational

Being irrational is caused by strong emotions - this isn't madness just irrationality and confusion brought on by strong emotion. When the emotion calms down the rationality comes back.

There are things you can do to make you feel more 'sane' one of which is to calm the emotional part of the mind down by regular and deep relaxation and comfort.

This session will help you relax so deeply which is a wonderful way of calming the emotional mind. It will reassure you that you can have control and that your mind has a very clear center to it that can look after your best interests.

Download Overcome Fear of Going Crazy and regain confidence in your own mind.