Email us for help
Loading...
Premium support
Log Out
Our Terms of Use and Privacy Policy have changed. We think you'll like them better this way.
Facing what you’re afraid of is a key concept in psychotherapy.
Involuntary exposure to stressors produces the stress hormone cortisol. Stress activates the sympathetic nervous system which responds to threats with preparation for [“fight, flight or freeze”], apprehension and shock. Why? Because in that case you’re not expecting it.
Life is full of Involuntary exposure to stressors “That’s Life” and Allah says:
“No misfortune can happen on earth or in your souls but is recorded in a decree before We bring it into existence: That is truly easy for Allah.” [Sûrah al-Hadîd: 22]
“Say: ‘Nothing will happen to us except what Allah has decreed for us: He is our protector.’ And on Allah let the believers put their trust.” [Sûrah al-Tawbah 51]
On the other hand, exposure to the things that make us afraid is curative if it’s voluntary.
WHY??? because when we face the same thing voluntarily we use a different part of our autonomic nervous system. That is, when we, VOLUNTARILY face otherwise stressful things, our MIND AND BODY respond to it as an indication of our mastery over the thing that we were once afraid of. This process [through reward and reinforcement] restructures our brain, our personality and our identity.
