If you’ve noticed your anxiety has soared in midlife, you’re not alone. Time to free yourself from your fears…
Always been confident and taken things in your stride – but recently started noticing you’re irrationally anxious in certain situations? Amanda, 51, can pinpoint exactly when a new fearfulness began to grip her. “Last year, my first significant post-divorce relationship ended and I was stressed at work. I flew to Berlin for a weekend with an old friend. When I got on the plane to come home, I became convinced we were going to crash.
“The flight was actually uneventful but I spent all of it hyperventilating and crying. I know heartbreak and stress were probably behind it but I haven’t been able to get on a plane since. In the rest of my life, I’m a very self-assured person. This new flying phobia just doesn’t make sense.”
Actually women are twice as likely as men to experience phobias, according to research from the Karolinska Institute, Sweden – and scientists think our fear responses are sharper, perhaps because of our innate desire to keep our families safe.
Why now?
This story is from the April 2018 edition of Woman & Home.
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This story is from the April 2018 edition of Woman & Home.
Start your 7-day Magzter GOLD free trial to access thousands of curated premium stories, and 8,500+ magazines and newspapers.
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