I have a terrible issue where pictures of things that I’m afraid of get so stuck in my head that it feels like they’re in the room with me, like I can’t shake the feeling that they’re watching me. For example: I hate religious imagery, and can’t shake the picture of the crucifix from my childhood parish out of my head.

I feel silly that I can’t just not think about the things that scare me, but it’s really feeding into my paranoia and is taking up a large amount of my brain space and energy.

Does this happen to other people? Are there any coping strategies that can help, or am I stuck feeling like a little kid afraid of the dark forever?

Also, as a woman, I feel like this obsession over fear is really brutal, because there is so much violence towards women/news about violence against women and I feel like subconsciously we’re trained to fixate on fears so that we can react quickly in the moment if need be. I get that, but it’s not helping me right now!