Comment by master-lincoln
3 days ago
Why are you not sure?
To me it seems like if they logically know the smell can not cause harm having a strong emotional fear reaction is illogical. Of course most emotions are so that's not meant to be a blame or anything...
Because it means you're in the immediate vicinity of a thing that can kill you and has nearly killed you before?
Is it fair to call it "illogical" to panic when someone puts a bag over your head when you were previously kidnapped and almost murdered after someone put a bag over your head?
To add some clarification - the event has caused general anxiety and risk of panic attacks, such that even driving down streets or flying on planes as she's done a thousand times before starts filling her with anxiety and panic. It's the panicking about panicking which has expanded the scope beyond just being in the identical scenario as before. That's the part that she recognizes as illogical - driving down the street shouldn't cause anxiety, as she's done it without incident many times before. There are no new identifiable dangers or risks. But it's a combination of intrusive thoughts, physical reactions, all that, which can spiral. Being on the outside it's very hard for me to comprehend, but there's a sense of no control over the chain reaction. There are techniques she has adopted, like using the DARE app regularly and other therapy techniques which have helped unwind this, but it takes a long time. Time is a damn good healer though.