Preconceived reactions. (4) Are we victims of our past behavior?

Most of the anxiety that people experience is due to what psychologists call preconceived or pre-conditioned reactions. To put it simply, it means that we associate isolated situations and events in such a way that we reproduce always the same behavior in similar circumstances.

The association of two events: if the event X produced fear, panic, nervousness, restlessness, anxiety; then every time the X event happens we react in the same way. That is to say that if we react with fear or with anxiety in the presence of a certain external stimulus, every time a similar stimulus takes place we will react the same way. The interesting thing here is that although there is no real danger and the circumstances are completely different if the same stimulus happens again, we will react in the same way because this has already been conditioned in us.

For example, a person who during his childhood had some kind of negative experience with authority figures such as a police officer, a school principal or someone he considered worthy of respect, perhaps now as an adult he feels anxious if he is driving and sees a police officer approaching or stopping him in the way. In fact, he will experience anxiety when any figure of authority confronts him directly. Among the immediate symptoms that the person will experience are muscle tension, cold sweats, stomach pain, wanting to go to the bathroom, stuttering, fast heart beating, etc.

Everything is due to pre-conditioned reactions that have their origin in the past, frequently during childhood. Many of our emotions are the product of preconditioning. That is why logical reasoning can not be part of the treatment, because the person may realize that it is no big deal what has happened, but in spite of that he can not control himself. If you explain all this to that person from the logical point of view and what is happening, he will fully agree with you. If you have experienced a state of anxiety in any specific situation, you will know that I am right on this point.

Although logic tells you that there is nothing to fear, it is an over-reaction, you will not have the ability to control the situation. We need to understand that the individual under a state of anxiety is not reacting to a specific situation, but to a previous programming due to events that happened in the past. This is the reason why the person who says to himself: I will do my part, the next time this happens I will control the situation, soon realizes that despite his good intentions, he can not face things as he planned. Once again, anxiety overcame him.

If this is so, what can we do? Will we be caught up in our past programming being victims of anxiety? Fortunately, we can overcome these situations and overcome the conditionings that are causing the anxiety. In a psychological analysis, after understanding the problem, it is necessary to design a work plan and set goals to reach our final aim. In our next articles, we will be dealing with those methods.