Anxieties around going missing or being a victim of crime
- Elaine Benardout
- Feb 23, 2023
- 2 min read
Updated: Mar 2
By Elaine Rose Benardout, BA (Hons) Dip.Couns MBACP (Accred)
We understandably may feel anxiety around the idea that people can go missing and be a victim of crime. Indeed, the uncertainty of a situation can give rise to our feelings of worry and unease.
In drawing upon our anxiety, we face the unknown - maybe experiencing a strong desire to act in some way. For some people, these feelings get channelled ‘creatively’.
Indeed one ‘creative idea’ taking hold on the internet is to collate folders of our stuff in case we go missing. This seems to be a new phenomenon, encouraging people to file passwords, handwriting samples, fingerprints, lists of friends and more. In other words, collecting evidence of ourselves in case we need help being traced/found.
In this way we are validating our response to situations such as crime, through our actions - which we have some control over.
Whilst there is a balance between reality and perception, where an event impacts us, we can experience ‘cognitive distortion’. Such as ‘catastrophising’ - expecting something intolerable to happen.
Extreme emotions feed into our anxiety in overestimating negative outcomes. We become more anxious over our perceived inability to manage potential threats. In feeding into our vulnerability to becoming a victim, we can distort reality and develop unhealthy obsessional thoughts and ideas.
Finding a sense of perspective, reframing our thoughts and keeping the risk in proportion rather than allowing situations to overwhelm us - can help us to cope so that we develop a healthier and realistic mindset.
If you would be interested in learning more about how therapy can help with this or other situations, please do get in touch with me.
