Ordinarily, the differences between thoughts and actions are clear. Anxious thinking creates an altered state of consciousness where scary thoughts can feel as frightening as scary behaviors. It is as if thoughts and actions feel fused together. Even though thoughts are triggering fears, people feel as if they are living through—not just thinking about—a dangerous experience. Thought-action fusion makes it seem that there is little difference between thinking about something and it actually happening. Thoughts no longer feel like a safe way to rehearse actions without consequences. What-ifs
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