“Push my panic buttons”

Why do I need to push a button to know or let others know I am panicking? How would pushing this panic button assist me in remaining calm and to act accordingly in a given situation? It is said that the external dangers meet the inner anxiety and are frequently experienced as even more dangerous than they really are. The outer anxiety expresses the ever-present dangers of the public world whereas the inner anxiety reflects the unresolved emotions.

Stress of modern day life, brought about through the advances of technology, pushes us beyond our tipping points. For example, before the 1990’s we weren’t so reliant on our mobile phones and nowadays we seem to store our whole lives into them, making the mobile an extension of ourselves, which leads to the consequences of losing them very dire. When I experienced losing my phone, I became an irrational frantic, immediately thinking the worst and prepared to do the worst at this desperate situation. I immediately found someone to blame, wrongly accusing them from taking my phone and ready to deal with the consequences. We sometimes worry so much about worst case scenarios that are unlikely to happen which impairs our judgement on the real danger that lies ahead.

Design is pushing our internal panic buttons. We seem to offload our contents into an object, which is designed to help us, but if this object fails us, it can cause us to panic. For instance, the computer was invented to store information and has now evolved to such an extent that allowed humans to become dependant on them. It is almost an extension of our brain. Thoughts written down, if lost, reiterating them would not only cause stress but your brain would be unable to write the exact same thoughts again. Losing this information through system error or viruses can cause panic and leads to frustration.

I do believe most panic buttons have their uses and have saved many lives but the practice of their usage needs to still be refined. Avoiding these potential dangers can come as a shock once confronted. Preparing us for the worst, it automatically makes us fear the worst, forcing us to act out of character and irrationally; becoming victims of frequent panic attacks. This is usually due to a build up of emotions, ‘safely’ locked in the back of our minds and the littlest input could trigger the panic button causing and outburst of emotions However, if a person feels fear constantly, there is no signal left for when it’s needed, thus, a person who chooses to worry all the time or persistently chew on unwarranted fears is actually making himself less safe. In a way, you become desensitised and you do not recognise the alarm as a sign of potential danger.

Further Reading- False Alarm, The truth about the epidemic of fear by Marc Siegel