[user798753 (OP)]

Full Question: How does one go about conducting scientific experiments if the experimenting itself causes severe anxiety?

I am trying to conduct experiments to reduce some serious anxiety I have about certain things. General hypotheses being: Does doing x cause a reduction in my anxiety?

The issue I have though is that it is like a 'walled garden' of anxiety preventing me from even trying things.

I know that the results and experience gained from the experiments would likely reduce the anxiety but I am too afraid to get off the ground as the anxiety controls my behaviour.

Now I don't want to go too much into the psychology and get down in the weeds about my particular case but rather keep the (hard) scientists' hat on and ask: how do scientists in general not get afraid when conducting experiments that might have danger and have profound implications?

So rather than focusing on my case moving to the general question. I thought finding out answers to the general, how scientists generally deal with this, would be most effective in answering the specific case.

For my own case it is a general fear of the unknown and rumination over disaster scenarios which stymies action and generally blowing things out of proportion.

Scientists handle very dangerous chemicals all the time and have done some really frightening stuff; manhatten project for example, experimenting with dangerous pathogens, radiation, and any other number of things that I would be terrified to even go near. How are they able to keep a cool rational head to enable them to carry out the experiments?

I become a nervous wreck thinking about possible disastrous consequences which prevents me from taking action for even the most trivial of things.

My own case seems so tiny in comparison to the some of the things scientists have done so I am wondering how they keep their head as it may help in my case to find out what the general practices are for this.

[alancalverd]

I have a friend who, as a Special Constable, walked up to a pistol-waving maniac in a shopping street and said "Give me the gun, sonny. You are under arrest." He was commended by the Commissioner who said he was a very brave man. He replied "No sir, I'm a bloody idiot." Now and again, science  and particularly medicine advances through the actions of a bloody idiot, but it's rare.

Hazardous scientific investigations generally involve an external hazard that can be predicted and mitigated. There is a consensus that a risk of death of less than  1 in a million is "negligible" and 1 in 10,000 may be tolerable if there is a substantial potential benefit. Where things are already in a parlous state, a risk of 1 in 1000 is tolerable in a medical intervention. At the 1 in 100 level  we are talking about urgent lifesaving action or acts of war - in short, heroism.

The Manhattan Project did indeed involve a very large "known unknown" - the possibility of setting fire to the desert. But that was in a time for heroes when the average operational life of a soldier, sailor or aviator was around one day, and not completing the project would have cost a couple of million lives. Not to be compared with Marie Curie's experiments where the dangers of ionising radiation were  "unknown unknowns" and there was no obvious incentive but curiosity.

Much more difficult to be objective about an internal risk that an action intended to make things better might actually make them worse. Fortunately there are plenty of  psychologists and counsellors who have dealt with most anxieties as externals (i.e. in other people) and have a good idea of the likely outcome of their interventions.

As I see it, there are two pathways: either consult someone who has dealt with your problem as an external, or gauge and retrain your anxiety by doing a few things where the outcome is uncertain but harmless and either interesting or exciting. Or find a really good reason for what might look like heroism.

[chiralSPO]

As someone with anxiety problems myself (and a scientist to boot), I would recommend trying to flip the experiment around: first do whatever you need to do to get the anxiety under control (eliminating stressors, getting therapy, meditating, using grounding methods, taking anti-anxiety medications, etc. etc.), and then experiment with "what can I add back into my life while still having a manageable amount of anxiety?"

Best of luck!

[user798753 (OP)]

As someone with anxiety problems myself (and a scientist to boot), I would recommend trying to flip the experiment around: first do whatever you need to do to get the anxiety under control (eliminating stressors, getting therapy, meditating, using grounding methods, taking anti-anxiety medications, etc. etc.), and then experiment with "what can I add back into my life while still having a manageable amount of anxiety?"

Best of luck!

Actually this is the problem. I put many of the above treatments as parts of the original question. Things like the thought of using medication causes me anxiety because I think about all possible side effects and that just makes my anxiety kick a mule keeping me in inaction.

I actually really want to try medication, having tried all the common non medication stuff with limited effect but I just get frightened into inaction even though I know the fear is irrational. Even ringing the doctor to talk about it I get scared of because it is different than my normal routine plus the added mental burden of having to tell them about it and I think 'oh now that is going to be on my medical record forever'. Again, I know they don't care and it makes no sense but the anxiety makes it a big deal.

Note that, contrary to how it may sound from these few words I have written so far, I am not a nervous wreck all the time but that is mainly only because I have very well practiced avoidance measures and only generally tread the well worn paths that I know will not trigger things. This I know limits my life and why I want to change it.

I guess I should do some more scientific reading on anxiety as I know it is very well studied and I have pretty much avoided reading about it because again it caused me some anxiety having to accept I have issues with it. The eastern way of 'meditation cures everything' doesn't really work for me. I think you have to have something that you resonate with or else you won't commit to it.

I am really a fan of BF Skinner's behavioral approach so might look for publications where it has been used for anxieties. I love how he attempted to make psychology more of a hard quantifiable science. With CBT I feel the C is unnecessary and largely pseudo-scientific; my thinking is the effective part is only the BT so might as well go straight to the source in operant conditioning.

So certainly there is much work done already in this field and I just have to decide to start reading it.

[alancalverd]

Have you tried gambling? Not as crazy as it might sound.

The rules for pubs permit "playing games of skill for small stakes", so there's a possibility (about 50%) that you will lose a few quid at darts, ninepins, billiards, etc.,  but a certainty of having fun and mental exercise doing it - anxiety versus pleasure. Then take a punt as a direct investor in the stock market or a local small business - you use your judgement but lose control once you have placed your bet. The object is to get to tolerate than enjoy a bit of uncertainty with a potential reward.

I do get concerned by folk who read up on a medical subject without a critical mentor or a thorough understanding of statistics - there's a lot of bad science out there, persuasively written.

[Enlarscom]

I guess I should do some more scientific reading on anxiety as I know it is very well studied and I have pretty much avoided reading about it because again it caused me some anxiety having to accept I have issues with it. The eastern way of 'meditation cures everything' doesn't really work for me. I think you have to have something that you resonate with or else you won't commit to it.

Full Question: How does one go about conducting scientific experiments if the experimenting itself causes severe anxiety?

I am trying to conduct experiments to reduce some serious anxiety I have about certain things. General hypotheses being: Does doing x cause a reduction in my anxiety?

The issue I have though is that it is like a 'walled garden' of anxiety preventing me from even trying things.

I know that the results and experience gained from the experiments would likely reduce the anxiety but I am too afraid to get off the ground as the anxiety controls my behaviour.

Now I don't want to go too much into the psychology and get down in the weeds about my particular case but rather keep the (hard) scientists' hat on and ask: how do scientists in general not get afraid when conducting experiments that might have danger and have profound implications?

So rather than focusing on my case moving to the general question. I thought finding out answers to the general, how scientists generally deal with this, would be most effective in answering the specific case.

For my own case it is a general fear of the unknown and rumination over disaster scenarios which stymies action and generally blowing things out of proportion.

Scientists handle very dangerous chemicals all the time and have done some really frightening stuff; manhatten project for example, experimenting with dangerous pathogens, radiation, and any other number of things that I would be terrified to even go near. How are they able to keep a cool rational head to enable them to carry out the experiments?

I become a nervous wreck thinking about possible disastrous consequences which prevents me from taking action for even the most trivial of things.

My own case seems so tiny in comparison to the some of the things scientists have done so I am wondering how they keep their head as it may help in my case to find out what the general practices are for this.

I guess I should do some more scientific reading on anxiety as I know it is very well studied and I have pretty much avoided reading about it because again it caused me some anxiety having to accept I have issues with it. The eastern way of 'meditation cures everything' doesn't really work for me. I think you have to have something that you resonate with or else you won't commit to it.