"Tunnel vision happens when your mind zooms in on a single "threat cue" and filters out everything else. In this case, the threat cue might be: "He was young." "It was cancer." "It seemed sudden." "He probably didn't see it coming." Your mind grabs onto these details and begins building a narrative: "Cancer is everywhere." "People are dying young all the time." "It's inevitable that I'll get something serious." "If I do get sick, there will be nothing I can do.""
"Notice what's happening. Your mind zooms in on one emotionally powerful data point and then inadvertently dismisses anything that contradicts it. It is ignoring: The millions of people who are healthy and/or managing a medical condition well. The advances in screening and treatment. The reality that many cancers are highly treatable. The statistical rarity of any one catastrophic/tragic outcome. This is how tunnel vision strengthens core beliefs like: "I am going to die young." "If I get diagnosed, I won't be able to cope.""
Sudden reports of illness or death can trigger tunnel vision, where the mind fixates on emotionally powerful threat cues and ignores contradictory information. Specific cues include perceived youth, cancer diagnosis, suddenness, and unexpected onset. The mind uses those cues to build catastrophic narratives about widespread risk, inevitability, and helplessness. Tunnel vision filters out statistics, treatment advances, and the many people who remain healthy or manage conditions well. Repeated focus on isolated tragic events reinforces core beliefs about fragility, impending early death, and inability to cope. Those strengthened beliefs maintain and escalate health anxiety over time.
Read at Psychology Today
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