I seem to have less nervous tics associated with stressful situations, but anxiety related racing thoughts don't seem to have changed. E.G. Propanelol doesn't seem to impact problems like laying in bed worrying about the upcoming day
Could the difference, in those two kinds of situations, be due to the presence/lack of awareness of the trigger of fear response?
To explain my thinking: it appears that you are normally aware of the fear-triggers on those "stressful situations" (i.e., what triggers the fear), which awareness of trigger in combination with propanelol's inhibitiveness, leads to you have less nervous tics than usual (and less fear-responses). Whereas, it appears that on other kinds of situations, such as laying in bed running through dispersed thoughts about the upcoming day, there is no well-defined trigger (or so it seems) that can be pin-pointed in time, leading to propanelol not being as effective, thus resulting in racing thoughts.
The original study[1] involved a 2-minute exposure prior to administration of propanelol for it to be effective in eliminating the fear-conditioning. And this 2-minute exposure implicitly includes awareness of the fear-trigger.
[1] http://www.biologicalpsychiatryjournal.com/article/S0006-322...