How long has this been going on? Is it something intermittent? Do you recall something triggering this? When my children were young, I had periods of time like this, and any news story that touched those fears made me cry; using a kind of magical thinking, I thought/felt that if I worried enough about something it wouldn't happen---feeling (not without some small but ultimately irrelevant reason) that only the worst things I "forgot" to worry about happened. I found it helpful sometimes, when able, to imagine myself the "hero" in the situation---I would stop it from happening, I would "be there" to alter the course or to rescue people... This happened less as the children became adults. But, (this seems some part of the same "coin") sometimes I find myself almost wishing for disaster (preferably natural) because I think "I would know what to do then, there wouldn't be many choices...it is down to doing what little you can for as long as you can...(& then I feel guilty when I hear of natural disasters...I should be there helping...or it shouldn't have happened...) sorry for rambling a bit. It sounds like the primary emotion/physiological state is panic/anxiety.