What happens when a person is mentally fixated?
They become more and more focused on one issue (thing), which in turn increasingly exaggerates the importance of that one issue.
The issue becomes totally blown out of proportion, and the ability to find balance on that issue it is lost.
This is why, when a person cools down, they see that they were exaggerating the issue.
When mental fixation becomes “stuck”, it becomes more and more difficult to extricate oneself from that issue.
If we were to use a soccer-ball as an example of this, it would look like this.
There is no way that the soccer-ball in this illustration will be able to function as it was meant to: roll.
If a person does not learn how to extricate themselves from being fixated, the problem will grow to impact their whole life.
Another example of this is the Frogs Tongue metaphor.
Reality is Dharma 