How to Find Our Fears

“The only thing we have to fear is fear itself.”
Franklin D Roosevelt

A good library will usually have at least one book on what fear actually is. It is always a good idea to expand the knowledge and study several authors on any subject that is chosen. Some say that most of a person’s fear is not really there, or they may use the acronym:

Fear stands for:

F-false E-evidence A-appearing R-real

Maybe it is a possibility that a person’s fears are not really there and most of what they fear is not going to happen, but the fact remains that the fear, real or not, is still triggering off a release of adrenalin. Remember the example about the boy and the park in yesterday’s information? There might not be big bullies hanging round waiting for him in the park, but that may still not stop the boy’s body triggering a stress reaction.

A stress reaction can still trigger whether or not the situation is happening at this very moment; this is otherwise known as worrying. Worrying is something that a person may do if they are unsure about the situation. Work can be used as a relevant example concerning worry. A person with a tense manager may begin to worry because they are trying to prepare for the threat of a shouting boss; they are unsure what to do as they are afraid to leave or shout back. They worry because they feel trapped.

One way to look at a person’s mindset if they are worrying about life could be that they are assuming a possible threat around unfamiliar corners. This could also be classed as living in a state of fear, and for some people once worry sets in (just as in the tree story) it can grow and grow sometimes completely unbeknown to either the person’s friends/family or even themselves. Stress, fear, worry – or any other title the bearer wishes to give it – can slowly and surely creep into a person’s mind; sometimes it seems completely unnoticeable whilst the person is distracted by the challenges of life.

Stress can be created from worrying about fears or unresolved issues. Further explained, an unresolved issue may keep the little person in the computer room constantly looking out for when that ‘possible threat’ could appear. It could almost be viewed as the little person is on constant watch and is trying to keep the person awake to deal with it when it happens, but because his job is to be aware of a threat and help them deal with it, until it is resolved he may keep them awake (with shots of adrenalin) until it (the situation) is resolved. These unresolved issues may be waiting for an exam result, a meeting with the boss, or even worrying if there is a spider in the house 24 hours a day.

There are several methods of dealing with these situations. One technique is to find out what the ‘actual fear’ is. For some people, worrying seems to occur when they are unsure what it is they are worrying about. Sometimes the mere fact of seeing the doubt or concern of what is causing the worry is enough to dampen its intimidation, almost like turning on the light when a child is convinced there is a monster in a dark bedroom at night.