It’s really strange what my brain thinks about when I wake up at 3:30 AM. Sometimes I’m able to go back to sleep, but many other times I’m not. On those mornings I usually do the wordle or wait for the 4 o’clock local news to come on. And then my brain starts thinking weird thoughts. Last night I sat at my desk, trying to think of something to write about. My mind was completely blank. But at 4 AM in the morning my brain is exploding with one particular thought, fear.
What is fear? We can all define the answer to that pretty easily. More the question would be, what do we fear? The answer to that question depends on each person individually. Everyone has different fears. Fear goes hand in hand with anxiety. Lately some people fear their bank going belly up and losing their money. So they pull their money out of their bank on fear.
The following is a list of top 10 fears (Phobias)
Arachnophobia: an intense fear of spiders and other arachnids
Ophidiophobia: an intense fear of snakes
Acrophobia: an intense fear of heights
Aerophobia: an intense fear of flying
Cynophobia: an intense fear of dogs
Astraphobia: an intense fear of thunder and lightning
Trypanophobia: an intense fear of injections
Social phobia: an intense fear of social interactions
Agoraphobia: an intense fear of places that are difficult to escape, sometimes involving a fear of crowded or open spaces
Mysophobia: an intense fear of germs, dirt, and other contaminants
10 most fears that hold people back in life.
Change
Loneliness
Failure
Rejection
Uncertainty
Something bad happening
Getting hurt
Being judged
Inadaquacy
Loss of freedom
The first list I really don’t have a fear to any of those. Maybe a little on social interactions depending on the situation. The second list is totally different. I have anxiety and a fear of each of these to some extent. Losing Karen, fighting pancreatitis, fallout from multiple surgeries and having to retire has contributed greatly to these. I’m challenged on a daily basis to overcome the anxiety that fear brings.
Sometimes the fear isn’t warranted but it happens anyway. Our minds have a weird way of working at times. I attended several hazmat schools when I was working and learning about how terrorism works, just the fear people have of a terrorist attack is often worse than the actual attack. There are also documented times in history where many people died trying to flee a building because someone yelled fire. Fear of dying in a fire sent them running in panic. Some people fear not going to heaven and their belief in God keeps them strong against that fear and other fears.
Fears are an everyday occurrence for many. Overcoming them is a challenge but can be done. How we do that depends on our mental focus, patients and practice. Will we ever get over our fears completely, not likely.
Dan's fight with Hereditary Pancreatitis 