Everyday as I drive to and from work, as I take a shower, or basically every time I can do nothing but think... I tend to wonder into the rabbit hole which is my mind. So recently, the dark hole I entered was about fear. We all know more or less what we are afraid of, you are no doubt thinking about them as you are reading this now, but it isn't something we usually like to dwell on. So I purpose we take a little of our time to think about it together.
Why do we fear ?
I believe in our case there are three main reasons to why we fear.
First of all, the most straight forward reason would be survival. It is the basic instinct of all creatures; if one did not fear one could not survive. Indeed, for instance a strange smell or a creepy sound in the middle of the night, humans like animals sense danger. This triggers an emotional reaction in the brain which is interpreted as fear and consequently provokes cautiousness and awareness to ensure the preservation of life. This is the reason our ancestors woke up everyday and went hunting because their fear of starvation was greater than their fear of the wild and all that comes with it. This is the reason we wake up everyday searching for food and water, or working to be able to buy food and water. Fear, hunger and physical pain are alarms warning us that we are in harms way and that we have to act accordingly in order to survive. The fear of death (otherwise known as Thanatophobia) keeps most people alive.
However you could say some people ain't afraid of dying (jumping from rooftop to rooftop or doing other life threatening stunts for example) so why are they still alive ? And besides we do have other fears without having our lives at risk like the fear of being lonely (Autophobia or Isolophobia), the fear of failure (Atychiphobia), the of fear of being ridiculed (Catagelophobia)... So there must be another reason than pure instinct of survival.
Beyond simple survival, unlike the animals, humans have a high sense of self-consciousnesses, a willingness to live life to it's fullest, evolve and accomplish goals. Paradoxically, this would explain why some people who ain't afraid of death would risk their lives in order to live their lives to the fullest, for the thrill of it and excitement it could procure. Perhaps, firefighters, soldiers and policemen are good examples this reasoning. It's the fear of "not living", honor and heroism that motivates them beyond the fear of death.
If we had no fear of death and nor the fear of not living life, then we probably would be suicidal.
The last two reasons don't explain all the rest of the strange phobias out there, like the fear of hair (Chaetophobia) or the fear of falling in love (Philophobia). In my opinion, the origin of these kinds of phobias are more physiological. It really depends on the state of mind of the individual. It could be due to experience or could have been caused by a childhood trauma. Some of these could be treated or could pass away with time.
Here is a list of commun phobias :
- The fear of losing a family member or a loved one.
