Fear is a natural response to being put in danger. When our safety is threatened we get anxious, our hearts beat faster, our stomachs start to hurt. Everyone has different fears for different reasons and some are reasonable and some aren't.
When I'm anxious while walking to my car at night in the dark, it's because I've been trained to see danger in that situation. Whenever we're anxious it's because we know that a situation has the potential to be just fine but it also has the potential to be dangerous, or at least we think it does. Sometimes the danger is physical danger (I am anxious about that knife being so close to the edge of the table because it could fall and hurt me/someone) or it could be a social "danger" (I'm anxious to get on this stage and sing because I might embarrass myself and no one will like me). I have OCD which like other anxiety disorders is characterized by seeing danger where it's not (every anxiety disorder is different for example OCD means you do compulsions based around the fear or the obsession).
I'm afraid of geese which is reasonable because geese attack people and are dangerous. I'm also afraid of boats which is not reasonable because there's no way a boat can hurt me. There are also things that are dangerous and can hurt me that I'm not afraid of. I'm not afraid of fire but fire can hurt me. But is fire something that I should be afraid of? Is it stupid or arrogant to not be afraid of something that can hurt you? What is the level of danger that makes something a reasonable fear? Maybe I'm not afraid of fire because I know it won't hurt me unless I touch it and I know I am in control of whether or not I touch it. Also, if I ever touched it I could easily remove myself from the situation. But if I were in a house fire I think it would be natural for me to be afraid of fire.
I think whether a fear is rational or not also depends on your reaction to it. If I was afraid of clowns and so I didn't go to any haunted houses, people would think that was normal. But if I'm afraid of walking to my car in the dark and so I refuse to do so, people may think that was a bit more unreasonable. But there's a larger possibility for danger in the latter than the former. So why is that one more unreasonable? OCD is based on doing unreasonable things because of a fear. It's labeled as OCD once it significantly interferes with your life and this partially explains it. It takes no effort to not go to a haunted house whereas I have to go out of my way to make sure I never have to walk in the dark.
I'm not really sure where this was going I kinda just wanted to say what I was thinking about.
I think you make a lot of really great detailed arguments in this post! The way you express your fears and are able to reflect upon them in terms of whether they are reasonable or not is very honest and as a reader, I appreciate that. In general, I think people are very unique in their fears and because of that, think it is important to respect such worries and help friends learn to manage them as best they can. Great post!
ReplyDeleteThank you for sharing about your OCD and your experiences. I think what you mentioned is very interesting, and I think the whole thing stems from what we as a society agree is 'scary', which is super weird if you think about it. What makes a scary movie scary? If you really see they don't really have a basis. Great post.
ReplyDeleteThis was wonderful and personal post. I appreciated it. You had a clear argument and supported it very well. When I am walking in the dark I become more paranoid than usual, so I completely understand where you are coming from. I also have never thought about the opinions of our fears as you described, but I completely agree. Its interesting how we place fears into groups of rational and irrational. Great post! You always make me think about things that aren't normally on my mind.
ReplyDeleteI think that fear is always irrational because whenever we feel it, our thoughts bypass the logical part of our brains and go straight to the emotional one. That is not to say that it is not helpful in some scenarios, such as life or death ones. However, in our current day and age when we don't have to worry about a lion jumping out of the grass and attacking us, our propensity to fear where it is not needed often gets the better of us. Today it might be better if we could do away with fear.
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