Storm

Fear

Fear is a strange thing. It can numb you to your core, make you shaky, cry, or let you run away. It can also make you lash out.

The official definition of fear is that fear is a feeling induced by perceived danger or threat that occurs in certain types of organisms, which causes a change in bodily functions and ultimately a change in behavior, such as fleeing, hiding, or freezing from perceived traumatic events. This sounds dramatic, of course, but that is what fear is: it is meant to make you alerter, stress you out, and make you change your behaviour in order to get yourself to safety. 

Then, I wonder, where do these fears come from? There are plenty of people afraid of a multitude of things: insects, heights, small spaces, you name it. Of many of these I understand where these fears come from: not wanting to be bitten, to fall down something high, or even to be locked up and not being able to get out. But some fears are less common. These are phobias such as the fear of small holes (trypophobia), the fear of frogs (ranidaphobia), or even hylophobia, the fear of trees! Even though I suppose the general Stormer is not afraid of trees, I imagine there are some people who cower at the sight of a forest. 

Some research suggests that fears may have developed in different time periods: the fear of heights is pretty general in most mammals because of quite obvious reasons (“Don’t come close to that cliff, or you’ll die”), but for example a fear of mice might have developed during the paleolithic period, when mice and insects became important carriers of infectious diseases, which might also be harmful for stored crops. This fear is unique to humans, which is also interesting to consider.

It is also said that fears are a product of learning: that one learns to be afraid of something. This can be because of a traumatizing event, or because they have observed this fear from someone else and took it over. That is interesting in its own way, that fears of something can be passed on like a virus. 

People are afraid of many things, and it is part of being human. 

While I personally am not afraid of a specific thing, I have always been interested in the fears of others. What is it that makes a person shiver at the sight of a bridge, a teensie spider, or an airplane (even though I do shudder at the idea of how many emissions are being coughed out by those things). I think fears are what make us us, what differs you from the next person. Maybe it will save your life someday, but maybe you spend your life worrying about nothing.  In the meantime, I will take that spider out of the bathroom and walk over that bridge first.

Even still, sometimes I wonder if I don’t lack something by not fearing much. After all, it makes sense to be afraid of a lion: it doesn’t seem like the best idea to cuddle with them and then being torn to shreds.