I have often been curious about the word and condition of 'fear'. I'm sure we have all experienced it, but what does 'fear' really mean or imply? I mean, what is the mechanism or understanding behind it?
let's take an obvious example, say, a fear of spiders.
everyone can recognise they might have an aversion to getting close to and hugging a spider, but in some people, this is escalated into a 'phobia', or a really disproportionate emotional response to the idea of a 'spider'.
and likewise, every individual has certain 'phobias', which are over-reactions or disproportionate responses to a seemingly 'average' situation.
but what is really going on here?
in the case of a real phobia of spiders, it is highly likely that that individual had a 'bad experience' with spiders in their life. Maybe they were a child, and a really huge spider suddenly appeared in their room or bed. They were absolutely terrified.
and from that point on, the 'spider' was linked or associated with that emotion. That of 'terror' or 'unplesantness', or 'extreme threat'.
every time the word 'spider' is mentioned, the associated emotion is also brought to mind.
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but what is going on here?
is one avoiding the spider, or is one avoiding the associated unpleasant emotions that have been associated with the spider?
to me, it is more likely the latter, as psychologists can treat phobias using desensitisation therapy, and gradually showing that spiders in 'real life' are really not that scary, if handled in a safe manner. So after the desensitisation is complete, the 'spider' concept can be brought to mind without the associated unpleasant emotions that were previously linked.
but that begs the question - if the spider was causing the phobia, and the avoidance was really about the unpleasant emotions linked to the spider, rather than the spider itself, is not the avoidance of discomfort the real true fear?
and likewise with social phobias/anxieties. One is not avoiding the social interactions for themselves, but rather because of the emotional states associated with social interactions (past memories).
so is not the deepest phobia/fear that of unpleasantness, discomfort, and pain? if we could just allow ourselves to experience pain, discomfort, unpleasantness, and work through those states, then perhaps the avoidance response would never need to be invoked in the first place.
and yet, there are certain physical and physiological mechanisms in place for us to be highly sensitive to pain. It's part of the survival appartatus, for a good reason. But it does not serve a deeper purpose when applied to emotional/mental pain, even though it might be necessary at times to create a distance from our painful experiences/memories.
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but ultimately, if we are not willing to engage and work through 'painful stuff', the avoidance/fear/phobia response will continue to cause distortions in our behaviour, much like the phobia of spiders causes an excessive response to a mental calling to mind of a concept.
I have a phobia of not graduating.
It goes deeper than fear and avoidance cycle. The deeper root of the issue is how you view yourself & emotional reactions you experience due to your fear/avoidance of something. Desensitization therapy lacks in this deeper exploration.
When distressing and disturbing issues occur, the mind may 'lock' this experience and it is left unprocessed in our unconscious mind. The issue plays out in the background and we keep re-experiencing undesirable emotions but we try to avoid it bc it's too emotionally charging or we can't even pinpoint what the problem is. The brain does the same thing - the memory of distress is locked in and unprocessed - no new meaning may be ascribed to the problem than that it is 'fearful' and 'need to avoid to avoid unpleasant experiences'. No processing, no new interpretations of the event, no movement - you're stuck.
The deeper issue then can be connected to something totally different and even seemingly unrelated. Through association, we unconsciously connect events and stimuli. For example, my fear of driving and avoidance of driving for 30 years of my life was due to fear of messing up and disappointing myself and others. I connected it with an earlier memory along that lines.
The deeper issue is how you view yourself when you fear/avoid, and the emotional reactions that occurs when you fear/avoid. If there is an associated memory or even that is connected to the thing you're fearing/avoiding, you have to go back to that association and process around the situation. When I was doing some therapy work around fear/terror of driving, I looked at the issue of messing up, potentially failing, and disappointment and, voila, I don't freak out anymore.
Our mind is pretty remarkable, really. You'd be surprised sometimes how it connects past events with whatever you're phobic about. Sometimes there's no connection. That's actually easier to take care of.
I've always been terrified that one day I'd find something that I'm totally passionate about. However, I'm also terrified of not ever finding anything as such. Which basically means I'm terrified.
I have pyrophobia and not sure why. I just don't like fire.
(02-11-2014, 05:23 PM)michael430 Wrote: [ -> ]I have had until recently a phobia of "going too deep" in meditation and visualization exercises. It would manifest as "demons" or images from scary movies or "Orion entities" or a fear of something or someone interrupting me suddenly and causing a heart attack or something.
Until I started to investigate why that might happen, it kept happening in nearly every meditation.
It's an ongoing process which has led me to concentrate on "protection" balancing exercises. Life has recently started to contain that beautiful Awake feeling more often - I wonder if that is the cause or the result of working to conquer the fear in question?
I would suggest the fear is born from a fear of the unknown. This manifests as 'popular' fearful things such as Demons. I thought I was haunted by a demon for a few months which I now understand to be a thought form created by my own fear.
The protection and balancing exercises give you authority over the fear. You can literally protect yourself with your will and intention to do so but are you addressing the fear?. You have to accept the fear as part of yourself. Usually fears or habits have a 'higher' meaning so understanding the root of the fear is the key.
some1 once told me u can think so hard that u can kill yourself & that it's actually a common thing for buddhas to do. & that they can stop their heart with their minds. any1 kno are these things true? don't make me google
i have a fear of ending...of no longer experiencing anything...of there being no life after this life ever again.
i would (probably) choose a sucky existence over being turned off (like data from tng) any day. i love experiencing things...i love being as a being.
i can't understand arachnophobia...but w/e is the fear of flying cockroaches...that i can understand...
I have Katsaridaphobia (fear of cockroaches) - I go hysterical, ape-s*** crazy... but not cause enough distress/disability to warrant official diagnoses of this phobia lol.
http://phobialist.com/
Kind of sad/funny - the fear of long words is Hippopotomonstrosesquipedaliophobia
(02-11-2014, 11:20 PM)rie Wrote: [ -> ]Kind of sad/funny - the fear of long words is Hippopotomonstrosesquipedaliophobia
do u kno, is there a good reason for that word to be that long or was the creator of the word just an a****** that enjoyed making people feel fear?
even if there is a good reason, u would think in light of what the word means they would have made it short.
some1 needs to shorten that word...who has the power to do this? i need to contact them lol
imagine having a serious case of long word phobia & not knowing what the word was for it then looking it up & seeing that...wth
(02-11-2014, 11:34 PM)truesimultaneity Wrote: [ -> ] (02-11-2014, 11:20 PM)rie Wrote: [ -> ]Kind of sad/funny - the fear of long words is Hippopotomonstrosesquipedaliophobia
do u kno, is there a good reason for that word to be that long or was the creator of the word just an a****** that enjoyed making people feel fear?
even if there is a good reason, u would think in light of what the word means they would have made it short.
some1 needs to shorten that word...who has the power to do this? i need to contact them lol
imagine having a serious case of long word phobia & not knowing what the word was for it then looking it up & seeing that...wth
the only reason people fear long words is probably because the fear of long words is Hippopotomonstrosesquipedaliophobia.
Quote:Kind of sad/funny - the fear of long words is Hippopotomonstrosesquipedaliophobia
Woah that is the work one cruel word maker
I used to be scared silly by spiders (arachnophobia), I was bitten by a pretty venomous (like, australian venomous) one when I was younger. But I eventually grew out of that.
Quote:i have a fear of ending...of no longer experiencing anything...of there being no life after this life ever again.
It's interesting you brought this up because I have been dealing with the exact opposite for almost 12 years now. That [strike]is[/strike] was easily my biggest fear.
(02-11-2014, 11:49 PM)Fang Wrote: [ -> ]Quote:Kind of sad/funny - the fear of long words is Hippopotomonstrosesquipedaliophobia
Woah that is the work one cruel word maker
I used to be scared silly by spiders (arachnophobia), I was bitten by a pretty venomous (like, australian venomous) one when I was younger. But I eventually grew out of that.
Quote:i have a fear of ending...of no longer experiencing anything...of there being no life after this life ever again.
It's interesting you brought this up because I have been dealing with the exact opposite for almost 12 years now. That is easily my biggest fear.
Funnel-web ?
Had a funny dream last night about being bitten by a spider.
(02-11-2014, 11:49 PM)Fang Wrote: [ -> ]Quote:i have a fear of ending...of no longer experiencing anything...of there being no life after this life ever again.
It's interesting you brought this up because I have been dealing with the exact opposite for almost 12 years now. That [strike]is[/strike] was easily my biggest fear.
i have that 1 too lol
(02-12-2014, 12:22 AM)truesimultaneity Wrote: [ -> ] (02-11-2014, 11:49 PM)Fang Wrote: [ -> ]Quote:i have a fear of ending...of no longer experiencing anything...of there being no life after this life ever again.
It's interesting you brought this up because I have been dealing with the exact opposite for almost 12 years now. That [strike]is[/strike] was easily my biggest fear.
i have that 1 too lol
I should clarify that I don't mean in a sad "I want it to end" way lol nothing to worry bout regarding that.
Quote:Funnel-web ?
I don't think so, couldn't identify at the time, I got bitten while asleep and woke up feeling awful and in so much pain. I'm pretty sure i got dry bitten by a funnel web the other week though.
Actually, I do have one big fear these days; bats. Bats scare the hell out of me now and they didn't until recently either. I know why though but it's a personal story.
I used to fear needles for awhile, but I think it was because my family members also feared needles so I thought they were to be feared. Nowadays my only real fear is fear itself in a way, to use a cliche aha I feel fear as a reaction, and there are things that trigger it, but I wouldn't call it a phobia. I have a disinclination towards being harmed aha
I'm currently going through (another) sub cycle of self-acceptance/orange issues. For. No. Reason. Other than previous imbalanced distortions.
"For No Reason" because what triggered the sub cycle was studying for the GMAT. The weeks prior to studying I tried to get rid of the lack of self acceptance thoughts that surrounded me if I did poorly...I spent some minimal time trying to balance them but more time studying for the test.
Now the test is over. I did really well, but the lack of self acceptance distortion the test taking period prompted seems to linger. Once this flu runs its course and I'm less grouchy I'm gonna dig deep into this.