Be Afraid, Be Very Afraid!

[OpenMind5]

So is it the what if that casues the fear?

[orbsycli]

i'm afraid of airplanes. i suck it up and get on them, but the thought of being in a metal object flying miles and miles above the ground at speeds over 5x what i can max out in my POS 4 cylender car blows my mind.

[orbsycli]

this brings up another point, facing your fears. i get a kick out of that stuff.

[Turtle]

I think it is the 'what if'. The more teriible what ifs I learn or experience the more afraider I get; what if it happens again is a biggy too.

I don't go with the facing fears thing; I think it's masochistic sorta somehow maybe. Well, of course my fears are real. I just minimalize my exposure to fearfull situations as much as possible.
___Also, I draw a distinction between being startled & being afraid. The former is an animal response & the latter an intellectual/mind/... response.

[Buffy]

I've been into "facing fears", but I've always wondered whether or not it was just my adrenaline addiction. I've always been afraid of heights and deep water, but when I was a kid I spent a lot of time surfing, racing 15 foot sloops in the Pacific Ocean, and diving fearlessly off the top of the Cornices at Mammoth and Squaw Valley. I don't do any of this anymore (still ski, but no cliff diving!), I've still got my fears but now I *know* what to expect, having been thrown overboard in the middle of the ocean and tumbling head over heals for 200 yards through snow into a very large and hard boulder. I've done it, have respect for it, could do it any time cuz I know what happens now, still actually *feel* the fear when I get close to doing it, but it doesn't *control* me anymore, and I don't do them simply because I don't like the pain that goes along with em. Been dere done dat.

Other things have transmogrified. I used to have horrible stage fright, but now there's nothing more fun than getting up in front of a big crowd and entertaining them.

Courage is not the lack of fear, its the overcoming the fear and acting inspite of it,
Buffy

[GAHD]

I fear things I can't controll. Broad subject I know, but it's the only thing I can truely say makes me afraid.
I don't fear the unknown because i simply don't know about it. One it becomes possible, IE once the roads ice-over I get a little afraid; icy roads and drivers used to summer conditions, (driving too fast, or overestimating their stopping distance) is a bad combination.

[OpenMind5]

The only thing that i can say i truly fear is "nothing." Not as in i have no fears, but nothing as in pure, true darkness, no sound, no anything.

Op5

[Fishteacher73]

There was a study of infants that found the only innate fears that these children han were fear of loud noises and the fear of heights. Every other fear is learned.

[Tormod]

I fear prisons. No kidding. The idea of being locked up, unable to live a "normal" life among "normal" people, scares the hell out of me. My worst nightmares are about that. Just walking past a prison gives me the jitters. Not that I am actually opposed to the Norwegian prison system as such.

Mabye it's not strange that one of my favorite movies is "The Shawshank Redemption"...

[Fishteacher73]

My favorite prison movies tended to have a Russ Meyer's flair....lol