FEAR OF...

I do not make fun of anyone’s fears. Although I may not share some of them, for example, fear of elevators, clowns, going outdoors; nevertheless, I have some of my own and know they might not seem much to someone else but are very real to me.

Fear of flying kept me Grounded for close to 20 years. I knew it was absurd but a ride by myself in an Amusement Park where I got thrown around from side to side and turned upside down, set off unrealistic fears of something not really connected to what started it. 

Another time, I seemed to suddenly have become afraid of elevators. I can’t say why but considering that I was working on the 42nd Floor of a large Office building, it was good that a Doctor told me to note down the times I had to take an elevator and how I felt. By the time I saw him again 2 weeks later, I had taken the elevator at least a hundred times and I suppose decided to forget being afraid of elevators (probably because I was going to have to take a lot of them) whatever I felt.

Some fears can be overcome. There are people around you to tell you ‘the angels are bowling’ when thunder and lightning storms frighten you as a child. As an adult, a new fear sometimes doesn’t get a chance to grow if you express it to someone who overcame the same one, or someone trained to help.

When a fear does not paralyze you into inertia, illness or action, it usually is one most of us feel able to cope with. When it is more threatening to us, we might see if we can find someone who will hear us out and help us, before it takes on too much importance in our lives.

Admittedly, like the new found elevator fear I seemed to be developing all those years ago, had I not overcome it, I likely would have needed to make large changes to several areas of my life.

The new fear of elevators was fortunately one that went away. Likely a combination of past experience and acknowledgement that such a fear would make life difficult helped. Had the fear not gone away, as some do not, I might have needed to work on it with someone else. 

Knowing everyone has something they fear would probably have made it easier to get some help and either learn to live with it or, like much else in life, get past it.