Fears

[Forums]

Hello there!
Today, we're going to be talking about fears.​

To start off, what is fear? Well, as I see it, there are two types of fears, rational fears, and irrational fears.

Rational fears are things like being afraid if a moose is attacking you (Yeah, I'm Canadian, deal with it) Rational fears are a natural reaction to being in a situation that you don't want to be in, and everyone will experience them at some point in their life.

Irrational fears, are things like Anatidaephobia (The fear that one is being watched by a duck.) And other things like that. A lot of fears that we have in our world today, are irrational fears. Because we live in quite a safe world, compared to how things were a while ago, we don't have to many things to be afraid of.

Statistically speaking, in our world, the second most common fear, is the fear of public speaking (Glossophobia) Which is a highly irrational fear of speaking in front of large groups.


So, why do we have irrational fears? Well, we don't really know, there are however, a few good explanations that people have come up with over the years.

The first is called Classical Conditioning. Basically, classical conditioning is when you have a bad experience, and you associate it with something that was present when you had this bad experience. I'm sure you can think of an example for this, but I'll give you one of my personal ones.


This isn't really a fear, but it is a good example of Classical Conditioning:

When I was younger, I went on a road trip, with my cousin and his parents. We were driving for about 8 hours one day, and to keep us occupied, his mom kept giving us these little mints. As the day wore on, I kept eating the mints, and by the end of the day, I had eaten so many, I got sick, and spent most of the night feeling like I had to throw up. Ever since that trip, I haven't been able to eat anything that has that artificial mint flavor.


Another thing that humans are quite good at, is learning from others, by observing what they do. An example of that might be seeing your mom get super panicked about a mouse. Even though you might not be afraid of the mouse at that time, you're more likely to develop a fear of mice, since you have been that mice are scary.


The third way that we can develop fears, is through instructional fear acquisition. If a human is presented with enough information, that it develops a fear. The thing is, we don't have a system that separates correct information for incorrect information. This allows us to develop irrational fears of things, even if we are being given incorrect information. A good example of this, is horror movies. Do you ever have that feeling, after you watch a scary movie, where it feels like you're going to be murdered if you don't check under your bed before going to sleep? Even if you know your door has been locked all day.

Horror movies present us with images of scary things, that are often not true at all, that can lead to an irrational fear being formed.


Anyway, I've been rambling on for a while, so I'm going to end it off here.

Let me know what your fears are, and why you think you're afraid of whatever it may be!

If you're interested in reading more about fears, here are some cool websites:
http://www.theguardian.com/science/brain-flapping/2013/jun/28/phobias-rationale-irrational-fears
http://science.howstuffworks.com/life/inside-the-mind/emotions/fear.htm
http://www.eruptingmind.com/understanding-overcoming-fear/

 

[Yannick]

My biggest fear is failure. Now I know that everyone doesn't want to fail at anything in life.
But I hate it so much, that I miss up on so many opportunities and things because I am scared to fail. I don't study for tests and exams for school because I am scared that I will fail (I know, that doesn't make sense). I never want to do things because I am scared to fail. I hate it.
I never ask for help, because I don't want people to point out my mistakes and flaws.
For example. At practice, I try to avoid my coach as much as possible so that he cannot tell me what I do wrong and how to fix it. ;-;

 

[MomSaysDressWarm]

My biggest fear is snakes. Whenever I am arround them I feel like they'll bite me.

 

[Oyxr]

chad giving me the 10

 

[nickk]

 

[Forums]

Haha, it's up to you

 

[TheRealAussie]

My biggest fears are:
1) Amber not loving me
2) Amber not having red hair

 

[Forums]

My biggest fears are:
1) Amber not loving me
2) Amber not having red hair

Is this Amber as in Agfire?

 

[TheRealAussie]

Is this Amber as in Agfire?

Indeed my good man

 

[demonsushi]

First off, for you TheRealAussie

Hey der AGFire2013

moving onnnnnn

My biggest fear is probably negative judgement and stereotyping from other people. For some reason it always runs through my head when I do stuff, anything: move, talk, play a sport or do stuff I like. I don't let anyone know that I play Minecraft because of some of the 'childish' aspects many people associate with the game, despite the fact I enjoy it so much. Similarly, I don't like people knowing my socio-economic economic background because I don't want to people to consider me as fitting into the stereotypes associated with what I have grown up with.

It is something that bothers me everyday, because there are always people watching me. Although I am almost 16, sometimes I am nervous to go on teamspeak because I don't want people judging me by my voice, or when people look at me on the street or at school, I try to walk a certain way and I feel awkward and nervous. When I let loose and finally feel comfortable around people, that's when my normally happy and comedic nature appears and I feel happy with who I am.

That is something that helps me find peace in this community on MCSG. I can share something like this with the people around me, and not feel judged by anyone. If someone is mean, they are just a name on a computer screen and I find it easier to push it away from me. However in real life I cannot do that. Instead of being myself, I try to fit into whatever other people want me to be, at school, at home or with strangers. I don't necessarily submit to peer pressure, but I find it difficult to stand for my own beliefs unless I am with a really close friend.

I started a new school this year and at first I found it extraordinarily difficult to make friends because I tried to be what I thought they wanted me to be instead of who I actually am. I made fake friends who never really saw me as who I was and were not the right people for me to surround myself with. It was a negative experience and I constantly felt alone without any friends. I wish at that time I had turned to the MCSG community, but at that point I was in the center of my 9 month break.

Now at least I have returned (as of June 14th) and I can remember again all the great people in the community around me that are so kind and love to listen to anything I say or read what I write. I don't fear judgement from anyone on the mcgamer network, and the people here taught me how to step out of my shell and become who I am. I can thank many people here (from all around the world) for that.

So thanks everyone! I'm glad I got that off my chest.

-Demon

P.S. you guys are awesome

 

[billyguy1]

That TheRealAussie feeds in this league game

also, spiders, and the future

 

[AGFire2013]

My biggest fears are:
1) Amber not loving me
2) Amber not having red hair

?

First off, for you TheRealAussie

Hey der AGFire2013

??