What are you afraid of?
My name is Chelsea and I am afraid of storms, fire and spiders. What are you afraid of?? We all have fears, some of them may be really common (e.g. heights, snakes, injections) or they may be uncommon (the list is endless). It doesn't really matter what your fear is - what matters is how we cope with these fears. If they are impacting on your everyday life, it's time to do something about them and while talking to a health professional is a great idea, there are also a few practical things that you can do to help yourself when you are faced with those fears. We are going to be discussing some of these practical tips and while our discussion may not be quite as amusing as the following video, we will keep it upbeat, positive and we definitely won't judge your fear/s!
Monday 23 September at 8pm right here, to discuss your fears in a supportive environment, and learn some tips from other people who know how you feel!!
Hope you can join us.
Also, it might help to have a read of this story, about how one person overcame their fear! http://au.reachout.com/The-strange-fear
And check out this fact sheet for more info on phobias (http://au.reachout.com/What-is-a-phobia )
There's a few parts to this next Q -
i) What’s the difference between fear and something a bit more serious like anxiety?
ii) How do you know when a fear might be something you need some outside help with and
iii) where could you go if you needed to get some help for your fear/s?
@Doris wrote:
There's a few parts to this next Q -
i) What’s the difference between fear and something a bit more serious like anxiety?
ii) How do you know when a fear might be something you need some outside help with andiii) where could you go if you needed to get some help for your fear/s?
I think the DSM diagnoses a phobia when it starts to affect the day-to-day runnings of your life. For e.g. if my fear of holes is so bad that I see holes everywhere that i become house bound.
Also it doesn't need to be clinically diagnosed as a "phobia" for a person to sought help.
I could see a psychologist to get some skills on managing the feelings I get when I see a bee hive
i) What’s the difference between fear and something a bit more serious like anxiety?
I think a basic definition for me would be, while fears are very scary, they don't usually stop you from doing things that you want and need to do in your daily life, and they don't have a constant presence in your life (they more come when a certain situation arises and then go when it is over). I think anxiety is more constant and it stops you from doing things.
ii) How do you know when a fear might be something you need some outside help with?
I think that when it is impacting on your daily life to the point that it is stopping you from doing the things that you want and need to do you need to seek help (that is the point at which I chose to seek help).
iii) where could you go if you needed to get some help for your fear/s?
GP, Reach Out, Headspace (centre or online), KHL, psychologist, counsellor, a family memember, a friend, a trusted adult or a teacher.
i) What’s the difference between fear and something a bit more serious like anxiety?
i think we all have fears, fears are normal, but some people are prone to anxiety, which I guess is when it takes over, and starts affecting behaviour and decisions. Not sure I know the difference really...
ii) How do you know when a fear might be something you need some outside help with and
when its taking over your life, and preventing you from doing things that you would like to be doing instead of being stricken with fear.
iii) where could you go if you needed to get some help for your fear/s?
a psychologist would be the ideal place to go, but a friend or a family member, who you can trust, or who you know will do anything to help you, and isn't afraid themselves, to have a deep and meaningful conversation.
Bathophobia - fear of depth, just thought you'd like to know.
About it being an anxiety, I personally know people who have anxiety, and it is definitely not advanced as that.
Someone once asked me how to destress, and I just referred to the articles on this page! A great resource, and went through some of the breathing exercises with them. It really helped me also in teaching others!
So we talked about sharing our fears with someone we trusted, what about -
What would you say to a friend if you knew they were facing a fear?
What would you say to a friend if you knew they were facing a fear?
I would remind them that its all in their head. If they want to leave their fate up to random brain chemistry, then they will have to live with themselves knowing that that is how it is. I would ask them to challenge their beliefs, and help them to challenge the thing they were afraid of as well. Being afraid of something to the point that it stops you from living your life is horrible, I would want them to overcome it.
But in saying that, I tried it with my mum, and she is too far gone. Some people can't be helped. You just need to be tolerant of those people, and not judgemental.
What would you say to a friend if you knew they were facing a fear?
I'd be encouraging and let them know that I have faith in them to overcome their fear, and also let them know that if they want or need help, I'm available. I wouldn't push that help on them though, I would let them come to me.
If they wanted to talk about their fear I might try to help them identify the irrational thoughts behind their fears and help them replace these with more realistic thoughts, but I think that depth would only really be appropriate with someone I knew pretty well and who was comfortable and wanting to face their fear and talk about it.
Keep your answers coming for all the Questions, we just going to put the last Q out there now
There are some pretty over-the-top representations of fears and phobias in film and tv. What are some of your favourite fear/phobias moments in film and tv?
This isn't an over-the-top one, but my all time favourite was when April had OCD in Home and Away. I really related to some of the fears she expressed in that storyline. The resolution was a bit rushed (as it often is in those shows) which was unrealistic I think, but it has been referred back to in other storylines that the character has been involved in which I think is good continuity :).
There are some pretty over-the-top representations of fears and phobias in film and tv. What are some of your favourite fear/phobias moments in film and tv?
Oh definitely Arachnaphobia, the Chucky series, Dawn of the Dead... There's also the fear of water in Jaws and The Truman Show.
See you next week!
It was very merry with very many of you contributing. It has been awhile since a GR has been this merry.
Thanks again everyone!
Thanks for the discussion guys, it was really interesting! Night all 🙂
There are some pretty over-the-top representations of fears and phobias in film and tv. What are some of your favourite fear/phobias moments in film and tv?
Some of the films I've seen are not particular targetted to exploring about a phobia, but it would get the person that has that phobia squirming
- abyss (claustrophobia)
- eight legged freak (spiders)
- piranhas (for people who is afraid of deep waters and not knowing what is lurking below)
- anaconda (snake phobia)
disclaimer: may or may not have gotten the film names correct. I was too busy being scared to remember the film title
My fav will always be ARACHNOPHOBIA! So over the top! But I was scared!
Thanks for joining us and contributing tonight guys. I hope you all have developed a new understanding of your fears and some ways to cope with them 🙂
Summary:
We all have something that manages to incite fear in us all, some quite common such as Atychiphobia (the fear of failure) and some more personal and unique like being scared of sharp corners (so unique it doesn’t have a name!). These fears can be deeply instilled within us from an experience in our past or something that seemingly pops out of the blue when we are faced with it.
One way we can manage our fears is to confide in those who are close to us. This is an excellent way to help manage your fears as they may be able to help you rationalise your fear or put you at ease when faced with your fear or even stop you from getting into those situations. However sharing our fears with others can be a very difficult task. Usually we tend to want to portray an image of being strong and independent, but what we must realise that everyone has their own fears and by sharing them with someone close it will greatly help in overcoming them.
Our fears can affect us both physically and psychologically. As with our fears the effects can be both common and unique to us all. Some of the common physical effects involve becoming tenser, developing tunnel vision, shaking and sweating. Psychological effects can range from having racing thoughts to catastrophizing (thinking of every possible worst-case scenario).
There are multitudes of strategies that we can employ to help us cope with the fears that we face in our day to day lives. Some which we have discussed tonight involve physically removing yourself from the situation and doing something that we enjoy. However, at times this is not possible, so how do we manage? We can do so by trying to relax by controlling our breathing, to take deep and long breaths or to recite something within our heads like counting, a quote or poem.
To learn how to relax within these situation the following are some great sources:
http://au.reachout.com/How-to-be-more-mindful
http://au.reachout.com/Ways-to-relax
http://au.reachout.com/Relaxation-training
We won’t always be able to manage some fears by ourselves, which is nothing to be ashamed of. But the question is how do we know when to reach out for help? From what we have discussed most would agree that it is time when our fear becomes preventative to the things which we are trying to achieve in our everyday lives and involves excessive effort to avoid. In order to sieze control of our lives in these situations it is best to share with someone close to us be it a friend or family member. Where this is not possible a psychologist or teacher can also be great sources of support. Other handy sources include:
http://au.reachout.com/Phobia-fixing
http://au.reachout.com/What-is-a-phobia
http://au.reachout.com/Social-phobias
http://au.reachout.com/The-strange-fear
http://au.reachout.com/Remembering-I-can-conquer-fear
Definitely The Evil Dead triology.
Do yourself a huge favour and watch these movies if you haven't already. Bruce Campbell is a total ledgend. Don't worry if you laugh, its meant to be funny.
Phobias in Popular Culture?
Perhaps Homophobia? TV generally likes to polarise opinion when in fact there is a whole spectrum of opinion that can't be narrowed down to "supporters VS haters".
And also maybe the fear of getting lost. For me it is an adventure to not know where I am, a chance for new experiences!
