Irrational Fear Research Paper

Many people seem to fear death, but philosophers such as Socrates and Epicurus would argue that one has no reason to fear it. Socrates sees death as a blessing to be wished for if death is either nothingness or a relocation of the soul, whereas Epicurus argues that one shouldn't worry themselves about death since, once we are gone, death is annihilation which is neither good nor bad. Epicurus believes that death itself is a total lack of perception, wherein there is no pleasure or pain. I agree with Epicurus because Socrates doesn't give a sound argument for death as a blessing, whereas Epicurus' argument is cogent. I would also argue personally that death is not something to be feared because, like Epicurus, I see no sufficient evidence

Known as a mental disorder a phobia is a persistent fear of a specific object, activity, or situation that leads to compelling desire to avoid it. Phobias tend to affect the way people live their lives, for example, their working and social environments, considering that they last for a very long time and are capable to cause intense psychological physical stress. It is considered today the most common mental and anxiety disorder in the United States (Matig Mavissakalian & David H. Barlow 1981 pp 2). There are many phobias such as: the fear of aging, fear of changing, fear of clowns, fear of getting fat, fear of being in closed spaces, etc.

Do all living things fear something? Those with minds surely have many and various fears, but even the simplest organisms must have fear, for fear is such a powerful feeling. Fear is all around us and is felt in every corner of the earth. Fear is the emotion or feeling that a living creature gets when its physical or mental life is interrupted by a change that causes the creature concern.

During the Salem witch trials, many lives that were taken due to a few people’s self defence. In the book, The Crucible, by Arthur Miller, a group of girls caused a whole town to go array. This group of girls were caught naked, dancing and conjuring spirits. These girls were going to accept the blame and receive the whipping for what they did, but one of the girls, Abigail, was not about to go down. Abigail had the whole group of girls convinced that it would be best to lie and to not accept the beating. By doing this, they were put into the court and used to tell the judges whether or not the people whom were accused were truly witches. Though the girls had no way of telling if the accused were truly witches, they

Fear of the unknown, and fear of what is to come in our lives, has generations of people wondering what will our lives be like tomorrow or the next day. Death is always there and we cannot escape it. Death is a scary thing. Our own mortality or the mortality of our loved ones scares us to the point that we sometime cannot control how we are dealing with such a thing as the thought of death. Why do we fear such a thing as death? We don’t know what happens after we don’t how it feels. The fear of death is different for most but it is most certain to come and we cannot hide from it. For death is just around the corner and maybe it’s will come tomorrow or the next day! We fear not death but the unknown that comes from death, that is the scariest thing about death.

Jonathan Edwards trusted that fear was a great motivator yet numerous philosophers and lawmakers have opposed this idea. Fear is something so intense, that President Franklin Roosevelt once said "The only thing we have to fear is fear itself". Under fear people will accomplish tasks faster. For example, when I was seven years old, fear helped me learn to write a bike. It was a beautiful day in the spring of 2007, I was at the park with my dad. I wanted to ride a bike without its training wheels so my dad took them off and then pushed the bike while i was still on it. Due to the bikes fast speed i was terrified to fall, so i peddled to keep my balance. Ever since that day I rode a bike without its training wheels. A second example is similar

Post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) is a psychiatric disorder that can occur following witnessing or experiencing life-threatening events such as military combat and serious accidents. PTSDs are marked with clear biological changes and psychiatric symptoms and there is now increasing evidence that the persistence of this disorder may be related to the inability of patients to overcome the fearful experiences through a process called extinction. PTSD patients also likely develop other mental illnesses such as depression, drug abuse and problems with memory and cognition. Several studies have shown that deficits in fear extinction contribute to PTSD. The classical conditioning

Albert Einstein once said “The fear of death is the most unjustified of all fears, for there’s no risk of accident for someone who’s dead.” (brainyquote.com) It is said that 68% of U.S citizens fear death, the second highest fear in the U.S behind Glossophobia, the fear of public speaking. (statisticbrain.com) Thanatophobia is known as the fear of death and is distinguished from necrophobia, which is a specific fear of dead or dying person or things. (wikipedia.com) Death is usually associated with pain and suffering. Such as car crashes, explosions, cancer, and illness, nobody ever thinks of a freak accident happening and life ending right then. Everyone has a finite time of life, but will never know when it will be their time to die. You can’t change your fate and you don’t have any way of knowing what it will be. (quora.com)

Everyone and everything dies eventually so there is no reason to fear death. Even fear of the unknown is not necessary. It is coming to us all eventually and as long as you live every day the best you can, there should be no reason for a person to fear death. By controlling oneself, you can reduce regrets in your life and adequately assess your own actions enough to be able to improve upon who you are, what you do, and how you act and react. If you live by this, there should be no reason to regret or feel guilty and if you are living your life, constantly striving to be better, there should be no reason for anyone to fear something that is completely natural.

The misconception that some people may have that causes them to fear it is that it’s this be all end all concept it’s like you would never have had existed. Some religions and cultures do believe that there is an afterlife and that helps them fear death less. In “Tuesdays With Morrie” an afterlife is neither

Fear is something every single human being has at some point in their life. When you are in dangerous, threatening, or scary situations, fear is what your body will feel. It is the ability to identify danger and make a choice to either confront that fear or flee from the situation like for example, if you were to break a vase, you would hide from your parents. That choice is completely up to the victim, and depends on the person. Although fear is handled differently by every person, it is a common emotion that everyone feels. Some seek out to overcome their fears, and seek the feeling of adrenaline they get from overcoming. Others flee the situation and don't think twice about trying to overcome their fear. In worst case scenarios people freeze

Fear is a feeling induced by experience, perceived danger, or watching a frightening traumatic accident. The fear responses arise from the perception of danger and ultimately a change in behaviour, such as fleeing, or hiding or from perceived traumatic events. Every person has fears and different fears may be different adaptations that have been useful in our evolutionary past. I have fears too, and sometime, I feel embarrassed to intersperse my fear with others.

In general, a phobia refers to “extreme [and] irrational fear reactions” (Powell, Honey, & Symbaluk, 2013, p. 190). Phobias are developed through a process called classical conditioning. Classical conditioning involves “a process in which one stimulus that does not elicit a certain response is associated with a second stimulus that does; as a result, the first stimulus also comes to elicit a response” (Powell et al., 2013, pp. 109-110).

Fear of the unknown can be a fear of the dark or fear of what happens after we die. Children often experience fear of the dark typically because they imagined a danger like a monster that may be in the room but they cannot see inside to assure them that their perceived danger is absent. This fear of the unknown could result in the child hiding under his/her blankets or running to another family member’s room for safety. Similarly, people fear what happens when they die because there is no certainty other than someone’s faith or belief. Even being a person who experienced near death, I could not relieve someone’s fear by explaining that my experience was mind-blowing and amazing. Not only could their experience be different, but I do not know anything about what would have happened next.

However, phobia can even cause people to risk their health. For example, the fear of dentists can leave people suffering from it willing to risk the health of their teeth in order to avoid having to go through an exam or procedure ( MacKay). When one knows about an upcoming confrontation, it can be the reason why one can not sleep or finds it hard to focus on important tasks. Due the change in daily routine, this unrealistic fear can interfere with the ability to socialize, work, or go about everyday life, brought on by and object, event or situation. But even animals have anxieties and phobias just as every human being (www.phobia-help.de). A phobia is an irrational fear, one knows that the object or situation, one is scared off, can not hurt one, but one is still afraid. A reason for this is that the human mind can not distinguish what is real and imaginary. When one has uncontrollable anxiety attacks, he loses rational judgement, leading to complicated problems. However, anyone can develop a phobia, men and women, teens and young adults, and elderly lady or a one-year-old boy (MacKay).