Fear, terrible

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Fear, terrible — something that can pose a serious threat, danger.

There is hardly anything in the world that is terrible in itself. Terrible is always relative, terrible is an assessment of this or that event from the point of view of our capabilities and our needs. From this point of view, everything “terrible” is only subjective and, in this sense, contrived. Terrible is a picture of the world, assessed as terrible, as something to be afraid of.

However, what is true for the head is not always true for the body and the senses. Terrible for the body and feelings — another truth, another reality. With all the relativity of the “terrible” understood by the mind, in the sensual life for a particular person, the Terrible that has suddenly flown in turns out to be a reality, a terrible reality.

The forest fire surrounding you from all sides is scary. A venomous snake staring into your eyes is scary because a venomous snake bite can kill you. To be afraid of poisonous snakes is right.

On the other hand, it is not always necessary to be afraid of what is scary. It’s scary — your feelings tell you, but you also have your head.

A black master with a sword intending to kill you is scary. But if you have a revolver, you can not be afraid of this.

A terrible situation as a reality, a feeling of fear and a person’s behavior in this situation are all different things. It is possible to react reasonably, actively, without fear to the terrible. At the same time, you can be afraid of what is not scary at all. You can be cowardly without experiencing a strong sense of fear, and you can act boldly against the background of the strongest inner fear. There is an objective situation, there are our feelings — and there is our behavior, which in an adult is determined not only by feelings.

Fears and anxiety in human life

Small children with a sense of fear are practically unfamiliar. Babies have elementary reflexes (startle) to loud noises, a protest against pain, and a predisposition to fear reactions to some possibly dangerous things in life (heights, spiders). The main array of fears that we observe in children is the result of learning. The more anxious parents are, the more often they see the Terrible and teach their children: «It’s terrible!» It’s scary to be alone, it’s scary to go out in the evening, it’s scary to trust people …

Adults deal with fear differently. Adult men learn to live without fears, girls and women often play with fears and use fears, most often next to men. With age, especially in older people, fear is often formed as a basic worldview, the vision “The world is scary”, general anxiety increases.

Fear is an amazing tool invented by nature and has long been, although not always successfully, built into human culture. Fear is a useful clue, not a guide to action. Taking into account fear is reasonable, being guided by fear is dangerous. When fearful, courage is not ignoring fear, but behavior that comes from a goal and an objective state of affairs. Weak people are helped by the ability to work with fear, strong people are helped by the ability to be above fear.