Fear is a part and parcel of life. Everyone has fears of their own. The fear, or known by scientists as phobia, can change one’s way of life almost completely. But if overcome, they will be able to live life better.
To be frank, I have three fears. My first fear is of the dark. Every time I turn off the lights, everything I see looks scary, and I begin to imagine things. My uniform that hangs at my door looks like an eerie-looking headless ghost, my chair looks as if someone is sitting on it, my posters look like menacing faces with glaring eyes and so on. Even my harmless dolls look creepy. There is a cause for my fear; it was when I was three years old, my cousins played a trick on me by locking me up in a pitch-dark store room where broken toys and old boxes were kept. Then they forgot about me and I spent the whole night in that store room. It was not scary at first, but when my imagination ran wild, everything was a threat. I was found the next morning, suffering a minor shock. Since then I can never sleep without my nightlights on.
My second fear is of heights. Also known as acrophobia, I would shudder just standing on a spot only one foot in height. As I live in an apartment, I would never go out to hang or take in the washing because I just cannot stand looking from the first floor. There is also a cause for this fear of mine. I was sitting on the roof top at my old home back then, before I moved to the apartment, enjoying my morning sunbath. Not long after, I notice my neighbour’s cat was stuck on my roof and could not get down. I went over to bring it in but somehow one of the tiles was loose and I slipped and fell down from the roof of my double-storeyed house and landed in the garden. Though safe with only a few cuts and bruises, I never look down from another high spot again.
My third and last fear is being alone. Though my parents travel outstation ever since I was a child, I am still not used to being alone in the house. Being the only child in the family, just sitting alone in my own room gives me the creeps. I do not know what the cause is, but maybe it is because of my wild imagination. When I am on my own in the house, I keep getting this feeling that someone is out there to get me. I have to count to three before I have the nerve to open my closet. Even worse, especially at night, whenever I move around the house, I have this uncanny feeling that something or somebody is behind me, watching my every move, ready to strike. To get over this fear is really hard, so I have to keep my house as noisy as possible by turning on the television or listening to loud music.
Now that I am older, my fears have grown smaller. I have overcome my fear of the dark by shutting my eyes and try not to think scary thoughts. I have overcome my fear pf heights by training myself to look down from high spots and try not to feel too scared about it. I feel much better now after I have succeeded in coping with these senseless fears of mine.
As for the fear of being alone? Well, let’s just say I still need more training.
Comments