~ Fascinating Facts on Fear ~

PHOBUS
God of Fear
(Greco-Roman mosaic from Halicarnassus C4th AD, British Museum)

1. All fear arises from an expectation of pain or suffering.

2. Common fears are arachnophobia (fear of spiders), social phobia (fears involving social situations), fear of flying, agoraphobia (fear of having a panic attack in a setting from which there is no easy escape), claustrophobia (fear of being trapped in a confined space), acrophobia (fear of heights), ophidiophobia (fear of snakes), fear of being buried alive, emetophobia (fear of vomit), carcinophobia (fear of cancer), brontophobia (fear of thunderstorms), necrophobia (fear of death or of dead things).

3. A 1999 report on mental health by the US Surgeon General estimated about 7% of Americans suffer from a social phobia (anxiety and self-consciousness in social settings). A more recent report by the US National Institute of Mental Health put the figure at just under 4%.

4. In a telephone study of 1,000 American adults done recently by marketing research group Penn, Schoen & Berland Associates, 7 % of Americans said they suffered from a phobia and nearly 40% confessed an extreme fear of an object or situation.

5. Fear lives only in the future. When confronted by fear, ask yourself, "Am I afraid of something that is happening right now?"

6. Fear is just another emotion.

7. Fear is always about loss (of life, money, respect etc).

8. Fear is present only when there is a desire or expectations. If you think in terms of the way your life should be, you are opening the door to fears.

9. When a person feels fear, the eyes widen (out of anticipation for what will happen next), the pupils dilate (to take in more light), the upper lip rises, the brows draw together, and the lips stretch horizontally.
10. Fear and risk are closely related. Deborah Lupton wrote in her book Risk (1999), risk "has come to stand as one of the focal points of feelings of fear, anxiety and uncertainty". In his book Folk Devils and Moral Panics (2002), Stanley Cohen says, "Reflections on risk are now absorbed into a wider culture of insecurity, victimization and fear."

11. The Indian sage Jiddu Krishnamurti said, "Why should one be afraid of the unknown, when you know nothing about it?"

12. Phobus was the Greek god of panic, flight and battlefield rout. His twin brother Deimos was the god of fear, dread and terror. This happy pair were sons of Ares, the god of war, and accompanied their father into battle, driving his chariot and spreading fear in their wake. Their mother was Aphrodite, the goddess of love, and in relation to her the twins represented fear of loss.

13. Fear of the number 13 is called triskaidekaphobia (from Greek tris=three, kai=and, deka=ten).