The Origin Of Phobias - What Makes Us Afraid
Years ago, when humanity was new, children learned from their parents, about what was dangerous in their world. Parents would run from a snake, or a wild animal, with their children, and of course the children learned to fear the snake too. We all have a response to fear built into our genes. Its called 'The Fight Or Flight Response'. Our bodies flood with adrenalin and our heart beats quicker, our breathing-rate increases to provide us with more oxygen for what we intend to do. The question is... Do we run, or do we stay and fight?"
This response has kept humanity alive, but there are times when the 'Fight Or Flight Response', occurs when it does not need to. Most spiders are harmless and are more afraid of us than we are of them, but try telling ME that when I see one! My mother also screamed when she saw a spider and because I was exposed to that fear, it became MY fear as well. I am not blaming my Mother for this, but if she had realized what she was doing to me, maybe she would have tried to have her phobia cured.
Years later I passed the phobia on to Steve, my son, and yet, like all children, Steve is not afraid of snow. Why is that? You would think that children who have never seen the snow before might wonder what it is, and panic when its falling all around them, but they never do. The reason is that parents, no matter how old they are, remember the fun they had in the snow and automatically pass that fun and excitement onto their kids. Butterflies are another thing that children do not fear, but on the other hand, they may not like moths, because their mum's do not like them.
Of course, there are times when a phobia occurs because of a traumatic event. If you have almost drowned, you may develop a fear of going in the water. Phobias will always exist, but some are preventable.
We need to work on our own phobias, just as we work on our prejudices. Like prejudice, fear is passed on, and can cause all kinds of problems. But now we know what the problem is, its up to us to do something about it, for the sake of the next generation. They will have enough problems to worry about.
Related Tags: phobias, fear, children, parents, snow, butterflies
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