Essay Example on Experience of Fear and How it Has Changed over the Years

Experience of Fear and How it Has Changed over the Years University of Washington Tacoma My personal experience with fears has grown and shrank as I have grown up as a child of course most of my fears were intangible unreal or unrealistic situations This would include a large assortment of things clowns dogs roller coasters airplanes heights the dark ghosts Throughout these years my thoughts were always racing about what could happen in different situations My mind was always racing thinking about the worst that could possibly happen from the smallest things and of course being so young I was always scared the most about things I had no real knowledge about The feelings I had during this time were just being a scared and timid child at one point between the ages of 4 7 I had somewhat of a traumatic experience where my cousins and older sisters who all range from about 3 15 years older than me would pretend clowns are dangerous and that once we went to a family party with a clown they made him hold me and start dancing around and they all believed it to be funny During this stage of my life I was scared about things 

I didn't know about or I had no ability to protect myself when danger comes after that experience I learned that clowns are not dangerous at all and that my fear was literally given to me by my family s words rather than through my own experiences To this day still I would rather avoid clowns and don t find them very enjoyable but I would not consider it a fear anymore The Conceptualization of fear that I have now is very logical for the most part I would say That currently I would only be scared or have an extreme fear of something if there is an immediate negative effect danger or even long term effect For example currently I m not afraid of dogs clowns heights or airplanes This is due to the fact of the knowledge I've gained about those topics over my experiences of coming into contact with those things a lot I also have more confidence in myself as a person in being able to take on my fears logically speaking again I know that I could protect myself from dogs and clowns if they were ever to attack because of my stature and physical abilities now I have come into contact with a lot of heights in fun experiences such as working in large warehouse and hiking large trails with friends And traveling a lot over the years about 15 20 plane rides in about the past 10 years of my life These have all kept me in contact with things that used to be my fears My fears have changed drastically and knowing now the spectrum of safety surrounding these fears I feel I am able to put myself near them 

A couple fears that have grown in me over these years that have actually increased incredibly are the fears of the unknown particularly my fear of the future I would say it drastically is continuing to change my daily behavior and that I will spend about 1 2 hours cumulatively per day just thinking about my life and my future and I can find my self during these sessions physically changing too such as sweating or wincing at possible negative scenarios During these times is when I consider myself to be out of it these times where I am just thinking always worried about the next due date and if I don t do certain things these negative things will happen to me It became a never ending cycle of anxiety over things that haven't happened yet or possibly will not happen these situations in my head are sometimes physically causing me pain I believe I have two conceptualizations of fear short term instant danger fear and long term fear which can cause someone to get anxiety They both have a lot in common in my mind that they both pose dangers to a person's body or mind But I believe short term instant dangers i e spiders frogs dogs clowns heights Or other things that a person doesn't usually come into contact with can be overcome more easily that the long term fears such as the fear of the unknown and future where you may not receive negative experiences now but down the line is where you could get hurt or end up in a bad place I believe it is so much harder to get over these long term fears because they always loom over your shoulder There is no way to face it yet at least in my mind But I believe this fear will also become one of the things I overcome as I continue to grow in life