Extreme Fear in the Time of Covid
The only thing we have to fear is fear itself!
The above quotation from an American Second World War time president has become part of history: The only thing we have to fear is fear itself.
When someone sneezes in America, the whole world hears, and so it is in relation to this statement.
Fortunately, truth is once again a goal from the current leader, Joe Biden, installed in the White House. Fear can be seen and felt to be subsiding just a little, in rhythm with the rise in vaccinations and fall in hysteria. Here in Australia, too, with La Nina decimating the shores of our island home, we need to keep fear at bay.
Many people in America, and in the Western world, had become riddled with fear.
And for some it persists: You can see it in their eyes, hear it in their voices, and in their irrational terror about face-to-face contact, even with masked and vaccinated loved ones. Fear of catching Covid19 and of dying has spread like wildfire.
And it’s not always an unreasonable fear. A whole family of six, related to our solicitor, caught Covid from him in 2020. Thankfully, no one died from it.
In fact, our overall death rate is among the lowest in the world. But still we fear.
Here in New South Wales, we have one of the highest rates of vaccination uptake in the world, and, in fact, the Australian Capital Territory, of which Canberra is the capital city, has the highest rate.
And still we submit to fear.
We would do better to think about those less well off in other parts of the world, and to save ourselves from the debilitating effects of anxiety, caused by fear. And to remember FDR’s words, linked to another period when fear was rife in the Western World, because of War and the Spanish flu epidemic.
We are all afraid of something…
Most people don’t admit to being afraid; this might refer especially to men. That’s one of the reasons for the denial and stigmatizing of mental illness. Showing their vulnerable feelings is shameful in many people’s eyes. But everyone is fearful of something, and at certain times in life.
A friend once said: Tell me what you are afraid of, and I’ll tell you who you are.
He was very good at knowing, being a psychic. (I think he already knew).
What are you afraid of?
Some people are afraid of dogs; others are afraid of birds. My psychic friend said this latter fear represents a fear of ‘the other side’. This accords well with the arbitrary nature of many phobias, which are not linked to actual events in a person’s current or early life.
Some of the members of my original family were extremely afraid of frogs. These harmless creatures were all around us on the farm, and they evoked extreme fear in the female members of the extended family, in spite of their never being known to hurt anyone. In literature, these creatures often suggest fertility and transformation. Carl Jung saw them as ‘God’s first failed attempt to create a man’.
Fear of Getting Rejected
For a long time, I was afraid of showing my writing to others. Once I began to exchange creative writing with others in feedback groups, it was a breakthrough and the moment when my writing improved. After a few teary episodes, I started to see my writing as a product, not as a part of my very flesh and blood.
Trying to be published has not always been easy for many of us writers who are, perhaps, sensitive souls. In order to get published you need an agent, and in order to find an agent, you need to be published in some form or other! It is a case of the ubiquitous vicious circle.
An Exciting Time to be Writing!
But it is also an exciting time to be writing today with eBooks and Kindle for self-publishing, and books for mobile phones. It’s a great time to be an author. We all need editors and feedback from others.
So thanks to platforms like Medium that help us practice and explore our writing needs and possibilities for getting published in book form. And thank you to publications that help us to get noticed.
Pushing Through Fear
Most psychologists will tell you that it is important to push through fear. My personal experience has backed this up, too. This is where psychology and spirituality appear to meet on the subject of Fear. Having courage and taking risks is part of spiritual approaches, just as it is basic to psychological methods of overcoming most causes of fear. See Fear of Flying In Planes on this site.
Key Message: In this post I discuss the many things that cause fear to people. From discussing Covid and then fearful creatures, I move on to concerns I have about writing. There’s nothing to be ashamed of when you fear something. I have tried to push through my fear of sharing my writing with others and am now able to submit to publishers. What are you afraid of?
