What are 3 common fears and how can people overcome them? essay sample

Fears and phobias follow every single person capable of analyzing information from the outer world. As we think too much about undesirable events, we start projecting them whenever they can happen. There are dozens of fears connected to different objects and life situations but some psychologists classify them into five grand groups of basic fears. They are the fear of ceasing to exist, the fear of damaging our body, the fear of being unable to control one’s body, the fear of being rejected by others, and the fear of humiliation.

The fear of death is, perhaps, the most common and clear phobia. We can experience it when preparing to jump with a parachute or standing at the top of a high building. As death is an inevitable outcome of life, giving up on fearing it is hardly possible. Some psychologists suggest that thinking about death for 5 minutes every day over the week will reduce the death-related anxiety the next week. Nevertheless, we also can try to approach the thing philosophically and get more positive emotions from life.

The fear of getting damaged is another essential phobia humans preserved for ages. We experience it encountering insects and animals that evoke negative associations or just look scary. Spiders, rats,  bugs, and sometimes dogs evoke fear that we cannot rationally explain. Though we can stop fearing certain animals by reading books about them, looking at pictures, watching animals in their natural environment and touching them.

The fear of losing control over the situation happens frequently in form of claustrophobia or even social phobia. Sometimes people overcome them by being trapped in an elevator – after some 20 minutes of panic, people calm down and start thinking about other things. Staying in the phobic situation (not alone perhaps) frequently has a therapeutic effect and is sometimes advised by psychologists.