Coping with Living in Fear

Recognising it, and dealing with it.

Ever woke up, feeling normal, until a memory of some awful thing you wished you could forget is happening, hits you in the pit of the stomach, like you just fell out of a plane?

That, is a more extreme example of living in fear.

It is the kind of fear we might have, if we believe we are to die, soon.

Kids can have it, if they know they have upset some violent bully, and word arrives on the grapevine “So-and-so is going to kill you”, we wake up day after day wondering if today will be “It”.

Or we might get it instantaneously, when we hear the words uttered as a group appoaches in the street; “Gimme the blade and I’ll do it”.

As kids, we can often believe such a thing is true.

In the most extreme cases, we might even become a danger to ourselves and/or others, acting to somehow try to pre-empt things, just to end the awful feeling of living in fear.

We can become superhuman, if we really believe we are about to die. Adrenalin is an incredibly powerful, and sometimes damaging chemical.

I remember it well, like an old friend who wasn’t really a friend, just someone we allied with, to overcome common enemies.

The examples above, and many, many others, are memories I have, from various times throughout life until well into adulthood.