It’s time for Halloween, a time for candy and dressing up as some of our favorite characters or things we like. Halloween is such a joyous and fun time of the year, making it one of my favorite holidays, but outside of the joy of Halloween lies my favorite part, horror. If it hasn’t been obvious, I’m a huge horror fan so it only makes sense that Halloween, the most horror centered holiday, is one of, if not my favorite, holidays.
Now the thing is, despite my love for horror, when it comes to haunted houses and stuff it terrifies me so much to the point where I have never once been able to make it through one to this day. This has always made me wonder though, why is it that I can play VR horror games, make horrifying characters that scare even my friends and write creepy stories, but I can’t even get through a haunted house.
Eventually, this would bring me to the question, why do we even “fear” things in the first place. What makes us so afraid of some things that others might not be afraid of, but not frightened in the slightest by things that horrify the most? How are some people left unafraid of almost everything?
The thing is that fear can have several different reasons behind why it might form. For example, for fears that are common such as the fear of spiders, the fear of heights and the fear of snakes, it is a matter of survival instincts. Our brains register these things as possible threats to our life and in response it causes us to be afraid in an attempt to keep us away from such things.
Another cause behind fear could be past trauma that a person may have experienced. If as a kid you were attacked by dogs, as you grow up you would continue to be wary and fearful of dogs out of fear of being attacked by them again. One other case of this would be those with Post-traumatic stress disorder. Due to the trauma given to them in war, it causes them to be more fearful of gunshots, resulting in erratic behavior when hearing loud gunshot-like sounds.
Lastly, and probably one of the most common causes, uncertainty and control, or lack thereof. According to research, uncertainty is a leading cause of fear within many. This can be seen throughout history with things, such as the Salem Witch Trials, when some were afraid of those with differing views or those of different status due to fear of the lack of control these ideas put on them.
Even wars can be tied down to this reason partially. Fear of a lack of control can lead to a desire for power or a fear of differences can lead to killing out of fear of the uncertainty these new things bring.
Uncertainty is such a common reasoning behind fear that itself is a fear. For example, the fear of the darkness. Many are afraid of the dark, but why is that? This is because we have no control over what might lie within it. We don’t know what might reach out to us in the darkness. It is completely unknown to us what can lie behind it and so we fear it. We are scared of its uncertainty.
Despite the many reasons we might be afraid of something though, there are some commonalities. Fear is one thing that is certain to come to us and it can never truly be eliminated from ourselves, but despite all this fear can still be controlled and lessened.
I used to be absolutely terrified of spiders, snakes and certain bugs, but despite how afraid I was of them, overtime I managed to lessen that fear. That fear still exists, of course, but now that fear has been lessened to the point where it no longer prevents me from being near such creatures. This goes to show that our fears are, at the very least, controllable.
I believe that it’s from my exposure to the more kind side of such creatures through things like the internet that it has caused my fear to shrink. Exposure and confidence help us to control these things. By pushing past the uncertainty, you can start to see the brightness within the darkness. It’s why I love horror so much. Each horrifying thing has a story to it, through knowing that story you will begin to understand it. That uncertainty no longer starts to exist.