Everyone is scared of something, no matter how brave they may seem to be. I've known some really tough guys that seem to fear nothing and yet they are terrified of needles, or ticks, or some other little item that doesn't tend to bother most other people at all. Some

people are afraid of their emotions. Some are afraid of things they imagine might happen. Sometimes a fear has a good logical reason behind it, sometimes it has a good logical personal history to it. Being afraid of something is perfectly okay. That fear keeps us out of danger. There is nothing wrong with admitting to people that you trust that you're afraid of something.

However, some people's fears are totally irrational and have no logical basis to them at all, and when that fear gets severe enough to be crippling to them, then it is a problem. It can be a problem so severe that it can stop a person living a normal healthy life!

Having a fear of water is very common for people that can't swim. It's also a rational fear. It's not the lake or pool of water itself that they are actually afraid of, they're afraid of ending up in too deep and drowning. That makes sense. Now imagine if that fear became irrational. Imagine if they were so afraid of water that they couldn't even handle turning on a tap, let alone have a bath. It's sounds ridiculas doesn't it. But there are people out there that are so afraid of certain things that this sort of irrational fear of something is very real. This is when fear has become a phobia.

Many people are afraid of spiders. Even though less than 1% of spiders are in any way harmful to us, it still makes a little bit of sense, because some are harmful, better to err on the side of caution if you can't identify a harmful one v's a harmless one after all. When that fear has become so bad that you can't handle looking at a picture of one, that is when your fear is getting just a tad ridiculas. Seriously, it's a picture. A picture is not going to bite you, so why be afraid of it? A spider charm on a piece of jewellery is not going to bite you either. It's not a spider, it's a lump of metal. So now you're also afraid of pictures and pieces of metal as well?

Do you really want to go through your entire life jumping through the roof with your heart pounding in your head every time you see a picture of something you're afraid of? Do you want to have to tell people to remove their jewellery so you can be in their presense because you're so afriad of something you can't handle seeing their jewellery? Are you going to let your fear overwhelm you to the point where you can't walk past a store because they have a sign out the front with an image of the thing you're afraid of? Avoid people because they have a tattoo of the thing you're afraid of?

Even to those that have severe phobias of things, surely this has to be starting to sound a little bit insane! It is insane. When a fear becomes a phobia, it has reached the point of being a mental illness. The good news is, just like most other mental illnesss, there is help available to overcome these types of irrational fear. There is counselling and therapies available, and fortunately there is no need for using medication to get over it.

If you are afraid of something, stop and think about why you're afraid of it. Does your fear make sense? If you're so afraid of something that images of that thing sends chills down your spine, wouldn't it be better to seek help than to keep going through life feeling frightened every time you see something harmless like that? Also stop and think whether or not your fear could rub off on your children. After all, they are learning from you. Should they learn to be afraid of something that won't likely ever hurt them just because their parent has an irrational fear?

I used to avoid apricots like they were a plague. I couldn't even handle the smell of them let alone the sight of them. It took me over 20 years to figure out that I was actually afraid of them, and then it took me another 6 months of therapy to figure out why. Once I got that far, overcoming it was a lot easier. Now I'm no longer avoiding that part of the fruit isle at the supermarket and I can even enjoy eating them! My kids finally know what they are as well. Little things in life like that can make a big difference. If you have an irrational fear like that, you ought to try and see what it's like to not have that fear anymore, it's great!