Have you overcome/got over/dealt with a biggest fear?

S

some mackem bloke

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My first ever proper thread, hopefully not too shit. I was recently talking to my cousin and he has recently completed his first triathlon, he saw this as another tick on a list he had created to overcome his biggest fear, water.

When I say water, I suppose I mean specifically drowning, however his fear was such that (and he’s always been open about this) even if for example he was chatting to somebody and that person began talking about having gone swimming on a holiday, even just visualising that would genuinely induce what my cousin described as a mini panic/anxiety attack, to the extent he’d have to try and take the conversation onto another topic or, at it’s worst, make his excuses and leave.

He’s in his late forties, he’d been through a difficult time during covid, left his job and decided he was going to have a reset and do certain things, achieve certain things etc. He had tried various things before, psychiatry, therapy, meditation even hypnosis. He was fed up, you can imagine how crippling it was, things like holidays or having to look away or mute the tv if certain adverts or films were being shown. There were even a few cinema visits aborted midway through the chosen film.

His earliest life memory involved him nearly drowning and so it complicated trying to overcome it that little bit more. However, he now has taken professional lessons, been on a little sailing boat with friends, tried wild swimming and now swum several miles as part of the triathlon. I havn’t known anybody else personally who ‘overcame’ or ‘fought’ a biggest fear, have any posters on this forum got any personal examples. Sorry for the long, rambling thread😂
 


Formal public speaking - I avoid it at all costs.

One of the reasons (not the only one like I was looking anyway but it definitely hurried me up) I left my last job was cause there was talk of developing a training programme that I’d be delivering to teams across the organisation - I strung it out for about a year and it was on the horizon, I was genuinely dreading it and only really managed to swerve it was cause I knew I was going so I could be non-committal.

I’ve tried public speaking classes and everything, disaster. It’s stupid really, but it puts the shits right up me standing up in front of a crowd doing the owld PowerPoint. I don’t mind leading meetings or interactive stuff but when I’m just presenting I feel really uncomfortable and invariably have a mini panic attack, so never really overcome it, no
 
Son of Stan said:
I can understand fear of water and heights - but when people say snakes I always wonder how they know this? I've never met a snake (excluding the human type with 2 legs) in my life.
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Snakes, spiders, heights, it's just evolution isn't it. Something innately in us that knows these things can kill us, so create a fear response.

It's the really mental stuff that gets me, cotton wool, balloons etc.
 
Yes.... had an irrational fear of dying through some kind of illness or another for the majority of my life. It was horrendous. I thought I had all sorts (none of which I did). Headache = brain tumour = death. I catastrophised everything. Eventually diagnosed with health anxiety. Had about 4 sessions/hours of CBT 10/15 years ago, and sorted. 👍 Gone.

Crazy how therapy works.
 
I suffer from globophobia. To a degree where I have seen a therapist. After a few visits to him he said I should face my fear and suggested I went up in a hotair balloon. To me it would only have one of two possible outcomes, it would either cure me or kill me. Didn't fancy the risk and I stopped going after that session. But it means the globophobia is still very much alive and kicking.
 
Yep. Never talked about it publicly, but struggled with PTSD since I was a bairn. Me being a stupid twat crossing railways where I shouldn't, had an encounter with a train, massive horns going off, and it really, really fucked me up. Struggled but got by with things for a long time until it all finally came to one big mental breakdown.

It's taken years of therapy, anti-depressants, but I finally feel like I've made a big step forward with me life. Very recently finished my last round of therapy, specifically EMDR. I didn't think it would work for me, but it really helped change my outlook on all sorts.

I still struggle with things at times, but feel like I'm in a much better place. Enough so that I went to Locomotion in Shildon, and actually stood in front of the same type of train (on display!) It was such a satisfying moment to be able to do that.
 
Stuffed animals like taxidermy for me. I've been on the verge of buying a fox for ages to sit in the front room but the thought of coming into the room when it's dark genuinely terrifies me.

I can go to museums and stuff but I sometimes get a bit heeby jeeby when I'm approaching the cases they are in.
 
alexander said:
I suffer from globophobia. To a degree where I have seen a therapist. After a few visits to him he said I should face my fear and suggested I went up in a hotair balloon. To me it would only have one of two possible outcomes, it would either cure me or kill me. Didn't fancy the risk and I stopped going after that session. But it means the globophobia is still very much alive and kicking.
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Globophobia the fear of balloons, it hasn't stopped you putting one on the end of your knob and ramming it up the jacksie of a willing participant ;)
 
At the minute I am a bit worried I may never walk again but I’ll have to deal with it and try my absolute hardest, I won’t say I’m scared as such just a bit fearful of the future which is probably natural in my position, I’ll be gutted if I can not play football with my lad again but like i I say say I just need to get over it and give it my absolute best shot . Plenty of people are worse iff than me so the key thingi, I think is to not start and feel to sorry for myself .onwards and upwards eh……..
 

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