Blogpost 6: Social Phobia

Are you afraid of being judged by someone? seeing you negatively? Then you might have a phobia called the Social Phobia. You're using your phone pretending that you're doing something even you don't or listening to music because you are avoiding to have a communication with others. Over apologizing to someone even you just commit mistake to him/her. When you are ask to speak in front then you're shaking because you're thinking about what will the audience will think about you. Eating to a fastfood restaurant alone because you don't want to stay to a place where someone can see you and ask you if why you are alone. That's the situations you can experience when you are facing this kind of phobia. But what is the real meaning of social phobia? 

I have read an article entitled What is Social Anxiety? by Thomas A. Richards from the website www.socialanxietyinstitute.org. 

Many of us or most of us have this phobia. We don't want to be judge by other people and being seen or evaluated as negatively that will lead us to avoid them. We're afraid to be humiliated because we don't want to have a bad image to others. This is common to someone who likes to be alone and don't want to socialize with other people. This is because when you experience it, you would feel bad about it and you will think to yourself that you're a something that a person doesn't want to be included to a group. You're worry that you will be looked down by other people. There's a sensations in our bodies too like we're sweating, blushing, our breath is shortening and lastly shaking. Lots of people around the world are suffering from this traumatic condition because they know that when a day will come again, they will still suffer and experience this thing and it's like a cycle that will never end maybe in highschool or elementary days. Thomas Richards has discussed also about the two social anxieties. The first one is the specific social anxiety which means afraid in speaking in front of many people or groups and the second one is the generalized social anxiety which means of being uncomfortable in many situations. This generalized social anxiety is more common to people because there are many people who are suffering from depression, blaming themself, embarassment and worry about something that has to do with you.

Thomas Richard said to his article that "Getting over social anxiety disorder is not an easy task, nor is it a difficult one. Many thousands of people have already done it". Yes it is not an easy task because I myself have experienced this too. This is difficult especially if you know that from the starting until the end, you're always alone and doesn't have a true friend. You're always feel uncomfortable to others and you will be conscious about what you are doing. This phobia can end by just seeking a psychologist who can understand the social phobia completely. Also remember, just wait because great things comes to a person who can wait. Maybe not now, but someday you can seek the happiness you want. This is just a challenge only, stay strong and face it. 

Being laughed at by many people is a pain that we can't explain. I've read an article entitled Afraid Of Being Laughed at? You're Far From Alone by Susan Krauss Whitbourne from the website www.psychologytoday.com. 

Most of us have encountered being laughed by our classmates, friends, and certain family member. Laughing with friends is an enjoyable part in our life because it let our problems be forgotten. But sometimes, most of them still continually joke about you that you know you're hurting already. Treating us by means of teasing or anything that destroys our image can lead us to be afraid of going to that situation again. We will ask ourselves of what personalities you have that are wrong or not liked by others. The fear of being shame to yourself in doing your tasks can take you to a disorder called social phobia. It damages our happiness. When someone we don't know laugh at us, it might be possible that someone you know talk about your personality because a stranger doesn't know you so why do he/she laughs at you right? And yes, it is very long for us to recover being laughed at and the tendency is you would think that it will be better if you'll be alone and don't have friends.

Susan Krauss said to her article that "If you want to maximize your own fulfillment, take stock of your own fear of being made fun of." This means that if you really want to remove this part of yours, there's still an option to change. To change is to give an efforts to it and just be yourself because the one who are making fun of you will also feel the pain in the future. 

We don't want to be judged especially to the people who knows us. But no matter what happens, don't give up. Social phobia is only a challenger for us. This will not be forever. Remember, judging someone is judging yourself. 

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Blogpost 5: Fear and How It Works To Our Brain

Did you ever ask yourself if why are you afraid of something? Do you know where it came from and why? Example of this are when you are in the outside around early in the morning and walking to a dark place. Then you feel that something is following you and your breathing goes up. Your heart is beating very fast because of what you feel and what you think. Then minutes later you look back and you see that it's just a cat walking behind you. There is no danger at all. But why do you react instantly to that situation? What is fear for us? 

I have read an article entitled How scientist discovered the "fear center" of the brain by Robert T. Gonzalez from the website www.io9.com. He discussed about how does our brain process fear? 

Fear is common to us. We can know if a person is afraid of something by their facial expressions, voice and their actions. But why do we react to something instantly? In our brain, many parts of it plays a role in the process of fear and the most important part of it is the amygdalae which is a pair of almond shaped clusters of neurons located in our medial temporal lobes. It detects whether there's a possible danger in a situation. This plays a necessary part in processing the signals of the brain to perceive and experience fear. A researcher named Lawrence Weiskrantz said that if we remove our amygdalae, it will lead to the disapperance of the fear. When the process of removing amygdalae is occuring, there's a possible that our fibers of passage that connects other region in our brain may damaged. Our amygdalae is responsible to receive the main inputs from our visual, somatosensory cortices and auditory, while the hypothalamus, that produce hormones are the primary output. The process would of how fear works is to join the threat by the sensory stimuli to the fight or flight response, beginning by the releasing of hormones activated by the amygdalae by the hypothalamus. 



Gonzalez said to his article that "We can sense it in the voices and actions of our friends and loved ones, and even recognize it in the facial expressions of complete strangers." This is true because If I'm afraid of something that is currently happening, you can feel me if I'm afraid of something and that goes with you too, I can sense if your afraid of something by your voice and facial expression.

The next article I have read entitled Searching the Brain for the Roots of Fear by Joseph Ledoux from the website www.opinionator.blogs.nytimes.com discussed about the roots of our fears. 

He said to his article that difference between anxiety and fear is important to us in the task of analyzing and curing of anxiety disorders that affects many people. Fear, for scientist is our negative emotion initiated by the existence of stimulus (response) that has likely to cause hurt and anxiety. Our anxiety is defined by unpredictablility. It is greatly expand by our ability to imagine what will happen next or in the future. With imagination, sometimes it helps us to have a good reaction of what will happen next and a possibility to make the impossible possible. This two things can sometimes helps us to manage our challenges in life. 

Joseph Ledoux says that "Animal models are giving us new clues about how to treat problems of fear and anxiety in humans." Sometimes in our life, we are encountering animals that we most afraid of like snakes, dogs, rat and spiders. But this tells us how we can react or deal with this things can also helps us to face our fears besides animals in our life. 

Fear is normal to us. Whatever our fears are, we must know how to face it and how to change it. This is just are thoughts. But if you know that fear is happening to you right know, you must stay calm to think and act to the situation.

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Blogpost 4: Fear of Public Speaking

Whenever we hear the word "Public Speaking" we instantly react to it and become nervous even though you just heard of it. Most of the people who have fear of public speaking or what we call glossophobia are the shy type kind of person. Even me are afraid of public speaking because in my subject whenever I need to deliver a speech, I'm shaking and sometimes I don't know what am I saying already. The reason is I'm not comfortable to speak and I'm asking myself if how will the audience going to react for my speech and I'm thinking that maybe they are getting boring or whatsoever. Fear of public speaking is ranking up than the fear of death. 

I have read an article entitled Why you're scared of public speaking and How to overcome it by Mais Gousous from the website www.wamda.com. 

Whatever we feel about speaking in front when you are a student or working man, we must still do it because something depends there and a good thing will be exchange. Some people who are afraid of public speaking doesn't get a job with a public speaking in it. That's why for me fears prevents us from our dreams. Fear of rejection is related to this fear because according to psychologists, we're afraid to be ashamed and be judged and we're afraid to be left behind and to protect ourself alone. We must plan before we deliver a speech so that we can't think about the reaction of the audience. Figure out the things that can go wrong when you're delivering your speech. Practice and practice more until you succeed but you must be confident about what you're saying so that you can deliver your speech completely and organized. When you are in the day of delivering your speech, you must not forget to grab the attention of the audience so they will listen to you and have a good impression to you.

Mais Gousous said to her article that "Your success is determined a great deal by your ability to communicate effectively." This is true because example of this is when you're boss is impressed by what you delivered, it can lead you to success or promotion. You can express who you really are by communicating with many people and in the near future or now in present, delivering a speech is needed and this will help you too also for a good future.

I have read another article entitled How to Overcome Your Fear of Public Speaking by Stephen Key from the website www.entrepreneur.com. He discussed in his article about tips on how we can hit the stage. 

We should love our topic. Being passionate about it is something good for yourself because when your words came from your heart, you can give many information about your chosen topic. The audience will also listen to you because they will or can know that your loving what you're saying. Have a good smile when you're facing the audience so you can get their attention and they will appreciate it. Remember that nonverbal communication is one of the most important thing to do when we are delivering our speech. Also you can grab their attention if you share something personal to them that is related to your topic. Lastly we must not be a lecturer, but a storyteller. Have a speech that can inspire many people and tell others what you have spoken about. 

I love what Stephen Key said to his article, "Your fear of public speaking probably stems from childhood. But we grow up. And I really do believe most people want others to succeed. So find your voice and tell your story". This means that we have many choices in life. But it's up to us if we will do our best to be strong to accept the challenge that public speaking given to us. Let's do our best to deliver a good speech by having faith from the right ones. If you dont have confidence speaking in front, just think of your audience as your bestfriends.

We may all be afraid to speak in front but we can practice to be perfect. Don't give up and be strong to face the fear of public speaking. The more you do it and love it, the more you're going to succeed. Your voice can change other people lives. So don't be afraid and rise to tell others your story! 

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Blogpost 3: Why Are We Afraid of Spiders?

Spiders can be seen anywhere in the world. Large or small, it doesn't matter. Spiders are spiders. Whenever we see them, we stare at them and run. There are many arachnophobic in the world, but do we know why we are afraid of this creatures? The more we are scared in a spider, the bigger we'll be conscious about it.

I have read an article entitled The shape of fear. Why spiders scares us so much: Humans are hardwired to fear their angular legs and unpredictability by Tamara Cohen from the website www.dailymail.co.uk

When we are in the comfort room and we saw a spider in the wall, the fear initiates. Even though there's a very small number of spiders that are poisonous, it is calculated that many of us in the world are arachnophobics. Scientists believe that we are scared of this because of their physical appearance and how they move. A psychology professor named Jon May said that their legs, colors and the certainty that they move unpredictable are the reasons why we are afraid to them. May said that studies prove that people are likely to dislike an angular shape and they would like more the curved ones. They also want the creatures that they know they understand. Professor May also added that like in many other phobias, when this establish in our mind, seeing spiders in the picture might also scares us. But why do we like butterflies than spiders? Maybe because of the color. Butterflies has a positive and spiders have a negative like the black ones. We are also quick to detect the things that are moving in the corner and our eyes immediately detect it. When we have arachnophobia, we might tell to someone that we saw a big spider even it is not and we will also tell them that we saw a spider crawling to someone's mouth which spider doesn't actually do. This fear are likely to start when we are children and if we experience it to our home.

"Arachnophobics can deal with their fears by trying to sympathise with the insects and learn about them." says Cohen. This is true because if we know what type of spider it is or what is the behavior of it, maybe it will lessen our fear to them because we know what to expect or not already.

The second article I've read entitled Why Are We Afraid Of Spiders? by Chris Buddle from the website www.iflscience.com.

There are many people here in our world who have arachnophobes, but do they know why they fear them? Can they take action to this fear? Psychologists thinks that a reason why a person is afraid of spider (arachnids) is because of the direct encountered with them. This view of arachnophobia is also known as the "conditioning" A guy named Graham Davey did a research to know more about this view. He conducted a survey to 118 students about the arachnophobia. 75% of the students that has been reviewed by Davey were lightly and badly afraid of spiders and most of it were female. This has effect to their family too because those students said that they have the same fear with their family member. The suprising thing that Davey found out is that arachnophobia was not the result of the spider trauma, which means that there's no support to the conditioning view. Then why are we scared of to this spiders? Yes, it is sure that the one reason why we're afraid of spiders is because they might bite us. But Davey look at the matter and the mainly cause of why we are frightened about it is because of their movements and their scary legs. He also said that for those who are afraid of spiders, just share or browse a picture of spiders so they would be more less scared to it because people can't easily identify it consciously.

Buddle said to his article that "Arachnophobia is inheritable" because there's a possibility that you have the same fear with your mother or father. So this means that arachnophobia is here to stay with us but it doesn't mean that we can lessen it.

In my conclusion, it would be better if we experience it more and we browse some images it so that we can know what to expect or not. Spiders are really terrifying, but it doesn't mean that were going to stay of being afraid of spiders, we must take action and do something about it.

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Blogpost 2: Fear of Being Rejected

Alone? Yes we don't want to be alone even though you can say to others that it's okay to be alone but you know to yourself that you don't want to be a loner. We want to have friends that will entertain you, listen to you, help you, love you and most of all to be with you when you are in the darkness days of your life. All of us are afraid of being rejected because it can affect ourselves. One situation is when we are at school, like it's the first day of the class and you don't know each other then you want to make friends with him/her but suddenly your mind is reacting if you will be rejected that will cause you to stop or having doubts to talk to your classmates. The other thing is about love. Commonly, the boys are the most who got rejected if courting someone because I know the feeling that when you exert all your efforts to it and when the girl decline to your proposal, it is really annoying but deep inside it is a scar to us. Let's not be sad of this thing, just think that she lost someone who really loves her.

Being rejected is one of the intense fears that we have because we can feel the hurt or pain that have an impact to us. Psychologically, we are afraid of how the person will react to us. I have read an articled entitled Deconstructing the Fear of Rejection: What are we really afraid of? by John Amodeo from the website www.psychcentral.com. He discussed about the feeling of being rejected.

Rejection is common in our society now, even about jobs, love, friendship, social networking and many more so that's why it became a intense fears of humans. We're afraid of having our image seen in a bad way. We are worried of being alone and we want a change in our life. Sometimes, when we got rejected by someone, we think about ourselves that we're not funny, enjoyable, worthy, not lovable or intended to be alone. But it doesn't mean that we're a failure already. This is the one step for us to be more better. Everybody can change. Face this fear, because this is a part of our challenges too. Don't stop because you got rejected, be strong and say to yourself that I can't be like this forever, I will change and I will be better! Another problem in our world right now is in our society. Yes, we fear of being rejected because of the people itself too. Why? Because many people are choosy or picky right now. If they don't want your attitude, image or background, they will not take an action to become friends with you. That's the problem in our world now, I mean yes, we must not make friends with bad people, but innocent people? That's not the same. Even though they don't have the quality we want, what's the matter? Did you know him/her already deeply? No right? So why do we choose? If we're all equal.

John Amodeo said to his article that "Being human, we long to be accepted and wanted" Everybody wants to be accepted and wanted. We're all humans and we are equal. If we can't accept the others, that means we can't accept ourselves too. And for those people who always rejects people intentionally, someday you will know the feeling of it and you can say to yourself that I regret rejecting people already.

The second article I've read entitled How to deal with Rejection by Dr. Carmen Harra from the website www.huffingtonpost.com. She discussed about how we can face our fear of rejection.

Rejecting something can sometimes happen everyday. Like rejecting the food that it served already, the clothes that are prepared to us, the transportation that we will ride on and most especially the beggars that we are passing by when we are walking. Being rejected is an ferocious or direct attack in the heart already. And that's why we accuse ourselves that there's something bad or wrong to us and we think about why we are being rejected. Rejection is most common in love. But the funny thing is, why in love even we're rejected, we still don't give up (sometimes) but when it comes to the other situations already, we easily give up. I hope all the situations that we're being rejected, let's think about love and never give up. Let's not take it so personally. If we don't have an emotions about it, their rejection is nonsense to us and we can't learn from that fear.

Dr. Carmen Harra said to her article that "Rejection offers us an opportunity to evolve through and learn from our experiences." This means that let's not be afraid of rejection. Rejection can be the way for us to change. It gives us the opportunity to be a better us and this will be path for us not to be rejected again.

We're afraid of what might people will think of us if we talk to them. But whatever it is, we must try no matter happens. If you got rejected, stay strong and let this lead you to success.

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Blogpost 1: Different Fears We All Lived By

Fear is like a flying cockroach is approaching to you, and suddenly you run and when you came back, it's not already there then you're just sitting in your bed waiting for the cockroach to be visible again and kill it so that you can sleep already.

So yes, fear is a retaliation or response to physical and emotional danger.Imagine a world with no lights and just darkness, can we live in a world like that? Maybe yes, but it's more to no. This is also happening to reality too. Just pass on a dark place, there's a fear factor that will occur and I know you're thinking that maybe some snatcher, killer, or something that will do bad things to you will appear. Psychologically, we're not scared of the darkness but we're scared of what's inside it.

I have read an article entitled The (Only) Five Basic Fears We All Live By by Karl Albrecht from the website www.psychologytoday.com. There he discussed the only five basic fears that most of us produce. And this five basic fears are:



Extinction- This is what we called the fear of death (Thanatophobia) or being eliminated in the world.It is equitable to say that many of us are afraid of dying, maybe we will be dead from now or near in the future but who knows, none of us doesn't know when are we going to die. Many of us humans are scared to die because they still want to do many things and explore in their lives. 

Mutilation- This is where the one part or organ of the body is needed to be remove or to stop functioning. Most of us are afraid of seeing our organs being remove because we're imagining things like what will happen if one part of our body is missing and would it still be normal? It's also related to extinction because mutilation can sometimes failed if not properly processed and can cause you to death. 

Loss of Autonomy- This is the fear of having your freedom disappear or something that will not let you escape. Examples of this are if you have been paralyzed, can you still do the things that normal person can? And if you are imprisoned, would you still be able to be free from it? Freedom is given to us to enjoy our life for the right thing, without freedom we cannot explore the world.

Seperation- This is the fear of being abandoned by someone or loss of connections. This is the most common fear that most of us are afraid of. It's just like when your partner broke up with you even though you still love him/her. Honestly, many of us doesn't like to be alone or seperated with others because we know that they need us, and we need them too.

Ego-death- This is the fear of embarassment. A fear of being humiliated by somebody that will let your dignity goes to shame. This can cause you to be bullied because your image is already down and example of this is when you're in the class and your classmates is having fun with you. I mean no one likes to be disrespected. It is painful for the people who are experiencing this because you can't obtain the equality that you want. 

Karl Albrecht said that "fear, like all other emotions, is basically information. It offers us knowledge and understanding - if we choose to accept it - of our psychobiological status". It means that when we're afraid of something, we must face it and learn from what's inside of it. Any fears that we have in life, let it be our guide through light. 

The second article I have read entitled Common Childhood Fears by Lesley Jamison from the website www.cpancf.com discussed about what are the common fears of children.

We are already adults now. But when we think about our childhood life, we can remember something that scares us. Like when the thunderstorm is so strong that you close your eyes and hold your ears so that you can't hear the sound of it. Another example is about our fear in ghost. Yes, this might be the common fear that we're scared of because we watch television and the genre is horror then ofcourse, we're still young and our mind is still exploring or learning things. Also, we can encounter fear when we are potty training because we're scared of what might happen to us and that's true. The imagination of a children is expanding at the age of 3 and 4 years. Commonly in this years, children are scared of mascot, masks, animals, sounds and etc. This years of childhood are the state of confusion about the fantasy and reality that makes them fear of something. 

Lesley Jamison said to his article that "Not all children will experience all the fears within their age level" That's true because for me, the fears of the children depends on their parents. Example is, they will not be scared of ghost if they still not allowed their children to view some horror movies in an early age or if they not tell a story about it. 

We have many different fears in life, but we encountered this because of our negative thoughts about something, imagining and overthinking. But the most important thing is you must know that the only fear we must fear of is the sin. Because sin can change you and your life, but thoughts are just an illusion.

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