Do you have Ligyrophobia? Veloxrotaphobia? How about megalophobia? Everybody is afraid of something, and some people call these fears phobias. But why, why are people afraid of things? What might be the reason? The answer may just lurk under the surface. Everyone has something that triggers the fight or flight response thanks to the amygdala. For example, some people are terrified of the ocean, while others are scared of the unknown. Is there a reason behind every fear?
Junior Arrow Schilling said she is truly afraid of loud noises. The scientific name of this fear is ligyrophobia. The reason she is afraid of this is because when she was around the age 15, she was sleeping. Out of nowhere, her mom screamed, “Get up, Arrow! You are late for school!” Arrow was petrified. She raced downstairs, and her mom started laughing hysterically saying, “Oh right, you don’t have school.” At this point, Arrow was on the edge of bursting into tears. Ever since that day, Arrow has been terrified of sudden loud noises.
Freshman Adrianna Odegaard’s greatest fear is heights. Anna’s story begins when she was eight years old. One day, she went on a roller coaster, and her seat belt came undone. At that moment in time, the roller coaster was upside down. This event caused Anna to fear heights. Anna said, “I refuse to do or even come near heights because of that one accident.”
Junior Dakota Pierquet’s greatest fear is objects that are larger than her. The scientific name for this fear is megaphobia. One time, when Dakota was around the age of six, she was standing near a shelf that was not built properly, and it started to fall towards her. Luckily, her mom grabbed her right in time, so she was not harmed. It might have not left a physical scar, but it did leave a mental scar.
All of these teenagers’ stories consist of a created fear. Dr. Nicholas Allen is a psychologist at Mayo Clinic. Dr. Allen once said, “A bad experience or panic attack related to a specific object or situation can create a fear.”
This is just more proof that fears are created by negative experiences that took place some time in a person’s life. Even if you have a story deep inside, you might not even know it, but I promise you it’s there, lurking in the shadows.
