There’s no other enemy to a person than their fear.

Fear is the reason we don’t do things, the reason things fall apart, and the tool by which others use to dominate us. Overcoming one’s fears is essential to survival and must be done early in life. If one carries childhood fears into adulthood it can affect grades, job performance, relationships, and more. Fear is worse than any disease ever created.

Battling fear then is our primary task. Knowing what fear is, is the first step. No one is without fear. Fear is basically an apprehension to something real or imagined as a threat to the being. Lightning is a real thing that should be feared to a degree but a safe degree. Fear of vampires is an unreal fear but can cause serious damage to a person if not addressed. Sometimes fear based on imagination can be far worse than real fears. Over coming fear means understanding and controlling them.

If your fears are so overwhelming you’ll need to take steps immediately to handle them. Here are a few you should try.

1.) See a specialist

Don’t try to tackle your fears on your own if they’re that overwhelming. Look for a specialist, a therapist, especially one that won’t use psychiatric drugs and surgery. You want to tackle your fear of something not end up like a Frankenstein’s Monster. You need the caring but firm guidance that allows for you to face and conquer that fear or fears once and for all. People can become afraid of just about anything. It’s how the mind works. The mind will associate pain with an object, sound, smell, image and everytime you encounter one, you’ll feel that fear and not do what you should. It take a therapist to do the detective work to find that deep rooted fear and untangle it. You don’t want to wander around in the labyrinth of your mind and you’re not trained. Get a specialist, a therapist just to make sure.

2.) Make a list

Once you’ve gotten some professional advice or read up on what fear is, you might be instructed to make a list of the things you know you’re afraid of consciously. It may be only one or two things which makes it easier to face and work out. Some people are afraid of insects. Well there are trillions of insects on Earth so you had better get over that fear or you’ll be jumping at every crawling thing there is. You might be afraid of deep water. There’s only one cure for that and that’s professional swimming instruction. Pros know that some people panic due to any number of reasons so they take the time and energy to go through it all step by step. Little by little your fear will dissipate and you’ll wonder what you were afraid of in the first place. Once you conquer that fear you’ll be the first one at the diving board showing off your skills. Once you list is complete take a look and ask if you can tackle this fear or fears or if you’ll need professional help. Ask a close friend to help here as they’ll know you well enough to make a good assessment.

3.) Hit it head on smartly

Sometimes it’s a sink or swim approach to getting rid of a fear bu this should be done smartly not recklessly. If you’re scared of spiders you don’t just run up and start playing with them. You could get hurt. Same with riding a bike or any motorized device. You could get injured. It’s about approaching the scary object and getting into some sort of touch with it so that the fear is diminished to the point where you don’t end up screaming, imploding or needing medical treatment. Sure, some people go gung ho and just leap into the fray but end up with more injuries than if they had avoided the thing they’re afraid of. Take it easy and do things smart. Slow and steady wins the race here.

4.) Study up

Believe it or not, but just studying up on what you’re afraid of can miraculously end all fearse people are afraid of ghosts, things that science can’t prove. Well if one has been told such ghost stories one’s entire life yet never seen one there’s nothing really there. It calls for looking at what science and cooler minds have to say about the subject. You may find out that you were wrong about ghosts all along and had nothing to fear from the start. All those wasted years of terror took life away from you. Now you’ve got it back and the fear won’t come back to haunt you, no pun intended.

5.) Laughter

Yes, laughter is still the best medicine some say and believe it or not there is a way for laughter to battle fear. Here’s how you use comedy to make the things that frighten you lose power. Luckily, today such social media sites and the web in general have movies, television episodes and stand up comedy that poke fun at our fears. Believe it or not whatever you’re afraid of there’s other people out there that are just as scared if not more. Use the search engines for comedy regarding your fears. It will list episodes of television, radio shows, movies, and perhaps your favorite stand up comic. Your favorite stand up comic can take a gut wrenching fear and turn it over on its head and you’ll end up wondering why you had been afraid all these years.

Overall

There are many approaches to overcoming one’s fears. Even dietary and exercise changes will bring about a change of significance. It’s changing the way you look at things that will alleviate or rid yourself of the fear or fears that grip you and render you incapable of moving along. Remember, fear is a good thing when it’s only there as a warning but when it dominates one’s thoughts and actions it can be as crippling as a broken leg.