Fear Factor

A fear I would like to examine is my fear of heights. I don’t know exactly I have developed this fear, but it always springs into my mind and is uncontrollable once I am in a situation when I am in a high place and think about all that could go wrong. I consider this more of a worry than a fear according to the articles listed. I get more thoughts about what may actually happen than what is more likely to happen. I have noticed this fear in my life whenever I have been in a situation where I am up high or more specifically in a place where I feel something could go wrong while I am up high. Even though I have this fear, it doesn’t keep me from doing too many things at the moment. I still am able to face it in some situations, and it mainly only bothers me when I’m on some kind of machinery or pedestal that is prone to some kind of unlikely error. Fear is used in life to keep oneself from potential harm. In most cases, something has affected someone in the past in order to make their fears stand out and give them a reason to avoid certain things or respond differently through fears. Some of my other fears, such as fearing rejection or other social fears can cause my creativity to go on a different path, but usually I am able to control this and do things my own unique way. My fear takes the form of different thoughts in my mind that make me unable to be happy and comfortable in certain situations. The thoughts are only brief in most cases though, and can be uncomfortable usually only for a few moments. Making a creative project helped to represent this fear and help me understand it better. I engraved a metal tin with an image of a person standing on a mountain ledge looking over. When you open the tin you can see another image on the bottom of it with the same ledge and scenery, but the person is missing. This can represent my fear tangibly through many ways. I chose the metal container as opposed to simply painting the piece, because the metal is colder to touch, and has rough bumps on the surface. The whole object itself is able to represent this fear better than a simple picture could. When you open the tin and see the person is missing, it represents the worry that is present inside my mind. The first image doesn’t show any kind of real danger, but when you open the tin you can see what could either be the reality, or what my mind makes me worry it may experience.