Parents of young children quite often complain about their fearfulness. Older children or teenagers are also fearful. In principle, adults are not immune from such manifestations of fears. In any case, if this problem interferes with life, you need to fight it.
On the nature of fearfulness
Fear is considered a normal phenomenon in people, because only thanks to the presence of fear and the search for a solution to how to avoid dangerous situations, the ancient representatives of humanity survived. But when a person is too fearful, it interferes with his life and his environment.
It is quite normal for a person to flinch when someone comes up to him from the back, or when suddenly a loud sound is heard in the silence. But if the manifestations intensify, for example, someone starts to stutter or loses the power of speech, barely notices his own or someone else's shadow, the life of such a person and people next to him becomes much more difficult.
Understand the reasons
To solve the problem of fearfulness or fearfulness, it is important to understand its causes. So, parents of young children often complain that the baby suddenly begins to be afraid of adults or other children on the playground, but for some reason they do not remember that quite recently their relative told the child a horror story at night, or a neighbor boy pushed the baby while playing. Most guys, after one such incident, may begin to be afraid of all similar people around them.
With adults, the situation is similar: it is important to identify the causes of fearfulness. If a person has once been hit by a car, most likely he will always be afraid of the screeching of brakes or the characteristic sound of a fast moving vehicle. To work through such serious situations, it is better to contact a specialist - a psychologist or a psychotherapist.
In simpler situations, you can solve the problem yourself. So, if a person is stressed by situations when suddenly someone sneaks up from behind, it makes no sense to explain to him that no one wanted to scare him. In this case, it is advisable to make others understand that these situations are frightening, so that they warn in advance about their appearance. By the way, usually after funny jokes of friends like "jump out from around the corner and scare" a person and this kind of timidity appears.
Work on yourself
To calm the little ones, parents just need to show concern, pat them on the back, sing a song or entertain the baby in another way. Often, brave adults grow out of shy children in childhood. If an adult has become shy, it is much more difficult to work with him. Such problems cannot be solved by words and arguments from the outside. The role of the personality itself is important in the fight against such manifestations.
Working with your own fearfulness is rather unpleasant, since such situations are resolved by immersion in frightening conditions. So, if a person is afraid of dogs, it is important to interact with them. If shadows scare you at night, you need to be in the dark, etc. In order to overcome fearfulness, you need to work with its causes. If a person is frightened by the emotional gestures of the interlocutor or it seems to him that he is swinging for a blow, you need to work on recognizing emotions, rehearse such gestures yourself in front of the mirror, or simply tell the person that such a violent expression of emotions is not to their liking. In the case when loud noises are frightening, it is important to establish the cause of these sounds, and then think if they are really dangerous or if this is just the first response.
In some sports, for example, so that athletes are not afraid of a flying ball or other projectile, these balls are specially thrown in the face (either thrown into the net in front of the face, or they swing, but do not let the ball out of their hands). So a person develops the ability not to be afraid of something like that in a game situation. Everyday situations can be solved in the same way. There was a sudden sound behind your back - you just need to turn around, catch the cause of the sound, eliminate it, if possible (for example, close a window or door), and not give in to panic.
