Don't let phobias affect you

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Fear grips most of us. It is a strong, nasty reaction to danger or risk. Anxiety, fright, panic, paranoia, persecution complex and terror can trigger fear in our mind, whether it is real or imagined.

   Some psychologists believe that, like anger and joy, fear is innate in all human beings. Fear is a defensive, survival tool; it is usually a response to a particular stimulus. In many instances, it spurs people of all ages to escape to safety.

   People cower, freeze, shout or cry when something horrible and shocking seizes them. Fear can be self-created, imagined or instilled into people. The effect can be paralyzing or lasting.

   There are two main types of fear – serious or trifling. Serious fear develops when people are confronted by something – or someone – that poses sudden peril. Trifling fear happens in the face of a likelihood of harm.

   Distrust can cause fear in the form of an inward feeling of caution. Doubt and insecurity creep in when something or someone is questionable and unknown. For instance, you may be distrustful when you meet a stranger who acts suspiciously. You have the same uneasy feeling when you stay in a dilapidated house or operate a defective machine.

   In a heightened state of fear, you may be beset by terror. This may occur when you have a sense of immediate danger, and you are likely to act irrationally or impulsively.

   People who have a profound, sometimes inexplicable, perception of being persecuted develop paranoia. Their behaviour becomes radical and rash, and when it is unchecked, it may result in phobia.

   A traumatic experience can give rise to fear. For instance, if a child falls into a pool and struggles to seek safety, he may later be afraid of going into an enclosed space, a case of claustrophobia. He may also be frightened to step into water which, in medical terms, is aquaphobia.

   Influenza epidemic

   Social norms and values can also trigger fear. Many Britons in the 19th century dreaded dying poor, unmourned and unremembered. A lot of people feared polio and malaria in the 20th century. Americans were highly sensitive towards terrorism after the September 11, 2001 attacks by A-Queda upon New York City and Arlington, Virginia. The 2004 Indian Ocean tsunami, which killed more than 230,000 people in 14 countries, and the Influenza A (H1N1) epidemic in 2009 sparked widespread fear.

   The adrenaline levels rise when humans are intimidated by fear. The victims can be manipulated by others, become violent and even deadly. Fear is registered on their faces: eyes widening, pupils dilating, upper lips rising, brows drawing closer and lips stretching horizontally.

   Reactions can come in various forms. A victim’s body sweats profusely, his muscles tighten for emergency, the senses are sharpened, the hands cover the face. He or she may give a start or jump. The heart rate and heartbeat may race.

   In legal practice, victims are excused from some actions when they are done under stress of grave fear or when the victims act in self-defence. Contracts signed may therefore be judged invalid, since fear strips a person of his freedom to think and act. The threat must be real and inevitable.

   Fear is classified into hundreds of types, ranging from acrophobia (fear of heights), agliophobia (fear of pain) and bacteriophobia (fear of bacteria) to catoptrophobia (fear of mirrors), dentophobia (fear of dentists) and gamophobia (fear of marriage). Some children have achluophobia (fear of darkness), apiphobia (fear of bees) and atychiphobia (fear of failure). Adults may be overcome by carnophobia (fear of meat), doxophobia (fear of expressing opinions) and peniaphobia (fear of poverty).

   Fear of dinner conversations

   There are children and adults of various cultures who get gymnophobia, a fear or anxiety about being seen naked or seeing others in the nude. On the other hand, nudists delight in basking exposed under the sun and think the phobia is irrational.

    The fear factors can range from a sense of guilt, disgust or discomfort at certain activities to intense fear and panic at the notion of anything sexual. Specialists call this sexual avoidance. Agraphobia (fear of sexual abuse), androphobia (fear of men), haphephobia (fear of being touched) and coitophobia (fear of coitus) are some of these fears.

   Consciously or subconsciously, some people grow up with intense fears for things and events. They may develop centophobia (fear of new things or ideas), chorophobia (fear of dancing), climacophobia (fear of stairs) and deipnophobia (fear of dining or dinner conversations).

   Flying is generally considered to be one of the safest modes of public transport. Statistics show that airline travel is 29 times safer than driving a car. However, surveys and figures do not stop people from being scared of flying.

   Just as with any activity in life, flying has some chance of an accident. Some passengers are sometimes disabled by fear and they experience the symptoms that make flying a nightmare. Once they are airborne, they feel vulnerable. When they are not “in control” of the flight, they somehow lose the command of their thoughts and feelings. 

   Some passengers complain of ear pain, which may be eliminated by taking a chewing gum, sinus pain caused by atmospheric pressure changes, muscular or joint pain at high altitudes, venous thrombosis or “economy-class syndrome” and low blood pressure from not eating.

    The fear of flying boils down to an anxiety disorder. High altitudes, enclosed spaces, crowded conditions and air turbulences compound the fear of some passengers. The fear can be so intense that some travellers choose to drive or take a boat trip.

   Don't be afraid, counsel psychologists. It's all in the mind. Dispel it like it is a bad dream.

   

The poor cry for help

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Poverty cuts across age, gender, racial and international boundaries. It has existed since the first man appeared on planet Earth, and by the looks of the situation, it will continue to plague mankind for some millennia.  

   Currently, there are more than two billion of poverty-stricken people worldwide  -- from Asia and the Middle East to Africa and North America. 

   Nearly one billion people of all races entered the 21st century unable to read a book or sign their names.  Almost 1.6 billion – a quarter of humanity – are living without electricity. More than two billion are surviving without access to safe water supply.

   The picture of global poverty is grim. It is a world where 2.5 billion people rely on biomas – fuelwood, charcoal and animal dung – to meet energy needs for cooking. Yet 12 per cent of the world’s population – the rich – use 85 per cent of its water.

   More than one billion people across the globe live on less than US$1 a day,  and another two billion have to make ends meet with only US$2.5 each daily. Nearly 35 per cent of them are illiterate adults. At least one billion of them do not have telephones or TV sets.  

   Despite the advances of science and technology, 1.5 billion people do not have access to medical care and one billion children are deprived of education. Each year about 11 million  needy children die before their fifth birthday. Another four million children die of pneumonia yearly.

   Each night more than one billion people go to bed hungry. In the streets, back lanes and slums, you find 80 million beggars, another 80 million supported by garbage collection or recycling and 300 million homeless children. Elsewhere 520 million slum dwellers and 50 million cave-dwellers look for food and whatever they can salvage. Joining their ranks are 90 million unemployed workers and one billion part-time vendors in urban areas.

   Life expectancy declines

  

   Compounding the situation is the plight of 450 million orphans, 450 million people on the verge of starvation, 100 million urban street children and 50 million exploited children.

    More than one billion illiterate adults are found in Asian, African and Middle Eastern countries. Two thirds of them are women. Another nine million illiterate adults join them annually, notably from south and west Asia, sub-Saharan Africa and the Middle East.      

   Diseases are rampant. At least five million poor people die of malaria and another five million children succumb to diarrhea. In the midst of the undernourished and poor are 60 million AIDS carriers with 400,000 deaths yearly. The leading causes of death among the poor are parasitic, circulatory, cardiovascular and prenatal diseases, cancer and tuberculosis.

   In nine poor countries, life expectancy has declined by six to 20 years owing to contaminated water, poor sanitation, severe indoor pollution, high population growth, malaria and spread of HIV/AIDS. Ninety-five per cent of the 60 million people with HIV/AIDS are in developing countries.

   On the flip side, the wealthiest one per cent of the world’s adults own 40 per cent of the world’s assets; the richest 10 per cent of adults control 85 per cent of global wealth. The combined GDP per capita of the 10 richest African countries is only 11 per cent of the GDP per capita of Luxembourg.  The  GDP per capita of the world’s 10 poorest countries totals US$6,100 compared with the tally of US$ 349,400 from the world’s 10 richest nations.

   Heavily indebted countries

    Out of the world’s 10 richest people, three hail from the US. One is William Gates III whose net worth of US348 billion is enough to pay the US President’s salary for 611,000 years (that is, if he lives that long). On the Forbes list are 946 billionaires around the world; their net worth is US$348 billion.

   The GDP of the 41 heavily indebted poor countries (with 567 million people) is less than the wealth of the world’s seven richest people combined. The world’s low-income countries (with 2.4 billion people) account for only 2.4 per cent of global exports. In plain terms, 0.13 per cent of the world’s population control 25 per cent o the world’s financial assets.

   The huge divide between the rich and the poor is due to factors such as environmental destruction, migration, conflict, unequal distribution of resources, inadequate governance and lack of access to education, healthcare and social security.

    Ironically, military spending in the world amounts to US$780 billion. Spending on cosmetics in the US totals US$11 billion. Ice cream sales in Europe come to US$12 billion; spending on alcoholic drinks in Europe stands at US$50 billion. Pet food sales in Europe and the US net another US$17 billion. In Japan, business entertainment totals US$35 billion.

    The projected annual cost of eliminating global starvation and malnutrition is US$19 billion. In contrast, the US splashes more than US$420 billion annually on defence alone.

   Now you know who are affluent or impoverished. The cries for help are loud and clear, but the solutions are remote. 


   How can you expect the poor countries to progress when they spend almost US$37 billion to service debts and when aid pledged is tied to purchases of goods and services from seven rich nations?

Risking death for adultery

Risking death for adultery

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Have you ever wondered why some couples risk their lives to commit adultery? Impulsiveness perhaps or the proverbial seven-year itch. Whatever the reason or stimulus, the punishment may be death.


   Yes, stoning to death, which was practised in Biblical times, is still the penalty for sexual infidelity in some countries like Iran, Nigeria and Somalia. Yet married couples defy the ancient law stated in the seventh commandment.


   In the Roman period, a guilty spouse could be banished. A woman's father was allowed to kill her and her partner.


   The punishment  for adultery was whipping in puritan Massachusetts. A Boston law in the mid-1600 provided for death as the sentence.  


   Honour killings were condoned or permitted in ancient Egyptian, Babylonian, Chinese, Persian and North American  native American cultures that regarded extramarital sex as a family or community disgrace. They are still carried out in.some part of the world, often with impunity.


   Why do couples do it? Some people think they are immature, irresponsible and even lustful as they indulge in illicit liaisons. The relationships may not be sexual, for many adulterers or adulteresses turn to other partners for comfort, security or communication when they fail to deal with their marriage problems.  


   Millions of adulterous spouses


   According to the Kinsey Report, nearly 60 per cent of American men and 30 per cent of women were unfaithful before the age of 40. Recent research in the US shows that 25 per cent of husbands and 17 per cent of wives had an affair. This means that 31 million American spouses had breached the sanctity of marriage.


   Nearly 65 per cent of such marriages end in divorce. The adulterous behaviour of parents often affects children when they grow up.


   The public sentiment against adultery remains strong but in a liberated society, prosecution is rare. Sexual infidelity is sometimes treated as a personal issue. Modern-thinking people view it as cheating that happens as frequent as road accidents.


   In a polygamous community or wife swapping, it is not cheating at all. Couples merely fool around, have a fling or take a legally accepted partner.


   Penal codes in most countries do not stipulate punishment for extramarital sex. It is however an offence in Malaysia to entice or take away with a criminal intent a married woman. The penalty may be a prison term of two years, or a fine, or both.


   Safer is virtual adultery through Second Life on the Internet. The members-only site allows four million married men and women to create and experience sexual fantasies online. 


   All told, no spouse is immune to sexual infidelity. It can happen to anyone in need of affection, two-way communication, financial or family commitment, or sexual fulfilment.