What are common emotional fears?
So a lot of people are afraid of external objects or creatures such as spiders, but what about internal emotional fears? Those are just as or even more common. That’s because humans don’t just feel physical pain, they also feel emotional pain. Dr Dorfman says, “People also experience phobias related to their emotional security; fearing humiliation, shame, sadness and emotional pain.” These are some of the root causes of emotional fears. What differs from person to person is how these fears manifest themselves. Social phobia or fear of public speaking, for instance, stems from fear of humiliation.
Read on to learn about emotional isolation and self regulation.
What other emotions are people afraid of?
A lot of concepts and feelings fall under the vast umbrella of emotional pain. Dr Dorfman says, “As we interpret more deeply, most humans fear abandonment, isolation and aloneness. Such phobias manifest in social phobia, fears of public speaking and fears of intimacy.”
Why do we have such strong emotional fears?
Some may ask, what is the point of fearing emotions if they don’t physically harm us? “As social beings who are reliant on others for survival, these emotional threats jeopardise our fundamental needs of acceptance and belonging,” says Dr Dorfman. Evolutionarily speaking, social relationships have played a huge role in how humans have survived and developed over time. Feeling judged or outcast by others, then, is just as valid as any physical threat.
