AspieGurl wrote:
1 ghost
2 having parts of my body amputated
3 elevators, escalators
4 the news
5 people thinking I’m stupid, dumb, etc
Well, let's see what I can do...while I fully realize that knowledge and feeling are two different things, knowledge goes a long way to facilitating feeling. Here are some things that help me throughout the day...
#1...out of the way...good stuff.
#2: Well, this is certainly rational. We rely on our bodies for just about everything, and the loss of a limb would change a person's life forever. If it becomes paralyzing to the point that it prevents you from doing things (ie: working with machinery, participating in sports, having fun with friends), then it should be addressed. One of the first things you might want to establish is how this fear came into your mind. Was it someone you know? Was it something you saw?
As it stands, 99.9999% of the time, if you keep your wits about you and just use your common sense, you'll probably go through life with all your limbs intact. Even in potentially hazardous workplace situations, if you're paying attention and you follow all the rules to the letter (using all safety equipment, etc.), then you'll be fine.
#3: Much of the fearmongering of escalators has been propagated by the news media (see below). As long as you tie your shoe laces properly, you won't get caught at the top or bottom of an escalator. If you're scared of somebody doing something to you inside an elevator, then that's different. Have you ever considered taking up martial arts?
#4: The News. The vast majority of the stuff that makes front page headlines is almost overwhelmingly negative or unrealistically positive. While there is the adage, "If it bleeds it leads," there is also, "If a dog bites a man, that's not news. If a man bites a dog, that's news."
This is because in the Western World, we have it pretty good. Planes take off and land without incident, people walk to school without getting mugged or shot at, and suicide bombers don't destroy restaurants while people are eating lunch. When things like that happen here, they're so unusual, of course they make the news. The idea of terrorists slamming commercial airliners into the WTC was completely unfathomable up until it actually happened, which is why it was such a life-changing event. But realistically? You're more likely to die in a car accident than you are from a terrorist attack, or a plane crash, a suicide bombing attack, an earthquake, a shark attack, or any other thing that happens in the news. Yet, people get into their cars every day.
Much of this stems from the fact that news reporting is much faster and widespread than it was before, plus the fact that the world population stands at 6.5 billion and growing, which means the potential for news-making activities grows every day.
#5: Unless these people can do all of the following: make you smarter, more successful in life, more attractive to the opposite sex, physically stronger, healthier, and happier, why should their opinions even matter?
13 Feb 2007, 3:47 pm
There are things that I've had to endure every day for years and years and they've been just as challenging at the end as they were at the beginning, perhaps more challenging. 
