[Rod_Cloutier]

Surprise, surprise I'm paranoid; and I'm finally getting councilling for it. I'm find myself overwhelmed by fear at every turn. I worry about, (a long list):

-Peak oil
-Catastrophic climate change
-Illimani- Bilderburg nuts, ect
-war, occurring or upcoming
-the collapse of society
-the collapse of the economy
-the safety of my kids and family
-corruption
-Chemtrails
-fluoride in the water
-food security
-currency collapse
-inflation
-deflation
-Depleted uranium
-desertification
-sea level rise
-drought
-floods
-feeling worthless
-my job
-what if___________??
-how I've hurt others
-ect, ect

My therapist has asked me to personify fear and talk to it. He said he believes that my fear is a self-defense mechanism that I have created to fulfill a purpose, and to live with fear, I have to be able to talk to it.

He said 'imagine your fear sitting next to you on a park bench, what does it look like'? I said It's like a blue monolith stretching half way to the moon. He said 'can you ask it if you can talk to it'? I couldn't ask; and I became so overwhelmed he had to end the session. As therapy homework he told me to 'try to talk to your fear'.

Personifying emotions is difficult for me. I'm sure some portion of people in our society regularly talk to lamp posts, fire hydrants and so forth and expect replies; but I'm not currently in that camp. I researched this on the web and found this advice:

http://www.fluentself.com/blog/habits/t ... h-to-fear/

Basically the same thing he said, but said in a different way.

So I'm going to ask fellow true believers in peak oil, climate change, economic collapse, and what have you- are you afraid of what is coming as well?? How do you cope with your fear- do you talk to it, and if you do what do you say?

[Pops]

Glad you're getting help, hope you feel better.

I don't really have fear of PO per say, at least not the dystopian, Mad Max, Roving Reapers version of inescapable overnight Armageddon. My folks however were dust bowl children and my mom especially had been fairly well off due to oil on the farm when she was little (her daddy was a wildcatter who got oil and my grandma on the same farm, LOL) but the oil ran out some time after the '29 crash and they were "displaced", as they say. I think the idea that a person's situation can change on a dime was ingrained in me by my folks, unintentionally I think, but ingrained nonetheless. A few duck & cover drills in elementary school probably didn't help, LOL

I've never trusted BAU, I hope business will continue to be usual but I try to plan as if it won't. I've always kind of taken for granted that jobs come and go and so chose whatever job seemed most enjoyable at the time regardless of how "stable" it appeared. I try to be at least a little self-sufficient as a trade-off to doing what I want to earn a living.

^ So is that what you'd call talking to your fear?
:^D

[Lore]

I put myself into a place and position to no longer be really afraid of collapse. That doesn't mean its prospect isn't scary, but I'm of the age that most of the diabolically bad stuff is likely to happen after I'm gone. That is, unless we're struck down by a sudden event. In which case no one is really prepared for those types of black swans to come swimming by and it's senseless to worry about such things you have little control over.

Fear of a finite planet and mankind's natural proclivity to crap in his own nest should be used as a guide to living the best way you can in the time you have left and not for stressing yourself to an early grave.

[Wednesday]

Well there's a lot of fearmongering out there.

I'm from Texas but myexhusband is Canadian. I left the US to get married in January 2002, 5 months afer 9/11.

Durinf that time I spent a lot of time sitting in airports listening to fear speech over the PA announcements.

It would piss me off. How DARE they try to frighten us.

I refuse to give an inch of ground to fear. I'd rather be dead than subject myself to the boogie man.

[AgentR11]

Well... no.

Whenever I think about it, I always end up with the same thought; the experience of death is inevitable and discreet in time. At the time of death, all that was before, no longer is, that which is, is all, and there is nothing later. Thus, I see no distinction, nor see any reason to prefer death at 75 hacking my lungs out being a burden to those around me, over some bringer of death larger than a microbe at 50 or 60... Some years ago, I did have reason for fear, as my child had not yet matured enough to make choices for herself, but that time is coming to a close now, and she is who she was meant to be... so now it is simply a dance to the end, enjoying the ride as it comes, experiencing the time and events without expectation.

That said... I haven't gotten to pulverize a boyfriend yet... or at least make one think such is imminent.