Why are people so scared?

When my social anxiety was at it's all time worst, one of the biggest obstacles was always the act of talking to people I didn't know.

But why?

If you are still in that mindframe, what exactly are you scared of?

I'm not scared anymore. The best way to describe it is that it's almost like a zen state where I've transcended self-consciousness and insecurities. I'm not scared of anything.

The human brain is very emotionaly controlled. Social Anxiety or Avoidant Personality Disorder by definition is irrational fear of the unknown. That is why it is a crippling disorder. But I've also come to understand that people in general have a lot of fears. They're scared of losing their jobs, they're scared of death...

Read the news, and it's all fear mongering tactics. Everything in the news is always negative. People getting killed, raped, blown up. Pollution that will kill you, rising temperatures that are going to raise the ocean levels by 100 feet if you you use your microwave too much, viruses that are spreading throughout your city that have built an immunity to medicine. What a great way to wake up bright in the morning to read that.

So I think that 98% of people in our soceity live in fear. They are conditioned on it, feeling like if they don't read the news, then they will get killed by the serial killer who's on the loose, or if they don't watch out, that bank robber will swipe their wallets.

It's just that people with social anxiety have more fear than the average person.

Fear is one of those things that's inside our brains to try to protect us. We don't want to aimlessly walk into a jungle and get eaten by a lion. But the problem is that if you're reading this, then you're likely in a developed country where this kind of thing doesn't occur and nothing will actually happen to you if you walk up to someone and talk.

Emotion vs Logic.

Emotion always wins. I don't care how logical you are, emotion always wins. But you can sway your emotions with some logic. The best way to get rid of social anxiety is to apply both emotion and logical improvement.

When I went on my vacation that cured me, the emotional improvement was obviously that I was enjoying myself, every single day was like pure bliss, no worries at all. Can you imagine living 3 weeks without ever feeling angry, sad, frustrated, stressed out, scared; but instead filled with joy, happiness, bewilderment at your new surroundings, forming friendships, getting together with family you've never seen before. Emotionally, you forget about the negative crap that fills your brain.

Logically it also helped because when I had social anxiety, probably my biggest fear was bumping into a person that I knew back in my past. I would actually turn my head sometimes or even physically turn around hoping they wouldn't see me. I would feel ashamed to be seen, especially if I was alone. When I was on vacation on the other side of the world, I would see millions and millions of people, not having ANY fear of bumping into anyone. You have no idea how empowering that felt. Instead of being perpetually self-conscious and on the look out, I actually enjoyed people watching. Logically I realized how many people there were on Earth, and how silly it was that I was living in such a small reality.

It really created a lot of optimism and changed my outlook on everything.

So why are people scared?

*Shrugs*