I Think It's OK to Let Go - Unlocked

[TimeHeals]

Journaling on my largely inactive thread:

I am anti-phobic, I think. It's not that I am not afraid of anything;it's just that I check my feelings against a realistic risk assesment before I commit to them

For example, I am hyper-vigilant when driving, so there's an element of what I would argue is reasonable fear there. My reasoning goes like this: there are many others on the road in vehicles that weigh thousands of pounds travelling at many tens of miles an hour, and that's a lot of potential force to absorb... especially in an inelastic collision (I blame Physics courses for teaching me this), and the drivers are often doing things other than driving. The fear... is reasonable, and the statistics back it up (50,000+ automobile deaths alone each year in the US, and this does not count horrible injuries--better to be alert... like you are being hunted by tigers).

But generally... I don't fear a whole lot. Not afraid of flying, elevators, closed spaces, non-poisonous spiders, mice, trying new things where reasonable safety precautions are taken, and so on.

There is one possible exception: snakes. Don't like them, don't know which ones are poisonous, and they all give me the willies.

My wife, on the other hand, is afraid of flying (but has done it twice now, so progress there), elevators, escalators, being near the egde of anything over one story tall, caves, roller coasters and so on.

She knows that these fears often prevent her from enjoying a lot of things in life.

I am at a loss on how to approach any of these things other than to accept them because there is no reasoning with her on any of them most of the time (OK, I did get her to fly the very first time, but that may have been a fluke).

Any input?