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Fear And/Or Trauma?

What do you think is the real difference between fear and trauma? Do you think they're alike? Or they are just connected with each other? Different, but somehow connected. What do you think?

According to my sister, Viary, fear is all in the brain while trauma is caused by an event/happening that causes fear. For short, trauma triggers fear.

Every single night, my sister and I would tremble by the sound of "something" outside our room. We haven't noticed it until now. We were sent to a psychiatrist after a tragic incident, and that was when our father got murdered at our very own home. We thought that we got over it, but we thought wrong. Whenever we hear the loud patter of the rain on our roof, we get nervous because it reminds us of the time when there were people who kept throwing rocks on our rooftop while there were gunshots being fired. Tragic, isn't it? And that event still haunts us 'til now.

I have consulted Merriam-Webster dictionary for its meaning of trauma and fear. According to it, fear is an unpleasant emotion caused by being aware of danger : a feeling of being afraid; while trauma means a very difficult or unpleasant experience that causes someone to have mental or emotional problems usually for a long time.

And for me? Those words are connected to each other. You can't be traumatized if there was nothing horrific that happened before, am I correct? But the feeling of fear can't be escaped. We all have different reasons to be afraid and there's nothing wrong with that. You might laugh at someone who's afraid of having to take a swim, but have you ever thought that they may have experienced something that made them feel like that? You don't have to call them a "Wimp" because they are not. They are just people who have a different story in life. Look around you. Everyone is living their own life and each and every one of them have different fears and tragic pasts. Just a tip, don't add up to those things.

Although being afraid is normal, we can't just let it be because we can actually face them. Fear is all in the brain, right? When you're gonna go to the restroom late at night, you might think that there are ghosts but what if it's all just a product of your brain? The only one scaring you is yourself.

As for trauma, we can't help it. Honestly, I don't know how to avoid being traumatized because no matter how many times I tell myself to not be afraid and just sleep it off, or whether put my headphones on and put it on loud to avoid the noise, I can't. My heart will still keep beating as if it's gonna beat its way out of my chest. A tragic past cannot change anything, I know. But maybe, just maybe, if we distract ourselves from things that haunts us, it will stop. I haven't proven that this will work but it is worth a try, right?

I am one of those people that hates the feeling of fear, but I think it is fear that makes us stronger. Right now, whenever I hear something outside, I just breathe deeply and pray. Just pray. It's one thing that you must not forget. Praying calms me down and maybe it will work for you, too.

I don't know if I can help anyone with this article about fear but I hope that it will make someone a little bit stronger than they are now. Imagine fear as a ladder and those traumatic events as a stepping stone to a brighter future because if you'll just keep on holding on to them and thinking that there's no other way out, then you're digging your own grave there, my friend.

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