Irrational Fear
October 12th, 2007CJ was out of town Tuesday and Wednesday.
Tuesday I wasn’t afraid, Wednesday I was.
It is likely I left the house unlocked on both days. I just didn’t notice until Wednesday and then I became afraid.
At the root of my fear was the idea that someone (say, an axe murderer?) was deliberately hiding as long as possible (at least six hours of not moving from an uncomfortable position) in order to make me more afraid, and that this individual had managed to keep hidden even during my fairly in-depth search of the house (conducted during daylight hours, naturally).
1) There is little to no correlation between my feelings of fear and my actual level of danger.
2) I had no reason to believe anyone was in the house.
3) My imaginings were utter nonsense, yet I struggled hard to repress them as much as I did.
4) I need to read books which force me to think rationally, like “City of God”, much more intensively when CJ is out of town. I could have used a much stronger dose of rational thought on Wednesday, and a lot more sleep before school the following Thursday.
I am suggesting that the best strategy I know for dealing with irrational fear is to overwhelm it with rational thought. Any other suggestions?
Oh, I got a great tip: If you have a car key that has a car alarm button, you should sleep with that close to you, and if someone does break in, you can set off your car alarm, which everyone would ignore and…oh, never mind.
sleep in your closet.
i heard of a guy who lived in the city that did this. so clever!!
but i guess, based on your Irrational Fear #1, he might be in there…so maybe this is only protection against the B&E that might occur….
But, as any security system salesperson will tell you, the thief will, firstly, seek out the master bedroom in his quest for guns, jewels, and cash (who won’t be home, ha ha). So, the guest room closet would be better.
How about making yourself a personalized security kit: metal baseball bat, high-power flashlight, cell phone with charger, and scary Halloween mask. Maybe also a tape of CJ saying mean things in a scary voice that you could play while you’re arming yourself. And tape player (battery powered). Or access to an outlet and a UPS in case the intruder does something to your power lines.
Funny!