How To Address The Fear Of The Unknown

November 3, 2021,

Frightening, as a descriptive word, is a euphemism.

Terrifying would be more like it.

No one is immune. When we find ourselves in this realm, the key to our escaping it depends upon how we react to it while we are there.

It can be the worst Sci-Fi movie that we find ourselves involuntarily confined to.

Trapped inside. Where is this realm? This terrifying place?

It is the unknown.

The unknown is obscure.

Like an uncomfortable but brilliant Star Trek episode where the crew has accidently been trapped in an uncharted realm of space, what can become more terrifying is what is going on inside of your head than what actually exists out in the star filled darkness.

This part of space is not within the range of one’s knowledge, experience nor understanding.

Yet you must navigate your way through it.

Remember this.

Courage and belief in self is extremely important.

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In an article published at Psychology Today (psychologytoday.com), “A hypervigilant fear of the unknown—is at the root of most fear-based psychopathologies according to a new study from the University of Illinois at Chicago (UIC). The November 2016 findings were published this week in the Journal of Abnormal Psychology.”

The research team discovered that a wide range of anxiety disorders—including panic disorder, social anxiety disorder, and specific phobias—all share a common response to generalized feelings of apprehension and heightened reactivity triggered by the unpredictability of ambiguous threats.

We say all of this because the recent Coronavirus pandemic has taken the entire world into the realm of the unknown.

Why is it called a new virus?

A novel coronavirus is a new coronavirus that has not been previously identified. The virus causing coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19), is not the same as the coronaviruses that commonly circulate among humans and cause mild illness, like the common cold.

At the CDC (cdc.gov) they expand, “Coronaviruses are named for the crown-like spikes on their surface. There are four main sub-groupings of coronaviruses, known as alpha, beta, gamma, and delta.

Human coronaviruses were first identified in the mid-1960s. The seven coronaviruses that can infect people are:

Common human coronaviruses

229E (alpha coronavirus)
NL63 (alpha coronavirus)
OC43 (beta coronavirus)
HKU1 (beta coronavirus)

Other human coronaviruses

MERS-CoV (the beta coronavirus that causes Middle East Respiratory Syndrome, or MERS)
SARS-CoV (the beta coronavirus that causes severe acute respiratory syndrome, or SARS)
SARS-CoV-2 (the novel coronavirus that causes coronavirus disease 2019, or COVID-19)

People around the world commonly get infected with human coronaviruses 229E, NL63, OC43, and HKU1.

Sometimes coronaviruses that infect animals can evolve and make people sick and become a new human coronavirus. Three recent examples of this are 2019-nCoV, SARS-CoV, and MERS-CoV.”

The new virus and the global pandemic raises troubling questions.

How long will it last?

Will science ever find a cure?

Will I get re-infected every year?

Is our old way of life gone forever?

Is this the new normal?

Shallow as it may seem, will we ever be able to dress with style without having to wear a mask everywhere that we go?

At this point, we really don’t know the answers to those questions.

Most in our circle agree, even if they are not required to, they will always were a mask at indoor gatherings. They will not dine where the food servers are not wearing masks. Ever again.

Previous to Covid? No problem.

Now? If the server is not wearing a mask, we can visualize their saliva all over our food.

We turn to film which demonstrates how the fear of the unknown can impact us and glean ideas on how we can more effectively react to it.

Annihilation is a 2018 science fiction psychological horror film written and directed by Alex Garland, based on the novel of the same name by Jeff VanderMeer.

It stars Natalie Portman, Jennifer Jason Leigh, Gina Rodriguez, Tessa Thompson, Tuva Novotny, and Oscar Isaac.

The story follows a group of scientists who enter “The Shimmer”, a mysterious and unknown quarantined zone of mutating plants and animals caused by an alien presence.

It was released digitally by Netflix in a number of other countries on March 12, 2018.

The film received praise for its visuals, acting, direction, and thought-provoking story. According to Empire Magazine, the film addresses “depression, grief, and the human propensity for self-destruction”.

The storyline relates that at the U.S. government‘s Area X facility on a southern coast, cellular biology professor and former U.S. Army soldier Lena is under interrogation. Previously she was part of an expedition to an anomalous zone known as “the Shimmer”, but was the only one to return. The Shimmer emerged three years prior from a meteor that landed in a lighthouse near the facility, and is gradually expanding and increasing its boundaries. Many exploratory expeditions have been organized, but only Lena’s husband Kane returns home after a year of absence.

Kane cannot explain where he was and how he came back, seems to be in a permanent daze, and his condition quickly deteriorates.

The master reviews at rogerebert.com analyze, “Annihilation” really becomes itself once the team crosses that threshold into the woods, a fascinating setting for a sci-fi flick that reveals itself slowly. This is not an alien planet, and yet there’s a sense of danger and some sort of biological aberration within these woods. Garland reveals just enough at every turn to keep us confused.”

So much there, is about the unknown, but by overcoming fears and venturing into the unknown, they begin to receive answers to their questions.

As the world’s population continues to increase while the square footage of the planet essentially remains the same, from human conflict to natural disasters and viruses, we have to accept that the area of the known is decreasing and the realm where we will face the unknown factors of the future is expanding.

Here is a suggestion at Psychology Today for facing the unknown with courage, “In business, as in life, you are constantly faced with the uncertainty of the future so you must learn to focus on your behaviors, your habits, and your emotional and physical responses. Only when you know them can you begin to change them.”

As we may have surmised right from the start, facing the unknown is about self.