5 Categories of Everyday Fear By Debora M Coty

Now I realize that fear is a deep well, and I’m not a professional well driller. But I am a deft (some might say daft) bucket-dipper, and I’ve worked closely with the side effects of fear during my three decades as a health-care professional. I’ve learned a few things through study and observation.

There are as many different fears as there are belly buttons in this world; but for the sake of simplicity, I’ve grouped common fears women face into five basic categories, all beginning with the letter S (we’ll be referring back to these later):

Debora M. Coty is a popular speaker, columnist, internationally published writer, and award-winning author or coauthor of dozens of books. Learn more about Debora Coty and her books here. Readers can also keep up with her via Facebook and Twitter.

Saturating Fear

The invasive kind of fear that often originates in childhood and permeates our lives in ways we don’t always see. I don’t consider saturating fear a conscious emotive response, but equate it with the “spirit of fear” (2 Timothy 1:7 KJV) that the apostle Paul spoke of in his very personal letter from prison to his spiritual son, Timothy, shortly before Paul was beheaded. Saturating fears are probably the hardest to eradicate because they soak into our personalities and become so enmeshed in the fiber of our being, we have difficulty recognizing their individual threads. We don’t like them, but we learn to live with them. Sort of like those muffin tops spilling over the waistbands of our jeans. We cover them up or excuse them, telling ourselves, “That’s just the way I am,” rather than viewing them as something that could potentially be changed.