9th October: Face Your Fears Day

Here at the Network Scientific offices we have a wide variety of fears ranging from spiders and wasps to the end of the universe. Every year, the second Tuesday in October marks Face Your Fears Day, a day to stand up to your fears, this is why we have put together a list of some of the biggest fears we have here at Network Scientific and some potential ways to overcome them.

Fear: Heights

Technical name: Acrophobia

Employees scared of heights: Diane, Martin and Jim

Fear: Spiders

Technical name: Arachnophobia

Employees scared of spiders: Chloe and Charlotte

Fear: Clowns

Technical name: Coulrophobia

Employees scared of clowns: Diane

Fear: Wasps

Technical name: Spheksophobia

Employees scared of Wasps: Steve

Fear: Small spaces

Technical name: Claustrophobia

Employees scared of small spaces: Steve and Charlotte

Fear: The end of the world/Dying

Technical name: Doomsday phobia

Employees scared of the end of the world: Charlotte, Ryan and Chloe

Potential ways of overcoming your fears:

• Understanding where your fear started out can help you to recognise exactly what it is about the object or situation that you afraid of.
• Working out what triggers your fear is another way you can try to understand it and why you’re afraid.
• Normalise the object, person or situation. Why is it there? What is it’s/their intent? Are you really in danger?
• Consuming a lot of caffeine can contribute to acrophobia related anxiety, cutting down or cutting out caffeine could reduce your fear of heights.
• Very gradually exposing yourself to your fear can also help you to build up your tolerance and reduce your anxiety.
• Meditation and positive visualisation are also techniques that have been said to help people face their fears.