The pandemic of fear

It was a revealing moment. Walking back from the hospital I turned a corner and saw a woman walking towards me. She stopped in her tracks – as though she were astonished to see another human being; stared and then turned back to the corner, where she stood aside to let me past.

The path was two metres wide and even though she was somewhat portly we could easily have passed each other without making any human contact. Instead she backed off and as I passed, gazed at me with what can only be described as a look of fear. This is not the first time this has happened.

Fear has become pandemic. In May a survey showed that 70% of people in the UK were scared to leave their homes. I can empathise with that. Often after a traumatic event we are paralysed by fear. When I almost died in 2011 and spent three months in hospital, the NHS psychologist told me that often people who have gone through such experiences would be so traumatised that they would scarcely venture out of the house. I remember going to a theatre in London several months later and finding myself frozen to the seat with a panic/fear attack. We started up an ICU steps group in my church to help those who have gone through such experiences to overcome their fears and return to normal life.