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I was talking with Yuki in her blog about this earlier, and I though that it would be a good topic for here for us to discuss. We can also cite fictional examples, but I'm mostly looking at this from a "human" or "real life" POV. Here's a couple of things that I posted in her blog that I find disconcerting. One is that I have a fear of crowds and strangers, and the other is some of the disadvantages of living where I do. To quote: "Oddly, one of the things that I don't have to put up with where I live is a lot of people being around. And I hope that you didn't take my comment as "the whole human race is worthless because people are prone to acting out of fear". Most of the people I've been around just keep to themselves and at least try to be as least annoying as possible. I've frequently been shopping at Walmart pretty much on my own recently and I've never had any serious issues. I do accept that most people are decent human beings, but it's that one percent of people who like to cause trouble that's the issue. Either I've adjusted to being more independent and wanting to do things on my own, or my anxiety meds are kicking in earlier than I was told to expect. I'm thinking of starting a thread in where ever the best place for it is about fear. But I'll share something here. Usually, there's not much trouble where I live, there's not a ton of people who live out where I do, and almost everyone knows everyone. But one of my neighbor's storage barns has been broken into several times and stuff stolen. One thing that you might find disconcerting is the police response. Not that they're doing a bad job, but that logistics and where we are sort of leaves them with one hand tied behind their back. Local law enforcement (city police) don't really have jurisdiction out where we live. Only the County Sheriff's office and the Ohio Highway Patrol (our main state police) have automatic jurisdiction. I don't know about the Sheriff's office, but the nearest OHP post is about 25 minutes away. So I guess that hopefully you can see what I mean. But there's not much to fear out here. There's no violent crime really to speak of--maybe because in part of firearms ownership in my area being high and criminals knowing that Ohio is a stand your ground state--but it's still a surprise to hear the rescue squad vehicles' sirens going off, because out here, you can hear them from miles away, and it's easy to determine where they're going. Just an eerie thing that happens around here..." So those are a couple of my fears and how I've dealt with them. I sort of dealt with those two by rationalization. What sort of other responses to fears like these or others have we observed?

The property owner does have cameras and motion activated lights there, but about 6 months ago (even after a lot of that stuff was installed), they got broken into again. And for the motion activated lights, they often go off, but it's usually an animal--often probably one of our cats or a small wild animal, such as a raccoon, possum or ground hog--setting it off, especially considering that there's no one there when the lights activate. Also, we do have coyotes and deer out here, too. I've actually felt pretty pleasant recently. I don't know if it's my medication taking effect, or the weather changing, or a lot of my stressors getting dealt with (grandma being better, getting some food assistance), but I'm a lot better than I was even just a week ago.

My biggest fear I had was of the dark. For example I used to be unable go to sleep in a pitch black room. Its was not so much a fear of the dark but rather of whats in it. It just put me on edge even when I was with other people. When going to a big cave system with my family I was freaked out the whole time although I did enjoy the trip. I think the worst time was when I went to this team-building place with some friend from colleague and one of the activities was crawling (literally) through pitch-black enclosed tunnels underground. I was at the back of the group and I was so paranoid of somthing grabing me from behind I had this scary scenario running through my head kind of like this. I swear even to this day that somthing did grab my foot at one point! Wether it was me being to worked up or if it was a prank by the guys that ran the place I'll never know but that hand got a good kick for its trouble, although I dont reacall hearing a sound when I did and I never told anyone at the time because they would have thought I was nuts. I'm glade I did it though because It realy helped me get over my fear for the most part. I also seem to have a think about insect and spider, I dont like touching them or vice versa which its strange because I find the facinating. I did have a fear of dogs, I was bitten as a child but having them as pets seems to have gotten me over that one. Other then those I dont really have anything I'm truly afraid of outside of the natureul fight or flight response. I'm a rather ditached person by nature and most things dont to get to me.

That's pretty much the truth. And the "Problem" that DC tends to have. This article brings up what "The Problem" DC Comics has. http://comicsalliance.com/dc-comics-marvel-golden-age-silver-age-comics-history/ Although the previous article explains a bit more about the core differences between Marvel and DC http://comicsalliance.com/superman-characters-marvel-universe-ask-chris-171/ Essentially, DC is stuck in the 50's with their original character ideas. Marvel's main characters are much more grounded, while DC's are more "Elemental" in a sense. They are usually "Too Perfect" archetypes. It was part of the time of which they were created to be true. And sure they have gotten more depth over the years, but the same old ideas still haunt their characters. Which is also one of the reasons why early predictions are guessing that while we assume that a Justice League movie might have some cool stuff... It just won't hit as well as The Avengers and their cast. Just like Man of Steel. They really did not make you care much about anybody in that movie. But almost everyone walked out of Iron Man and Captain America liking the individual characters.

Or bear traps?

some good points I think. It's good to see some new perspectives. sometimes it is not a fear of death that is the issue. it is the fear of being in a place where death is welcome. when I fell into despair, it was because I thought about ending my life. that is what scared me the most because I value my life. I have a survival instinct and the thought that I could be the enemy to my own life threw me into turmoil. The main issue here was that I did not see any value in life. it seemed empty and fraught with danger. there was no hope, no ambition, the things i had held to be important were lost. I have a big empty void in front of me. it was similar to depression, but depression is more about when the things you have in your life don't seem important. in my case, I had nothing in my life any more. well to be clear, it was a matter of perspective. a negative situation i had encountered led me to believe that all the things i wanted out of life were impossible. perhaps it was a form of ptsd? anyhow, I learnt a lot about that kind of fear from that day forwards. I had to basically learn to live with hte idea that i could endanger my own life. these days, if I ever think about self harm, it doesn't bother me too much. I know how to get through it. I know that I am in control of my own actions and I know the steps to take to gain new perspective on my situation,. reading is very helpful. an excellent book for this kind of thing is 'feel the fear and do it anyway'. I thoroughly recommend it for EVERYONE. even if you don't think you currently have a problem,

She's great with a tooth brush.

I had this book for years, unable to read most of it but loved it for the artwork, which I've kept as a companion to my DVD & graphic novel collection. I can now read all through your amazing scanlations. Thank you so much for your efforts!