We are born with natural instincts since we are all animals, it is one of our defense mechanisms. They help us a lot and prevent us from doing stupid things that could definitely kill us. That is why it is so hard for us to do some extreme activities. Rationally we know that there is protection and that a lot of people have done it before but jumping off a cliff or from a plane is hard because we have to overcome our natural instinct that makes us think twice before doing it. This is the origin of fears.
Our fears can also be influenced by our personal experiences, they mold us. So, maybe if you have an irrational fear of something the origin of it is a trauma you had when you were a child.
One of my biggest fears is of drowning, which is funny since I have been a swimming athlete my whole life, but I will explain. I know how to swim very well so I would never drown if I didn’t have “help”. What scares me is the idea of being trapped somewhere and the place starts to fill up with water. That is why I hate to watch Titanic, I feel like I am being suffocated.
Another fear I used to have was of rollercoasters and simulators. When I was five, I went to Italy with my parents. We went to an amusement park and it had an attraction which had two entrances. One was to visit a tree house and the other one was for a simulator. I was young so naturally I wanted to do just the visit, but my parents got confused by the Italian and entered in the wrong place. We sat on a chair and had to put seatbelts. I asked my mom why since we weren’t going on a rollercoaster and I started to be scared. She guaranteed me it wasn’t anything radical but the thing started to spin and turn (I don’t really know how to explain it since I was very little but it was terrible) I started crying and closed my eyes through all of it. It took me five years to overcome that experience.
Mariana’s blog 