"fear"

[jazzfish]

(Yes, I'm deliberately talking about this in a metaphor because I don't want to get distracted by context.)

I don't like cold showers. It's painful to stand under a blast of cold water and it keeps on being painful even after the water stops. It's sufficiently painful that I find it mentally difficult to move enough to wash or rinse. I see no upside to subjecting myself to an ice-cold shower. When that's the only option I will go to great lengths (sponge-bath, say) to avoid it.

Is it at all useful to talk about being "afraid" of cold showers? I'm reluctant to describe it that way even though it's probably accurate. I think that's because we talk of fears in terms of things that one "ought" to face down, as opposed to reasonable responses?

Comments

[jazzfish]

How interesting: there are things I distinctly don't like the taste of (such as cruciferous veggies, which my taste buds are convinced are poison) but I don't think of that as "fear" at all. I might if I thought harder about it? But that suggests to me that there's something else, something plausibly fear-based, going on with cold showers, and also with (may as well say it) loneliness.

In which case I suspect fear is a response to pain, which isn't the same as a deeply unpleasant bitter taste. And fear is in fact what's happening, regardless of what I think I "ought" to do about it.

Hrm.

(thank you!)