Since removing myself from my families influence in 2012 my mental health healing has improved far quicker than anticipated, even by health professionals opinions; many of my irrational phobias no longer exist and I am now able to learn to trust medical practitioners somewhat these days.
Since moving away from toxic people I have learned about a concept called “The shadow self”, which is an element of our inner being that is a mystery even to ourselves, usually resulting in irrational fears of something that can only be overcome when you are no longer affected by its symbolic element anymore in your day to day lives – many people never get over their fears because they never get over the element which causes it.
For me it has been a very surprising education of myself. Certain phobias I once had, I no longer have and I have learned what those elements are which I have been avoiding socially or in my life, which has caused a fear of something seemingly unrelated.
The phobias I am now healed from are;
Wild Boars
Clowns
People raucously laughing
Mustela species (weasels, stoats, ferrets)
Vultures
Dolls in my bedroom
Mirrors
Starting from the first downwards, I will explain what these fears represent to the subconscious.
Wild Boars
To be afraid of wild boars means that you are afraid of stubborn people who you subconsciously realise as a dominant figure in your life or a bully. A person who is difficult to persuade or calm down; You are also afraid of other people’s generosity because other people in the past have been generous for ulterior motives, again, usually a bully; in other words you are cautious of what a simple kind gesture might really mean for that person… what are they after? You are also afraid to be brave in handling difficult people because of accusations or exaggerations in the past when you have tried. You may also be afraid to come across as rude or greedy, even when you are being modest.
For me the above was absolutely true because I have been bullied and control by countless people my whole life, people who are difficult to talk to in the smallest of ways. Also in the past when I have dared to stand up to bullies they have often exaggerated my responses to the extent I allowed them to shame me into a corner to be quiet again, making me feel that perhaps my tone was overly aggressive of misread for coming across as physically threatening which worried me. I was always afraid of coming across as greedy because I was mostly an obese child (not because of my own greed but because of strange rules I had from my mother’s growing up which people don’t understand even to this day nor believe), I was always misread from being a glutton, I was just raised that everyone ate that way, but I was never taught until I moved away about proper portions.
Clowns
When you are afraid of clowns you are afraid that people may be wearing a mask and not being completely honest with you. Children who were raised in emotional and physical insecurity tend to have a phobia of clowns, because you never really know how to read your abusers as they wear one face for you and another for strangers. A persons laugh and joviality can unsettle you because like a clown they mask that what is happening is fun, but again with ulterior motives later on they reveal their true forms to you, usually in an aggressive manner. You may also fear this aspect of your own personality and may not even consider that you have a duel personality, so until you face the fact that you have a split personality of sorts, you may never recover from clown phobia.
For me, all of it is true. Up until recently I was always in confirmation bias with social witnesses about a person’s behaviour, just to make sure I wasn’t reading them wrong, so they couldn’t become new abusers. My family often lark around like raucous clowns, making fun of anything and everything they can, especially me when I was around. The more naïve and quiet you were, the more likely they make you the entertainment for the day! Often laughing loudly and playing tricks on you and if you were as trusting and submissive as I was, you often fell for their silly jokes and often became the butt of them. Because I was so badly bullied and suppressed my true nature was never allowed to shine, my true opinions, my true likes and dislikes and I never realised this until a couple of years back that my whole life has been a lie. I had no clue who I really was, I discovered over 75% of my personality, hobbies, likes and dislikes were not me at all but facsimiles of my mother and various other people. I had to own up to the fact that temporarily, I may actually have a dual personality syndrome, until I find my inner self and let it grow at least.
People raucously laughing is just like clowns, so has the same meaning, especially for fears against being humiliated publicly of which I was often a victim of.
Weasels, stoats and ferrets
People who are afraid of the above usually are afraid of their inner darkness, their inner dark desires or even afraid of their own temper or assertiveness. They may also be absolutely terrified of any ramifications of upsetting people and not being completely au fait with their rights. You may also be afraid of coming across too slow or holding people back. Actually weasels represent a huge inner strength that can intimidate bullies, but because you are afraid of using it when you need it, the weasel can become your fear rather than your guardian which it is meant to be. Weasels are actually one of the fundamental personality guardians psychologically and should not be feared, rather embraced.
For me people have always exaggerated how aggressive I am and because of this I had never stamped on conflict nor spoke up for myself until recently. I always felt that maybe I asked too much from people and perhaps maybe I did speak a little too loudly just then, maybe I am letting these people get to me too much and I am becoming like them? It used to frighten me.
Vultures
Symbolise renewal, you are afraid to renew yourself because you are afraid it would be undone or detrimental to yourself, you may also fear death or independence.
For me, I was terrified of making a new me because whenever I had tried in the past (whilst still connected to my toxic relationships) I had often been humiliated out of it and people had shown others who I was iin the past in full view – I am still at a high risk of that, but it no longer bothers me. I found it very hard to renew or redeem myself from anything, because somebody was always ready to show the world all of my past failings, even things that are supposed to be the most private. The fear of vultures have gone because I made the decision when I opened this blog that I will do all the dirty work of showing my past to the world before anyone else does, so people can see for themselves my transformation and understand any and all of my setbacks fully. There are always people who want to do me down time and time again, many people are just sitting and waiting to drag me back to where I was and primarily their main motive is their own self-preservation, face and potential monetary gain in the future and boy am I ready for them!
Dolls in my bedroom
People, who have doll phobia have a fear of being watched, observed, stalked, followed and may lack security.
I know from my own experiences that I was closely monitored at all times and when I did get an ounce of freedom my mother had friends practically on every street corner keeping an eye on me and reporting back about me, because every time I went home, my mother could relay like some psychic every tiny detail of my outing and what I did and what I did not do! She often betrayed herself by the revelations.
Mirrors
I don’t know the true meaning behind this, but it is starting to get a little less though not yet cured – I do know I don’t particularly like mirrors because the person looking at me in the mirror is not the person I see inside my head, the face, the body shape, the hair, everything is completely different to how I believe I look and it shocks and even scares me when I realise how different I really do look! I have a severe form of body dysmorphia and I have never sought therapy over it, I have had this all my life. I believe the mirrors are starting to get a little better for me now because I am starting to change my beauty regime to slowly shift myself into what I believe I should look like and I do plan someday to have work done surgically to help me achieve what I think looks like me!
So if you have a phobia, go and research the symbolism or subconscious meaning behind that thing and find out what you are consciously avoiding in your life, so you can help cure yourself of the phobia by understanding it, because once you understand your fear and you work on those aspects of yourself, the fear magically goes away!
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