Our Economic Crisis and the Role of Fear

Fear is a potent force which nature has provided to help all of us stay out of harm's way. Unfortunately, it can also cause us to act rashly in situations where restraint rather than a knee-jerk fear response is required. When fear enters, reason leaves the room.

Fear can be used to both push people to action or dissuade them from doing something. It's something politicians, researchers and patriarchs have known for ages. The research that has been done over the years involved contrived situations of smoke coming into a room, someone falling down onto a subway platform or even horses in a group. The undercurrent of fear was in each one of these and other social psychology scenarios and it illustrated how fear can cause action or keep you glued to your seat.

In addition to actions, fear has its buzzwords such as: layoffs, termination, economic crisis, foreclosure, terrorism and many others that you can think of on your own. The thing to do, however, is to allow yourself not to immediately let that adrenalin kick in and push you to rash into action.

When fear rears its ugly head:

1. Take time to pull back from the situation and delay immediate action - unless there's an open artery involved.


2. Breathe! If you don't know how to do relaxation breathing, go to my Self-help page


3. Try to be around people who are calm; it's infectious in a good way


4. Sit down and ask yourself to look for the positive side in this or the solution that is currently not being seen. Reach out to others.


5. Let Scarlet O'Hara be your guide for a moment and remember that "tomorrow's another day." Even Annie knew that "the sun will come out tomorrow."


6. Understand that FDR was right when he said, "The only thing we have to fear is fear itself." Don't let it crush you in its grip.

Related Topics:

• WebMD Video: Dr. Farrell Demonstrates Deep Breathing
• Stress Relief and Relaxation

The Forensics of Blogging and Cyberbullying

I love computers, except when they crash and burn and leave me burning the midnight oil to set them straight again. But, all in all, I love them. They've made my life easier, allowed me to do my doctoral dissertation work from anywhere I wanted, brought new friends my way, opened doors to creativity and have so much potential for good.

Unfortunately, with all that good must come the dark side and this is no Darth Vader reference. I'm talking about the opportunity for some people, in a cyberworld often riddled with gore and violence and the opportunity to remain anonymous, to let the really bad stuff come out. It reminds me of the film "American Psycho", only here the fantasies are not in the mind of the main character, but the world of cyberspace where they will live on in perpetuity.

I've worked with people who had committed crimes because they had a legitimate mental illness, but they didn't admit to it. Now, I see those same crimes being committed in cyberspace. If you stood on someone's porch or walked up to their car and said you were going to "*@!>**" them, you would be making a terrorist threat. You'd be arrested and booked and probably end up with a criminal record. Free speech does not allow you to go around threatening people without suffering the consequences of your actions. Your mother taught you that and so did all those hard-working teachers in grade school.

Cyberbullying is just another way for someone to hide their identity so they can engage in outrageous activities. Of course, it better not be aimed at an elected official or you will find out very shortly that there are many, many ways to backtrack a blog item. So, it seems, they pick the people who don't have the power of the FBI behind them and that's too bad because if you really want to be a tough guy, why not make it an even match? But even matches are not at all what it's about. The match can't be even because then the cyberbully might lose and that would be a blow to their ego.

The power that bullies savor, whether cyberbullies or those in the corporate school yard, is their ability to keep their victim in a state of constantly not knowing who they are or what is going to happen. It is the fear of the unknown that causes all of us the most stress and it is that fear on which bullies count for their pyrrhic victories. Take that away and they are like deflated monster balloons.

Wonder when Court TV will have its first case of cyberbullying on. I'm sure it'll be coming up soon.

Related Topics:

• Special Report: School Bullying
• Children May Learn Bullying By Example

Technorati Tags: stopcyberbullying

Editor's Note: PBS Teachers have declared Friday, March 30th "Stop Cyberbullying Day" - a day to take action by blogging, sharing video, resources and ideas about ways to take a stand against cyberbullying.