82. Fear: a lexicon

I'm taking a six-session writing class with the effervescent Priscilla Long (author of The Writer's Portable Mentor, Dancing with the Muse in Old Age [Priscilla is 83, and happily so], and others, including her just-out collection of poems, Cartographies of Home). Our task is to write three essays/short stories, do daily writing-in-place (practicing observation), imitate certain sentence types, compile a scrapbook, and create a lexicon based on one of our pieces. 

This time I am going to try to finish an abecedarian I started ages ago, but gaps remain. I will fill the gaps! Plus, the essay is about fear, and my whole attitude toward fear has shifted since I began the essay—what with my husband's cancer diagnosis, what with the second coming of Trump. Fear has more of a presence now in my life than when I first tackled this ABC . . .

I just now sat down and came up with 100 entries related to the notion of fear. I present it here. If I missed anything (how could I not?), please let me know! (Can you match this image with its listing below?)

1. Dread
2. Terror
3. Panic
4. Trepidation
5. Anxiety
6. Alarm
7. Worry
8. Horror
9. Dismay
10. Apprehension
11. Phobia
12. Snakes (ophidiophobia)
13. Bees (apiphobia, melissophobia)
14. Clowns (coulrophobia)
15. Thunder and lightning (astraphobia)
16. Dogs (cynophobia)
17. Fight
18. Flight
19. Fear of failure
20. Dementia
21. Insects (entomophobia)
21. Sharks (galeophobia)
22. The dark (nyctophobia)
23. Becoming old and infirm
24. Debilitation
25. Abandonment
26. Rejection
27. Water (aquaphobia)
28. Loud sounds (ligyrophobia, phonophobia)
29. Amygdala
30. Hypothalamus
31. Prefrontal cortex
32. Chemistry
33. Hippocampus
34. Periaqueductal gray (PAG)
35. Glutamate
36. Gamma-aminobutyric acid (GABA)
37. Endocannabinoids
38. PTSD
39. Neurotransmitters
40. Dopamine
41. Neuroscience
42. Treatment
43. Psychotherapy
44. Unpleasant subjective emotional state
55. Pain
56. Agitation
57. Spiders (arachnophobia)
58. Enclosed spaces (claustrophobia)
59. Heights (acrophobia)
60. Injections and needles (trypanophobia)
61. Germs and dirt (mysophobia)
62. Crowds (agoraphobia)
63. Flying (aerophobia)
64. Deep breathing
65. Mindfulness
66. Visualization
67. Anatidaephobia (fear of a duck or goose watching you)
68. Meavehiclutintinnabulaphobia (fear of car alarm)
69. Derivatiapostcalvinaphobia (fear of someone using your idea first)
70. Arachibutyrophobia (fear of peanut butter sticking to the roof of your mouth
71. Hippopotomonstrosesquippedaliophobia (fear of long words)
72. No fear, no death (Thich Nhat Hanh)
73. No mud, no lotus (TNH)
74. Forget Everything And Run
75. Face Everything And Rise
76. “Life is a daring adventure or nothing” (Helen Keller)
77. “Fear is a reaction. Courage is a decision.” (Winston Churchill)
78. Half Dome
79. Perfection
80. Madness
81. Bankruptcy
82. Debt
83. Pennilessness
84. Being without love
85. Being alone/lonely (monophobia)
86. Megalohydrothalassophobia (fear of large underwater creatures, rather than of the water itself)
87. Airports
88. Ballpoint/fountain pens (stylophobia)
89. Hedgehogs (skatzochoirophobia)
90. Trauma
91. Injury
92. Dragonflies (dragoferophobia)
93. Yellow (xanthophobia)
94. Fish (ichthyophobia)
95. Nature (thalassophobia)
96. Falling (basophobia)
97. Snow (chionophobia)
98. Heat (thermophobia)
99. The number 8 (octophobia)
100. Death (thanatophobia)

You know this list could go on and on and on. Besides xanthophobia, for instance, there's erythrophobia, melanophobia, chrysophobia, cyanophobia, rhodophobia, kastanophobia, prasinophobia, leukophobia, and porphyrophobia—fear of red, black, gold, blue, pink, brown, green, white, and purple—never mind general chrom(at)ophobia, fear of colors altogether. What? I can see being afraid of snakes and sharks, but colors? What did they ever do to a person? But, mine is not to reason why these irrational fears exist. Mine is just to explore them. From my own point of view, limited as it is. That's what essays are all about.