Being afraid occurs much more often than you might think

With sweaty hands in the chair at the dentist, fear of needles, wetting yourself when you have to get on a plane, or being afraid of getting sick. Being anxious occurs more often than you might think.

Psychology Magazine conducted research into our biggest fears. You might think we would get a nice list of spiders, flying, and driving, but our fears turn out to be much more about feelings and events. I find that remarkable and logical at the same time. Do you find it easy to talk about a fear in the social sphere? No, neither do I. It feels a bit like failing to show that, which also takes a nice first place in the top 5 of our fears.

71 percent: fear of failure, the fear of making mistakes or not doing something well
70 percent: social anxiety, fear of a reaction or criticism from others
64 percent: fear of public speaking
62 percent: fear of death, that a loved one becomes ill or has an accident
55 percent: heights

Now, I am not a big fan of the dentist myself, which is quite a concrete fear. But I have also kept my mouth shut purely because I was afraid of a reaction. At such moments, it was easier to say nothing and avoid a conflict than to say what I thought. Not that I felt better about it afterwards, by the way, so that doesn't work either.

Talking about fear of flying is just a bit easier than talking about your fear of a reaction from a friend or colleague. Although I know quite a few people with a fear of flying, who would grab me during takeoff or turbulence, and who always feel a bit ashamed. No need for that, because being afraid sometimes is incredibly human. But 10 percent of people with social anxiety dare to come out about it, according to research from Psychologie Magazine, while 60 percent of the test group dares to come out about a tangible fear like heights.

Psychology Magazine starts the campaign #openoverangst and calls for sharing those social fears as well. Making it discussable already helps tremendously in being anxious.