Trying to Understand Paralyzing Fear
Two years ago, a woman entered her boyfriend's bathroom and never came out. Yesterday, fearing something was wrong with his girlfriend, a man called 911 and asked for help. By the time police arrived, they found a woman who had been sitting in the toilet for so long, her skin had permanently adhered itself to the seat. In order to remove her from the house, the toilet seat, with her attached, had to removed.
http://www.wptv.com/news/local/story.aspx?content_id=70b83118-f13d-4b1e-95f3-d79316b2c68c
There are so many questions surrounding this story. But when asked why she remained in the bathroom, the woman replied, "I was afraid to come out."
Fear that strong is almost incomprehensible.
Funny as it may sound, I've thought a lot about this woman today. My heart breaks for her. Two years of her life has passed her by: lunches with friends, time with her family, stepping out of doors.
What must it be like to be that afraid?
Fears can be so real. I cannot judge any else for theirs without first coming to understand my own.
Fear is our bodies way of alerting us to potentially dangerous situations. But what if the fear is unfounded, something created in our own minds?
And what about the boyfriend? He cared for his girlfriend so much that he ignored logical thought and enabled her fear, proving fresh food and clothing for her daily. All of their heart-felt conversations?
In the bathroom.
How did this go unnoticed? How could someone literally disappear from the world for two years without anyone realizing it? Did she not work? Have family wanting to visit? Friends calling to "catch up"? Did no one go to the house to visit either of them?
How frightened both of these individuals must have been to allow this to happen. Both of them paid a high price in the name of fear.
For most of my life I have had dreams of running away...from life, my problems...myself. As a child, I can remember crying to my mother that I wanted to go and "live in a cave". There, I believed I could be alone, safe and not reliant on others for approval. As a young person, my closet became my cave. I relished the quiet and dark, cramped space it provided.
I wonder what this woman was afraid of...what she feared in the outside world that was so profound, the bathroom became her safe place. Not her bedroom where a bed could be of comfort. The bathroom.
I hope that there are people available to help both of these individuals. No one should have to feel so much fear that they literally become a part of their environment.
But perhaps the saddest issue of all is the fact that this woman, with all of her gifts and abilities, wasn't important enough to the people in her life to pursue. I pray that if I am ever "gone" for an unreasonable period of time that someone will try to find out where I am. For all anyone knew, this woman could have been dead.
Maybe inside she felt dead. If no one tried to save me from myself, I might feel dead too.
http://www.wptv.com/news/local/story.aspx?content_id=70b83118-f13d-4b1e-95f3-d79316b2c68c
There are so many questions surrounding this story. But when asked why she remained in the bathroom, the woman replied, "I was afraid to come out."
Fear that strong is almost incomprehensible.
Funny as it may sound, I've thought a lot about this woman today. My heart breaks for her. Two years of her life has passed her by: lunches with friends, time with her family, stepping out of doors.
What must it be like to be that afraid?
Fears can be so real. I cannot judge any else for theirs without first coming to understand my own.
Fear is our bodies way of alerting us to potentially dangerous situations. But what if the fear is unfounded, something created in our own minds?
And what about the boyfriend? He cared for his girlfriend so much that he ignored logical thought and enabled her fear, proving fresh food and clothing for her daily. All of their heart-felt conversations?
In the bathroom.
How did this go unnoticed? How could someone literally disappear from the world for two years without anyone realizing it? Did she not work? Have family wanting to visit? Friends calling to "catch up"? Did no one go to the house to visit either of them?
How frightened both of these individuals must have been to allow this to happen. Both of them paid a high price in the name of fear.
For most of my life I have had dreams of running away...from life, my problems...myself. As a child, I can remember crying to my mother that I wanted to go and "live in a cave". There, I believed I could be alone, safe and not reliant on others for approval. As a young person, my closet became my cave. I relished the quiet and dark, cramped space it provided.
I wonder what this woman was afraid of...what she feared in the outside world that was so profound, the bathroom became her safe place. Not her bedroom where a bed could be of comfort. The bathroom.
I hope that there are people available to help both of these individuals. No one should have to feel so much fear that they literally become a part of their environment.
But perhaps the saddest issue of all is the fact that this woman, with all of her gifts and abilities, wasn't important enough to the people in her life to pursue. I pray that if I am ever "gone" for an unreasonable period of time that someone will try to find out where I am. For all anyone knew, this woman could have been dead.
Maybe inside she felt dead. If no one tried to save me from myself, I might feel dead too.