In her quote, she stated something that has been somewhat of a mystery to teenagers in modern society: the correlation of fear and love, and just how closely they may be connected. Average people like you and me have been victims of the similarities of fear and love, whether that be with family or with friends. Fear and love, despite being oxymoronic, have been proven multiple times to be profoundly ingrained in each other, and this correlation is constantly reflected in our lives.
One famous condition that sparks the discussion regarding fear and love is commonly known as Stockholm Syndrome. Stockholm Syndrome is a condition when a hostage or prisoner feels empathy or sympathy for their captors. In this puzzling example, fear and devastation causes feelings of compassion, a form of love. This unique and surprising phenomenon affects roughly 8% of all prisoners. Stockholm Syndrome is one of the many psychological theories that directly correlate fear to love, or vice versa.
A cartoon depiction of the intriguing case of Stockholm Syndrome
Everyone, not just prisoners and captors, has probably been an inadvertent victim of the entanglement of fear and love at some point of their life. Attempting to make a first impression on someone is an example of the connection of fear and love in our lives. When you attempt to make a good impression on someone, you want to show them that you are compassionate and caring, characteristics of love. Yet when you approach that person, many of us will begin to worry about talking to them, with the fear of giving a bad impression or coming off with the wrong message. In this case, your thoughts and actions, intended to show a form of love, are hindered by fear.
Too many of us find ourselves acting like this guy
Another example of this correlation in our lives is how you feel about those that you love. When you love someone, you are constantly concerned for their well-being. This can lead to excessive worrying and fear that your loved one will get hurt. Once again, it seems that love has brought fear into the equation, where it hadn’t been before.
We’ve all been there – when we are perfectly fine but our parents are worrying excessively about us
Coincidence? I think not. From our own real life experiences, we can conclude that not only are fear and love connected, but they can also induce the appearance of one another. We can see that although they seem like polar opposites, fear and love are indeed connected. Now how does this conclusion affect us? We can apply this knowledge in our real lives. One possible example is giving an effective speech. An effective and powerful speech conveys passion and love for what we are saying. Often, before giving a speech to a large crowd, we feel fear and nervousness. Perhaps, instead of fighting the fear, we should embrace it in a certain way, to create the feelings of passion in our speech. This is one example of how to learn and master the emotions of fear and love. The fact is that love cannot exist without fear. Now use that fact to your advantage.
