Chapter 4: 1
Triad of Horrors
The Main Fears
The total percentage of those affected by this triad of fears is 10-15% of the population of any nation! Meaning that one out of every 7-10 people is suffering from one of the following types:
• Panic attacks
• Phobias
• Obsessive Compulsive Disorder
Panic Attacks
This affects 2-5% of the total population. This is frequent bouts of anxiety and panic. Invariably it is linked to the existence of a fear of death or demise. This also makes a person afraid of crowds and avoidance of company with groups. Yet there is also a fear of being alone.
Thus, they live in a state of social paralysis, afraid to go out in public places and also afraid to stay alone.
Statistics indicate that 30-50% of heart patients do not suffer from coronary heart diseases, but they suffer from panic disorder (the horror of death).
Phobias
This is the most widespread type of fear and anxiety, which affects about 8% of any nation. There are many types of this kind identified, about 700 kinds of phobias, such as fear of animals, microbes, air travel, trains, high or narrow places, or wide places.
There is the Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) which is anxiety following a shock. This is an extended reaction from the exposure of a human to a situation like a natural disaster such as earthquake, or arrest or torture, or severe accident, or witness of the death of others or watching a violent death.
Symptoms can include: bouts of remembrance of the incident through intrusive memories with dreams or nightmares. And there is constant tension, with a failure to respond to the world around.
Obsessive Compulsive Disorder (OCD)
This is a kind of anxiety and tension that affects about 2.5% of the total population.
Symptoms can include: an obsession in the form of thoughts or wishes that cannot be resisted, continuous or periodic obsessive compelling fears, causing anxiety and great suffering.
This person is trying to resist these obsessions and trying not to yield, but he often fails to resist, because of its coercive power. However, he may often be convinced of the unreasonableness and has sure knowledge that these obsessions do not deserve all this attention.
This kind of anxiety and obsession is strongly influenced by culture and content of thought. For example, religious obsessions spread all over, like thinking there is a defect in God Himself, or sexual obsessions of the Arab and Eastern countries about the West.
Religious obsessions in Egypt reach to 57% of all the various cases of obsession. And for the Jews it reaches to 52%, for Indians to 38%, and 18% for the United States, and Britain, very rarely.
As we meditate on the contents of this book we can see that the three reasons to fear: the wrath of God, the troubles of the world and the rising up of the enemy, these three are considered the main sources of human fear. These three reasons can be interpreted in human reality, to three types of fear that we see around us to a great extent, which are the most common and prevalent fears that are spreading in our world, namely:
First: the terror of death, which may result in bouts of panic and a sense of approaching death (Panic Attacks)
Second: the tragedies of life, which could result in hundreds of different types of fears (Phobias)
Third: the obsessions of the devil, which may result in many different obsessive compulsive fears (Obsessions)
In this chapter we will look together at three Biblical figures, which were able to conquer this terrible triad. We will see:
Paul the Apostle conquers the horror of death,
the Sons of Korah challenge the tragedies of life,
and the Blessed Christ conquers the thoughts of Satan.
Magdy Samuel