The Oxford Dictionary of English

The Oxford Dictionary of English defines fear as an unpleasant emotion caused by the threat of danger, pain, or harm. It can include anything from heights, modes of transport, food items or animals: the list is endless. Fear can originate from a specific experience that may have been traumatic or had a negative meaning attached to it. However, in some situations, fear can be extreme and make the person feel anxious if one has to confront it. This anxiety can be felt in anticipation and because of this, people often avoid the object or situation and put a lot of effort into doing this.

In my view, using avoidance behaviours worsens the anxiety and because of this people never get the chance to overcome their fears, which are often out of proportion to the actual danger. There are multiple examples on the day to day life were people often tend to stay away from a situation fearing the outcome, when in reality, at the end of the day this might not be as bad as expected. As long as one is cautious with the object or situation one is dealing with, then the danger should not be so big of an issue for it to cause any harm to the person.

Admittedly, avoiding the object or situation might make people feel better in the short term by providing relief that there is no need to be scared or anxious. But in the long-term it makes people feel less confident about themselves each time. Which is one of the main reasons why one often remains fearful. Yet people still opt to take the easy way out. I think this is due to the simple fact that people prefer to play it safe by nature.

Although the practice of avoidance behaviours is entirely up to the person who uses them, I believe it is the duty of our society to encourage people to face and overcome their feras in order to reduce the risk of the situation getting worse. If we live in fear, we will never be able to acomplish anything, meaning that we will never be able to make a better living.

...