Why are psychologists so obsessed with our childhoods?
The thick grey fog hung eerily in the air. Tall towering shadows leapt from tree to tree. And a loud cackling laugh echoed menacingly in the background.
“Mom! Dad!” frantically yelled the lost little boy as darted down the narrow winding path. His heart was beating so furiously, it felt as if it was going to burst through his chest. His throat was ragged and course from screaming and yelling for what seemed like an eternity.
Suddenly, there was a rustling of leaves in the thicket directly beside him. And without warning, a massive blood-thirsty wolf exploded from the branches. As it hurdled itself towards the boy, its gnashing fangs missed the boy’s neck by mere inches.
Even though the boy tumbled out of the way, he found himself covered from head-to-toe in a stringy net of spider-webs. As he frantically began tearing off the long stringy webbing, his eyes darted back and forth for signs of his bloodthirst predator.
But as he turned around, he was horrified to see a black hooded figure that towered above him. As this phantom eerily bent down towards him and stretched out its long skeletal claw, the boy screamed and blacked out.
Many decades later, this same boy found himself trapped in the same forest once again. But this time, he was no longer afraid. For he saw that the werewolves that scurried throughout the forest wore sneakers. The black-robed skeletons wobbled around on wooden stilts. And the spider webs that laced the haunted theme park were merely made of stretched-out cotton balls.
It is no surprise that most of our fears and insecurities are formed in our childhood. For when we were all small, every monster and problem seemed so much scarier and larger than life. It isn’t until we are older and more experienced in life, that we truly notice and see all the zippers, paint, and extension cords that are attached to the “monsters” we once were so terrified of.
