Good afternoon, everyone. It's Dr. Niagara again with our next episode of Psychology Unplugged.

Hope everyone is doing well as we navigate continuously through the vaccination process, back to some semblance of what life was like prior to the start of the pandemic.

Today's topic, I'm borrowing the title from a Springsteen song, and this episode is called

Devils and Dust.

And it's a great song, an acoustic song that Bruce Springsteen wrote on the Devils and Dust album.

And there's a line in the chorus that I find very powerful.

And the line is, fear is a powerful thing.

It will take your God-filled soul and fill it with devils and dust.

So what exactly is fear?

The dictionary definition is fear is defined as an unpleasant emotion caused by a belief that something or someone is dangerous,

likely to cause pain, or a threat.

In these uncertain times, fear is pervasive.

Fear of the unknown is one of the, I think one of the most scary things.

You get a bad medical report from the doctor.

You sit and wait in limbo.

All of us have been there or have known someone who's been there.

But is the other flip side of fear is love.

And love and fear, really the two universal human emotions.

And on my left arm, I have the word tattooed fear and the right arm, the word love, because

they counterbalance each other.

And in working with patients over the years, a lot of times when you're talking about

generalized anxiety disorder, PTSD, acute stress disorder.

...