It’s hard to ignore. Everywhere we look there are signs that today is Halloween.

Why has this festival gained so much momentum in this country over recent years? It certainly wasn’t much of a thing in Australia when I was a child although the original Celtic tradition dates back thousands of years. It is certainly becoming ever more popular.

Aside from the obvious commercial aspect, it seems unusual, in a culture which is largely rejecting of the spiritual realm , that we would be celebrating an occasion based on the idea that around the end of summer the souls of the dead can make their presence felt among the living.

Clearly it’s the party atmosphere that is appealing to those who celebrate Halloween today. Rather than a commemoration of the souls of loved ones who have died, it has become a carnival atmosphere around the notion of horror, hence the popularity of horror movies on this theme.

So, perhaps it’s a modern day need to have fun with invented scariness, an involvement with horror that we feel is of our own making and that we can control.

The adults among us all know that there is no shortage of ‘real’ horror in the world, and it’s an endless succession of horror over which we have no control. To bring this home, we only need to watch the television news services, making entertainment out of real horror, then showing the same gory detail over and over.

And why are we finding that crippling levels of fear, stress, anxiety and panic are occurring within our western industrial societies? The levels of these mental illnesses are such that they are almost the norm rather than the exception.

For various reasons there are more and more people clamouring to get our attention. Those who produce the ‘news’ know full well that if you want someone to pay attention, threaten them. Our natural protective instinct will guarantee that we sit up, look and listen.

An unfortunate by-product of this is that it creates insecurity within sensitive people.

The agenda is not to do harm but rather to get us to watch and to become involved emotionally. This improves ratings and advertising sales. Similarly, governments have an interest in gaining compliance to laws and regulations. Again, look at the often threatening nature of their communications and it is clear that we’d better take note – or else.

Why do I say ‘crippling’ levels of anxiety? It’s because that’s what I observe among the client population that I see.

These are not crazy people. They are normal people driven to desperation by the pervasive threat of everything. Ironically, this is in a society where we are probably safer than we’ve ever been.

‘Crippling’ is what fear and anxiety produce. Punishment, or the threat of it dampens down behaviour or activity. This is something I’ve observed, even in very young people, in schools over many years. The fear of making a mistake or suffering shame and humiliation becomes such that they become unable to act at all. In this case the unspoken idea becomes ‘If I don’t do anything then I can’t get it wrong’.

So, fear suppresses behaviour. Taken to the ultimate degree, fear generalises to such an extent that we see agoraphobia develop. That is a fear so all-encompassing that the sufferer cannot venture outside their own home.

This then, builds on itself because, within the ‘safe’ confines of their familiar environment they are alone with their dark imaginings of the dangerous world outside. Sometimes, all they have for company is the TV and the familiar faces who reinforce the illusion of a dangerous and frightening world just beyond their door.

The best antidote to this situation is to do the opposite.

So, back to Halloween. I see the fun that kids and their parents have in dressing up, trick-or-treating, making a mockery of all things scary, as a healthy alternative to keeping to oneself. Those who travel understand how uplifting and memorable can be the experiences of meeting and getting to know other people and their places.

Your own street is a great place to start!