I have a sixty-year old family member who is suffering from dementia, which is something like Alzheimer s. I have observed over the years her continual choices to succumb to her fears and anxieties rather than step out in faith. My mother told me that even as a little girl this woman had been haunted by fears, and she was brought up in a fairly healthy home environment with both parents present. Her family have watched a bright and beautiful girl who went on to get a Master s Degree and pursue a meaningful career gradually deteriorate into an almost helpless woman by the time she was fifty. Fear fed off of her mind and eventually consumed all faith that she had in the goodness of God and in the goodness of herself.
Unreasoned fear is a master intellectual fraud practiced upon the evolving mortal soul.
I have another friend who, in her aging process, has succumbed to her vanity and is now in a serious state of depression. She basically has given up and quit living. She just sits around and moans and groans about the loss of her looks and therefore of her life. She was always a physically beautiful person, with people commenting on her prettiness ever since she was a little girl. Throughout her life she was very popular with males and always had them clamoring for her attention.