I often find that things aren't as bad as I thought they might be. I also find that I can generally manage my fears through frequently facing them - for instance, I spend time in the dark alone now and again and that keeps that fear at bay, and recently I spent some Hours of Terror gingerly hiking some miles along mountain passes as old ladies jogged by in apparent ignorance of the precipice that would claim them if they put a foot wrong.

Is there any way you experience less scary things to build up to facing the Big Scary Thing? It's by this sort of thing - for instance, being near little, slow spiders to help learn to be able to face big, fast spiders - that has enabled me to be relatively sure of not reacting too badly.

But, then again, I am not particularly worried by things like dying: I figure it's an occupational hazard of being alive that I have limited control over. For instance, if I saw ghosts or aliens or something, I'd be scared, and open to the possibility that I may not survive unscathed, but I would still figure that I probably can't escape anyway so what the hell so I may as well hunt for the silver lining. Maybe I'm just unusually lucky in that respect.

Good luck, anyway.