Building Fear into Panic
The Role of the Media, Government and Pharmaceutical Industry

Take a moment and list 10 things you've heard about in the last months that generate fear.

Right now it's February 2010. Here's a quick list of things that pop into my mind.

Swine flu now called H1N1, gas prices, job loss, earthquakes, underwear that can blow up a plane … and shoes ... a terrorist attack somewhere, national debt, personal debt, taxes going up (if you make money), losing your home (if you don't make money), murder, rape, someone breaking into your home ...

I could list more.

I'm going to give an example of how you can be manipulated into a place of panic.

Let's take H1N1, formally known as swine flu. (The pigs are delighted to not be erroneously declared responsible for this virus.)

The news was filled with information from the World Health Organization and the Center for Disease
Control about how this illness was spreading. First we heard the word "epidemic," then "pandemic."

The words went right to the fears of multitudes of people. There was a sense of powerlessness. After all, how do you protect yourself from a microbe?

The media grabbed the words, hyped what was being said and garnered the ratings.

The pharmaceutical industry pushed its completely untested vaccine as the life saver of everyone.
Thanks to the media, they didn't have much of an outlay for advertising. This was probably the easiest money they made in years. (Yes, I do have grave concerns about what the pharmaceutical industry is doing to our health so it can make billions of dollars.)

"Epidemic." Roll that word around in your head and what happens?

This is where panic is generated with the help of vivid images from the media.

You hear "world wide," "need to protect," "Spanish flu of 1918 where 40 million people died," "protect your children."

Your thoughts then go to: "I could die." "My children could die." "Everyone I love could die."

One of the key concepts in all the hype is vocabulary. What the "ordinary" person and the professional mean by a particular word is very different.

For example, "To an epidemiologist, an epidemic exists whenever there are more cases of a disease in a specified place during a particular time than would be expected based on experience." - Philip Alcabes in "Dread"

If there are 20 more cases of a particular illness when before there were only 1, you technically have an epidemic. When that disease crosses the boundaries of many countries at a similar rate you have a pandemic.

It doesn't matter that the incidence of this disease is miniscule compared to, say, the 2,000,000 people who die of TB each year. The incidence of TB is expected. The other disease was not.

The key to not getting caught up in manufactured fears is to get in touch with your rational side.

Ask some questions:

1. Who benefits from what is being said?
2. Is it being hyped and by whom?
3. What do contrarians say about the issue?
4. What's the middle ground between the contrarians and the one's doing to hyping?

As much as people admonish, "Be rational," it's the emotional which sells.

The tightness in your gut points you to a fear. Do some investigation to educate yourself and discover if the emotion has a rational basis.

Cathy Chapman, Ph.D., LCSW is a licensed clinical social worker assisting people achieve their dreams of health, wealth and abundance through Mind-Body Psychology. She works from a spiritual and energetic model employing BodyTalk and Psych-K to balance the body and change beliefs.

by Cathy Chapman, Ph.D., LCSW - February 2010

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