Fear Thesaurus Entry: Never Finding Happiness

Debilitating fears are a problem for everyone, an unfortunate part of the human experience. Whether they’re a result of learned behavior as a child, are related to a mental health condition, or stem from a past wounding event, these fears influence a character’s behaviors, habits, beliefs, and personality traits. The compulsion to avoid what they fear will drive characters away from certain people, events, and situations and hold them back in life. 

In your story, this primary fear (or group of fears) will constantly challenge the goal the character is pursuing, tempting them to retreat, settle, and give up on what they want most. Because this fear must be addressed for them to achieve success, balance, and fulfillment, it plays a pivotal part in both character arc and the overall story.

This thesaurus explores the various fears that might be plaguing your character. Use it to understand and utilize fears to fully develop your characters and steer them through their story arc. Please note that this isn’t a self-diagnosis tool. Fears are common in the real world, and while we may at times share similar tendencies as characters, the entry below is for fiction writing purposes only.

Flaws That May Emerge
Inattentive, Inhibited, Insecure, Irrational, Melodramatic, Needy, Nervous, Obsessive, Oversensitive, Perfectionist, Pessimistic, Reckless, Resentful, Self-Destructive, Subservient, Timid, Uncommunicative, Whiny, Withdrawn

Hindrances and Disruptions to the Character’s Life
Having a difficult time making friends
The character not going after what they want in life
Foregoing promising opportunities; settling for the status quo
Chronic substance abuse 
Being stymied by depression, social anxiety, etc.
Being paranoid that everyone is plotting against them
Believing that fate/God/the universe is working against them
Being driven by negative thoughts and emotions

Scenarios That Might Awaken This Fear
Being victimized
Losing something that makes it seemingly impossible for the character to follow their passion (a musician going deaf, an athlete losing a limb, etc.)
The character being laid off from their perfect job
Experiencing a series of losses in a short span of time
A large-scale disaster (a weather event, economic depression, pandemic, etc.) negatively impacting the character
A health crisis that is difficult to overcome (cancer, a stroke, a chronic illness diagnosis, etc.)
The death of a loved one
A promising opportunity falling through at the last minute

Other Fear Thesaurus entries can be found here.

Need More Descriptive Help?

While this thesaurus is still being developed, the rest of our descriptive collection (16 unique thesauri and growing) is accessible through the One Stop for Writers THESAURUS database.

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