Preparing a Fear Inventory

If you want to do a fear inventory, here are the questions to complete:

1. Who is the person or object of fear (or anxiety)?

2. What happened to trigger the fear (list specific event/s)?

3. How did this affect me? What do I think this event cost me?

4. How did I react?What shortcomings were revealed?

Example:

1. I am afraid of my father

2. He changes jobs often and I am afraid we will lose our home; he cheats on my mother and I

am afraid he will leave us and we will not have any money; he has a hot temper and I am

afraid he will do something that will land him in jail and again, we will be without provision.

3. Get a job when I am 15 and have to lie to various people to juggle the job and my school responsibilities; I try not to eat to see if I can manage on less; I worry obsessively about getting a scholarship for college so I over-volunteer, etc. to the point of exhaustion and begin to isolate from friends and fun.

4. I do not ask adults for help. I do not check to see if my fears are even valid. As a result, I lose

that first job. I feel as if I cannot provide for myself or my brothers. Again, my pride, pessimism, insecurity, evasiveness show up as shortcomings.

In ALL our inventories, do not second guess your feelings or your version of the story. Just write write write. A sponsor and/or therapist can help you sort through all the details!