Many candidates to priesthood and religious life suffer from anxiety and fear. Those who accompany them need to be sensitive to this reality. More than two thirds of the candidates one of us (Varkey) worked with scored positively on test items on fears like, "I will fall sick and die"; "I will die in an accident"; "I might have some sickness"; and "experienced rapid heartbeat from unusual fear." About 50 percent had one or two phobias related to thunder and lightning, dead bodies, devils, witches, height, and so on.
Anxiety and fear have roots in the negative role model of the father. Father figure is the one who is expected to give good security to the child. Those children who have found positive role models in their fathers grow up to be confident and secure adults. Children who have fathers who are negative role models are likely to turn out to be frightened and insecure adults, beset with various types of fears, phobias, and anxieties. It has been found that a number of candidates have had negative experience of their father in their childhood which later in life made them more anxiety prone and fearful than others.
ANXIETY
Anxiety is a common emotion. A prominent feature of anxiety is uncertainty; and the unease and distress that such uncertainty causes.
Anxiety can be distinguished from fear in that the object of fear is "real" or "external" or "known" or "objective." The origins of anxiety are unclear or uncertain to the person. Both anxiety and fear are specific negative emotions and can cause much distress.