Have you ever noticed how you can frighten yourself by refusing to find something out or by checking the facts? Maybe you had a problem (or thought maybe you had), and a scary scenario quickly played out in your imagination.

Perhaps you felt ill, and you fantasised that a brain tumour was causing your headache. Or maybe a senior manager at work looked at you with an odd expression on her face, which you read as “I’m gonna fire this one!”. Closer to home, maybe a friend’s failure to call you became “Now I KNOW they hate me!”.

The imagination is wonderful and powerful, but you shouldn’t believe everything it throws at you. In fact, you should not even give it the chance, where there is a chance that it will scare you.

Fantasy and fiction can be more frightening than fact.