National Face Your Fears Day is observed on the second Tuesday of October every year — which, in our estimation, is the perfect time to have this holiday since Halloween is only 20 days away. This holiday encourages everyone to use the “spooky season” to come to grips with their own fears and stand up to them.

This can be a person facing their fear of public speaking, facing their fear of spiders, or simply facing their fear of Halloween (yes, that’s a real fear known as Samhainophobia). Unrestrained, fears can begin to take over a person’s life, and this day reminds everyone that they shouldn’t allow that to happen.

The History of National Face Your Fears Day

We would like to be able to give our readers a definitive date as to when this holiday was created, but we certainly can’t do that. Although there are internet rumors that this holiday was created by Steve Hughes, a public speaker who supposedly invented this day in 2007, we have been unable to independently verify that claim. However, we do believe that this holiday was created sometime between 2006 and 2008.

Some Important Facts About Fear

Fear is something that every single human being on the planet has to deal with at some point in time. It’s something that unites all of us, yet so few of us know a whole lot about it beyond our own experiences. That’s why we’ve decided to list some of the important facts that we’ve learned about fear during our research on National Face Your Fears Day.

• Children often have fears that are more specific (such as fear of spiders), while adults usually have fears that are more abstract (like fear of failure).
• Most children experience anxiety, and that’s perfectly normal. Anxiety usually dissipates as the child ages.
• Virtual reality has been increasingly used for the treatment of fears by therapists.

Observing National Face Your Fears Day

People can observe this holiday through several different strategies. One way that people can address fears, especially lifelong fears, is by seeing a therapist. Therapy can be a wonderful way of getting over past and current trauma.

For less severe cases of fear, people can usually overcome their fears by taking the time to gradually expose themselves to the thing that they’re afraid of until the fear dissipates. Now that we’ve explained those things, let us say that people can also spread the word about this holiday by using the hashtag #FaceYourFearsDay on social media to let everyone know about this holiday.