Fear
Fear is the worst, most crippling and hurtful thing god has created. What can trap you, hurt you, control you, mentally, physically, and emotionally without the requirement of any interaction with anyone else or anything else? Fear.
I believe mental diseases or afflictions are the most worse, even more so than physical.
At least with physical abuse, a strong mind, willpower, or the desire to fight can help you, pull through or carry on.
But its when you mind is attacked, you start loosing the battle.
Even with physical abuse, I feel the mental defeat is what hurts you more.
I do believe there is some truth to mind over matter.
Don't get me wrong, physical abuse is bad, but if you have the strength (mental) you can fair fairly well with physical abuse, whether its from a person, animal, disease, or any other circumstance.
There is so much that hinders and hurts us that is really fear.
The thing that sparked this post was the two boys that got kidnapped, one for four years. One boy lived with his kidnapper with physical freedom, he had friends, he played outside, but he was terrified of running away, or even calling for help. Fear had paralyzed him so much that even when another friend suspected, and asked directly to him, whether he was the kidnapped kid, he could not say so from fear of his kidnapper.
Fear controls many people. Fear of public speaking, fear of loosing a job, fear of getting SICK, fear of being alone, fear of judgement.
Many times fear controls you, and no one instills this fear but yourself.
How powerful is that? Fear is so strong, it needs no external force, it embeds itself within you.
Maybe learning how to control (not eliminate) fear is the key to everything?
Not being afraid is healthy- less stress, more willingness to take chances= possibility of greater rewards.
Fear is not all bad i guess, it does prevent us from doing stupid things. And it works well on bratty little kids. Maybe even keeps social order.
Fear has its place, that's why it should never be eliminated.
But it is still extremely dangerous, deadly even.
There is never an easy answer to hard problems (i.e. you are paralyzed by fear? fine, eliminate it) Eliminating fear might well get yourself killed.
I guess its the ying and yang theory, and medical principle of homeostasis.
Everything needs to be balanced.
I think you could probably apply this theory to everything in life.
I think it applies to love too. Love is great, it brings great happiness. (Love for profession, love for your hobby, love for your mom, love for your wife)
But, too much love, is bad, if you love your work too much, you neglect your family, or your health, or your regard for others. Same with loving your wife too much, you neglect yourself, your friends, or your sense of reality, and issues will inevitably arise.
Even water, something as simple as water, which all doctors say you should drink a lot of, but too much, can actually cause you to be ill or die (i.e. the woman who died from a radio contest to drink the most water without peeing).
This year, i have felt compelled to do resolutions, not sure why because they never get done, but I'm sure thinking of a lot of good things. I think i should add one to the list- learn how to manage fear.

I wonder why you must go through something bad with someone good to feel closer to them...