Have you experienced a near miss? Have you been involved in a serious collision and felt an overpowering fear in those last frantic moments before the accident? Did the adreline rush help you get through the crisis?

My friend Rosemarie Rossetti suffered a spinal cord injury in a freak accident. She and her husband were biking enthusiasts in their hometown in Ohio. They were riding a familiar trail near their home when a three-ton tree fell, pinning Rosemarie to the ground.

Rosemarie has been in a wheelchair ever since. But the accident had a bright side. It opened a new career for her as an advocate of the disabled. Despite her confinement to a wheelchaur, she flies around the country speaking on their behalf.

Recently, Rosemarie had an epiphany about fear on an flight home from Pennsylvania. Flight attendant Trent Pettibone helped into her seat and asked how he could help if they had to get out of the plane in an emergency.

Rosemarie responded quickly: "I’ll jump on your back and you can carry me out!"

He replied, "I’m stronger when I’m scared!"

His comment made Rosemarie think about how she would get out of the plane in an emergency if Trent were not available. What added strength would she need to get out?

Fear is a strong emotional feeling of agitation and anxiety caused by the presence of danger, Rosemary says. It is accompanied by self-directed activity. This activity is often caused by an adrenaline rush. At times in her life, an adrenaline rush gave her the strength to act fast to get out of danger.

Quick thinking helped to save her.

Seven years ago, when that tree fell on top of Rosemarie, her husband Mark told her that with the help of two passersby, he was able to get her out from under a three-ton tree.

Terror is an intense overpowering fear, Rosemarie says. Fear has a way of bringing us strength. The more intense the fear, the more strength we are able to muster.

In some situations, we can be paralyzed by fear and become confused and helpless. We feel apprehensive or anxious. We dread facing our fears when actually facing them can be the best thing we can do.

You can probably recall dealing with bullies as a child and had to make a choice — face them or run. Somehow I found the confidence to face mine. I found them not as tough as they wanted me to think they were.

I used to avoid situations in which I might have to speak in public. The idea turned me to jelly. Then a good friend, the late Mark Stuart, told me he used to feel the same way.

"But I decided I wasn’t going to live like that," Mark said. "I faced my fears and found them nowhere near as bad as I thought."

Another friend, Lee Hendrix, invited me to a Toastmasters International meeting. She said she, like Mark and me, had felt petrified to get up and speak in public until she joined Toastmasters. She said it changed her life.

Because I did not want to live with the fear of looking foolish in front of others, I joined Toastmasters and it, too, changed my life.

If you are living in fear from whatever cause, I hope you will face it and work through it. It really can change your life.