Psychology Facts

▼ Fear ▼

》Fear is defined as an unpleasant emotion caused by the belief that someone or something is dangerous, likely to cause pain, or a threat.

》Three types of fear

Rational fears occur where there is a real, imminent threat. If someone is brandishing a knife at you, the fear of being stabbed is a rational fear. Fear of death is rational. On a less extreme note, losing a child in a very crowded venue is a rational fear. You will not find an escape game that uses rational fear to scare you, because that would mean you are in genuine danger.

Primal fear is defined as an innate fear that is programmed into our brains. These are fears like arachnophobia (fear of spiders) or ophidiophobia (fear of snakes). They are natural fears because of human evolution. A human that was afraid of snakes was less likely to be bitten by one than the human who wasn't, therefore humans with a healthy fear had a higher survival rate.

Irrational fears are the ones that don't make logical sense and can vary greatly from person to person. One half of your brain is scared, and the other half doesn't understand why. These are fears like coulrophobia (fear of clowns) and phasmophobia (fear of ghosts).

》Fear is healthy.

The capacity to be afraid is part of normal brain function. In fact, a lack of fear may be a sign of serious brain damage.

》 Fear comes in many shades.

Fear is an inherently unpleasant experience that can range from mild to debilitating. Horrifying events can leave a permanent mark on your brain circuitry, which may require professional help. However, chronic stress, the low-intensity variety of fear expressed as free-floating anxiety, constant worry, and daily insecurity, can quietly but seriously harm your physical and mental health over time.

》Fear Can Become Pleasure

Through the excitation transfer process, your body and brain remain aroused even after your scary experience is over. This is why people love roller-coasters, haunted houses and horror movies and enjoy getting caught up in those fearful, stressful moments

》A surge of fear tends to arise directly after a moment of truth. Say that an idea appears in your mind about something you'd love to do. Soon after, you might notice that your mind is filled with reasons why you can't or shouldn't do it. Recognize that this is fear speaking.

》Fear Is Physical

Fear is experienced in your mind, but it triggers a strong physical reaction in your body. As soon as you recognize fear, your amygdala (small organ in the middle of your brain) goes to work.
Stress hormones like cortisol and adrenaline are released. Your blood pressure and heart rate increase. You start breathing faster. Even your blood flow changes — blood actually flows away from your heart and into your limbs, making it easier for you to start throwing punches, or run for your life.

》Fear dictates the actions you take.

Actions motivated by fear fall into four types—freeze, fight, flight, or fright. Freeze means you stop what you are doing and focus on the fearful stimulus to decide what to do next (e.g., you read a memo that your company will be laying off people).
When the fear is overwhelming, you experience fright: You neither fight nor flee; in fact, you do nothing. Being continuously in fright mode can lead to hopelessness and depression.

》People can experience fear differently, but some of the common physical and emotional symptoms are:

Sweating
Rapid heart rate
Nausea
Dizziness
Chest pain
Dry mouth
Upset stomach
Chills
Shortness of breath
Trembling
Feeling overwhelmed
Feeling out of control
A sense of impending death
Dread

》One of the strangest side-effects of intense fear is time dilation,
the apparent slowing down of time. For example, if you are about to fall off your bike, you know it's going to happen and there is nothing you can do to stop it, but at the same time, it seems like everything has almost stopped to the point that the experience is seemingly lasting minutes. This temporary 'illusion' is connected to memory.
During a crisis, the amygdala adds additional 'memories' to the current situation, and since the person experiences such a rich memory response, time appears to slow down.

》Fear is contagious

When someone is scared they will excrete chemicals through sweat, called 'chemosignals', which can be contagious. The ability to 'smell' fear may explain why fear seemingly spreads quickly when people are in close proximity to each other.

》If feelings of fear become persistent and excessive, this could be diagnosed as a type of anxiety disorder, depending on the symptoms being experienced.

》Common disorders which are associated with fear are: phobias, generalized anxiety disorder, social anxiety disorder, healthy anxiety disorder, panic disorder, and post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD).

》According to the DSM-5, specific phobias typically fall within five general categories:

fears related to animals (spiders, dogs, insects)

fears related to the natural environment (heights, thunder, darkness)

fears related to blood, injury, or medical issues (injections, broken bones, falls)

fears related to specific situations (flying, riding an elevator, driving)

other (fear of choking, loud noises, drowning)