During this time of year, many people look forward to watching scary movies or going to Halloween attractions to be scared by others. What some may not realize is that fear serves the purpose of keeping us safe.
Fear is an intensely unpleasant primal emotion that arises in response to perceiving or recognizing danger. It triggers the body’s “fight-or-flight” response, leading to physiological changes such as increased heart rate and elevated adrenaline levels. Below are facts that you may not have known regarding fear.
Fear is healthy. Fear is hardwired into your brain for a good reason. Neuroscientists have identified distinct networks that run from the depths of the limbic system all the way to the prefrontal cortex and back.
When these networks are electrically or chemically stimulated they produce fear, even in the absence of a fearful stimulus.
Feeling fear is neither abnormal nor a sign of weakness. 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 is not as automatic as you think. Fear is partly instinct, learned and taught. Some fears are instinctive. For example, pain causes fear because of its implications for survival.
Other fears are learned. We learn to be afraid of certain people, places or situations because of negative associations and past experiences. For example, if you’ve experienced a near-drowning incident, it may cause fear each time you get close to a body of water.
Fears are also taught. Cultural norms often dictate whether something should be feared or not. For instance, think about how certain social groups are feared and persecuted because of a societal impression that they are dangerous.
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 encounter a growling dog while walking outside).
Next, you choose either fight or flight. You decide whether to deal with the threat directly, confront the dog by yelling at them, or work around it, start looking for an escape plan.
When the fear is overwhelming, you experience fright. You neither fight nor flee. In fact, you do nothing. You obsess about how the dog can potentially hurt you, but you take no action.
You don’t need to be in danger to be scared. Fear is also partly imagined, so it can arise in the absence of something scary. Because our brains are so efficient, we begin to fear a range of stimuli that are not scary (conditioned fear) or not even present (anticipatory anxiety). We get scared because of what we imagine could happen.
Some neuroscientists claim that humans are the most fearful creatures on the planet because of our ability to learn, think and create fear in our minds. But this low-grade, objectless fear can turn into chronic anxiety towards nothing specific and become debilitating.
Remember, fear is not necessarily a bad thing. If people didn’t feel fear, they wouldn’t be able to protect themselves from legitimate threats. Fear is a vital response to physical and emotional danger that has been pivotal throughout human evolution.
Christina Martinez, LCSW, is the program manager of the Los Banos Clinic of Merced County Behavioral Health and Recovery Services, located at 40 W. G. St., Suite C, in Los Banos.
