Overview
Fear is one of the four basic emotions along with joy, sadness, and anger. Everyone experiences feelings of fear, and that’s as normal as hitting the hugest wins at https://ivibet.com/no. However, fears can be useful and unfounded. In this article we will examine what types of fear there are, how this feeling manifests itself and how to use it to your benefit.
What Is Fear
Fear is an innate emotion in psychology: it’s our biological response to real and imagined objects perceived as a threat. It’s felt as anxiety, worry, and confusion.
Who among us hasn’t quickened their step during an evening stroll down a deserted street when they hear footsteps behind them? Who hasn’t jumped out of the shower stall after spotting a huge spider in the corner? Fear is activated instantly: our reality radar never sleeps and, having detected danger, begins its work; the heart beats faster, breathing increases, fingers twitch, and eyes round.
The feeling of discomfort tells us not to do something: avoid contact with suspicious strangers, do not touch snakes, do not go to the edge of the cliff. It’s a survival mechanism sewn into the psyche. But when there is too much fear, it becomes anxiety or phobia. And now we can’t sleep reading the news, avoid leaving the house to avoid trouble, or endlessly wash our hands for fear of the ubiquitous bacteria. We’re afraid for no real reason, and it’s exhausting. To overcome this nerve-wracking battle between real and imagined threats, you have to face your fear.
Types of Fears
There are different approaches to the classification of fears. Sigmund Freud, the founder of psychoanalysis, divided fears into real and neurotic. A similar approach was demonstrated by the American psychiatrist Harold Kaplan. In his opinion, there are constructive and there are pathological fears. Both of these approaches divide fears into useful and groundless, painful. It’s worth getting rid of the latter.
There are several types of fears by source of origin:
- Natural. Relate to threats from the environment like fear of insects and animals, earthquakes and hurricanes, thunderstorms and darkness. Natural phenomena are well understood, but humans still have anxiety about them.
- Social. Conditioned by the socio-cultural environment and associated with the assertion of oneself in the outside world. This is the threat of wars, crime, riots. Also to social include the fear of poverty, death, publicity, change.
- Internal. Produced by the person himself. These are our inner monsters, generated by fantasy.
It’s difficult to define the line between types of fear: different threats are intertwined, belong both to the natural and social world and are reinforced by anxious fantasies.
It’s also possible to classify fears by intensity:
- Calm — a person is not worried about anything, he is comfortable.
- Anxiety — a feeling of worry, expectation of a bad outcome.
- Excitement — increased anxiety, nervous excitement.
- Fear — experiencing an imaginary or real threat.
- Terror — a consequence of intense fear, a state of stupor and shock.
- Panic — extreme expression of fear, affect, uncontrollability.
Age classification explains what fears accompany us at different stages of our life journey:
- Children’s fears. Infants are afraid of loneliness, loud noises and strangers, and older children are afraid of the dark and large crowds of people.
- Adult fears. Many are afraid of rats, snakes and spiders, avoid public speaking, and anxiously react to the news.
- Fears of the elderly. This is anxiety about the state of their health, the ability to serve themselves, fear of death.
In simple words, fear accompanies us from the moment of birth until death. But if it’s normal and natural for a child to be afraid of the dark, then for an adult man it can become a problem. Neurotic fears can seriously compromise the quality of life: people refuse to fly, don’t dare to make important decisions, and don’t leave the house without an emergency.
How Fear Manifests Itself
When you feel threatened, the sympathetic nervous system is activated. It activates the senses, respiratory, cardiovascular and hormonal systems and depresses the digestive system. An acute stress reaction is triggered (hit, run, or freeze), muscles tense, heart beats more often, the world around becomes louder and brighter because of the fixation of attention on the source of danger.
If the danger passes, the parasympathetic nervous system is activated, and the body comes to a state of rest. Thus, the experience of fear consists of a combination of physiological and emotional reactions. Normally, after neutralizing the source of threat, these reactions should pass.
In a situation of chronic anxiety, the symptoms exist outside of the real danger, persist for a long time and worsen over time. It can be noticed visually: a person in this state is characterized by tension of different muscle groups and bodily clamps.
