Fear. In my experience, fear is a paralyzing sense of doom and darkness, that can be rational or irrational, that can hurt or help. Is there an image that comes to mind when fear is invoked? A word? a movie? a specific moment or memory in which you felt that emotion? Fear is something that mostly everyone has and can experience, but not everyone has the same fears, and not everyone is affected the same. Our brains are wired to experience fear as a “warning” that we might be in danger. Despite the negative connotation attached to the word, Fear is essential for human survival and plays a key role in our day-to-day life, without it we as people would be a danger to not only ourselves but others as well. Where does fear begin in the brain? Fear …show more content…
Fear isn’t always brought upon by direct action(s) but by the consequences of the action(s). If A toddler touches a stove top and gets burned, chances are the child won’t touch the stove again because of the fear of getting burned a second time. Another example is murder. Say you’re not fearful of committing the murder but you’re fearful of the possible consequences like getting caught or going to jail. This emotion is also responsible for giving a sense of a natural high or courage. When you feel fear, there are five chemicals that are released into the brain: adrenaline, dopamine, endorphins, oxytocin, and serotonin. Serotonin specifically helps your brain to work more efficiently resulting in better decision making. Lack or absence of fear results in a shorter life expectancy. Too much fear is harmful and unhealthy. At that point, it prevents rather than motivates. Fear can be so powerful it impedes us from being able to achieve our goals and live our lives to the fullest, it keeps us stagnant by not letting us take advantage of opportunities. Some signs that fear has reached the harmful/ “unhealthy” limit are when you become more cautious than you need to be to stay safe and when it prevents you from doing things, you’d normally take joy in doing. Prolonged feelings of fear with no “calm” time can lead to anxiety and other mental …show more content…
Rational fears are related to things that could realistically happen if you find yourself in a certain scenario, like the fear of heights because of the risk of injury, Irrational fears are phobias when the threat is non-existent or out of proportion to the situation, like hydrophobia- the fear of water. Sometimes our brains have trouble differentiating whether fear is rational or irrational, Personally, my biggest fear is losing the rest of my family/ loved ones, at first, I thought this was completely rational Until I did some digging. Thanatophobia is the fear of losing someone, a severe phobia of dying or death itself. This is an irrational fear, not only because it has the suffix “phobia”, but because that fear is based on my non-acceptance that humans are mortal, it’s not logical because people don’t live forever. This can also be linked with trauma/PTSD, because of the manners and time spans I lost two of the most important people in my life, I’m always in the “fight response”, and I live a fast life because I fear I don’t have much time before a loved one leaves me or gets taken away from me, this could be viewed as a form of “unhealthy” or “too much” fear, as it has made me make impulsive, reckless decisions that haven’t always been in my best interest. On the other hand, this irrational fear has made me value relationships (romantic, platonic, family, etc.) more than in the