Definition Essay: What Does Fear Mean?

We humans have fear. We fear as an emotion towards certain things in our lives. But what does fear mean? “Fear is a feeling induced by perceived danger or threat that occurs in certain types of organisms, which causes a change in metabolic and organ functions and ultimately a change in behavior, such as fleeing, hiding, or freezing from perceived traumatic events (Merriam-Webster dictionary).” We sometimes believe that being betrayed is a sign that we should fear trust because trusting others is a way of getting hurt emotionally. “It’s become more and more difficult to remain vulnerable, trusting, and open to life in this era of uncertainty, global upheaval, divorce, and disrupted family life (Catlett). When we look carefully at fear, we see that it is one aspect of aversion (Goldstein).” Though, we understand what having the fear of trust means, what does trust actually mean? According to the Merriam-Webster dictionary is it the “firm belief in the reliability, truth, ability, or strength of someone or something.” This definition has a good sense of

It is a mind over matter type of reasoning to get over a fear. “In order to understand the nature of fear as a mind state, as a feeling, it is helpful to first look at what it is we are afraid of. We each have different fears and limitations... (Goldstein).” We realize that we fear something when we know it is something that we are not familiar with that it is something that comes to us in an unpleasant way, rather than an appealing way. “The thing is - fear can't hurt you any more than a dream (Golding).” Having fear is normal for us humans, we live our lives every day with fear in the back of our minds. We don’t necessarily think of what we fear unless it is brought up or we see what we fear. Fear can’t hurt us physically, only emotionally. Fear can take over our minds to the point of we no longer know what is real and what is not, what to believe or not to