When in certain situations we are overwhelmed by fear, we experience truly alarming and unpleasant sensations and reactions.
This answer that we offer naturally It is powerful enough to pass through the body and mind of those who experience it The autonomous response of fear arises long before our reason has been able to decide anything about it, in a kind of chemical summit our body has already gone into operation, preparing for flight or for the imminent attack.
Fear is one of the most primitive emotions that exist, it was responsible for maximize chances of survival of our ancestors since it allowed them to respond to threats, but…
…Do we know what mechanisms are put into operation to provoke such an avalanche of reactions in our body?
He sympathetic nervous system It is responsible for the body having its maximum performance for a short period of time, just at the moment when the individual is gripped by panic. Meanwhile, other functions that are less important in these types of situations decline opportunely.
Main physiological effects When faced with fear carried out by the sympathetic nervous system, they are:
Once the danger has passed…
Once this period has passed, if we perceive a solution to the situation, the parasympathetic nervous system is reactivated, which will lead to counteracting the actions taken by your confidant:
When the parasympathetic nervous system takes control of our body, it can lead to a situation or state of shock. This set of biochemical responses responds under the name of “fight or flight”or better known in English as “fight or flight”.
Surely more than one of us have suffered firsthand what is known as a panic attack. Well, now we know the physiological functioning through which the organism acts and the functional responses that it emits.
Fear modulating factors
If we decide to delve a little deeper into this construct that we call ‘fear’, we will see that its scientific study has been extensive.
It has been distinguished normal fear and the pathological fear based on certain criteria, such as duration or level of interference in daily functioning, among other factors (Miller, Barrett and Hampe, 1974). In order to classify it properly, We must first know the main existing fear factors that is, its roots and the causes that generate it.
The causes and initiators of fear
The most consistent factors to classify the types of media seem to be, according to the classification offered by Gullon, (2000) the following:
Types of fear
By assessing these factors, we could create a classification that discriminates the level of affectation of fear in each person and in a certain situation, highlighting the types of fear most studied and treated today. We find the following distribution:
How do we face fear?
First of all, we must learn to naturalize this emotion, otherwise it can manipulate our lives to the point of becoming a pathological disorder. We must accept the fear of danger and understand its strictest connotations, in this way we will be able to learn to regulate it.
We must think about its main function, since it is a determining impulse to defend ourselves from danger, only We have to assess whether when this sensation appears we are facing a real danger or an unreal threat pretentiously crafted by our own mind.
This may seem simple but It is very difficult to manage on many occasions, since fear tends to paralyze us and it is useless to try to rationalize it. Luckily, there are psychological therapies that allow us to influence the psychological mechanisms that install fear in our minds.
“Fear is my most faithful companion, it has never tricked me into going with another”
