We have all felt fear at some point, a totally normal, basic and fundamental emotion for our survival. It is not only present in humans, but also in other mammals and most vertebrates.
We feel fear when there is a threat nearby, something that could do us a lot of harm. Thus, if it were not for this emotion, we would hardly be able to live. Those who do not avoid what can harm them end up very harmed or, worse, dead.
What exactly is fear? We will answer this question below.
Although it is still a topic of debate, it is assumed from experimental psychology that human beings have six primary emotions, apparently encoded in our genetic code and called universal: joy, surprise, anger, sadness, disgust and, the one that concerns us today , the fear. They are not the only emotions, since each culture has a particular emotional repertoire, evidenced in a specific vocabulary for certain emotions that other languages do not seem to possess (e.g., Portuguese saudades, German Sehnsucht, Galician morriña…).
Fear is a basic and primary emotion, present in all cultures on the planet And we not only find it in the human species, but it can also be found in other mammals, as well as other animal species. This is very reasonable because, from an evolutionary perspective, it is fear that makes us survive, that makes us avoid what harms us. It is an uncomfortable emotion, unpleasant to feel, but necessary to avoid dying, basically.
If we did not feel fear, it would be very difficult for us to survive in a world in which, although this is not the case for people who live in developed societies, we are surrounded by all kinds of threats. In the past, in the times of Homo sapiens prehistoric, human beings who lived in contact with nature and at its total mercy, being afraid was absolutely necessary. The man who was not afraid was a dead man
Although we have already suggested it in the previous section, we repeat it again: fear, the “healthy” one, serves to survive. Despite this fact, In our society, fear, along with emotions such as anger and disgust, is labeled as negative and, therefore, should be avoided at all costs Fear is linked to unhappiness and, since we are bombarded with the idea that we should be happy at all times, fear is a weakness to eradicate. However, this vision could be described as unnatural. If fear is found in all cultures in the world and even in other species, it will be for a reason.
The fear It is an adaptive mechanism, something that helps us identify possible threats and flee before giving them the opportunity to do us real harm It helps us react quickly to potentially dangerous situations. This threat does not have to be only physical, harmful to our body (e.g., a lion attack), but it can also involve a psychological threat, attacking our self-esteem or self-concept.
Thus, although unpleasant, fear fulfills the function of protecting us from possible threats, which in itself can be conceived as something positive. It helps us get away from a danger for which we are not prepared or do not have the possibility of emerging victorious if we face it.
When does fear become a problem?
The current mentality about emotions is that, although there are some that are more pleasant than others, they should not be conceived in terms of “positive” and “negative.” All of them are positive insofar as they are adaptive. Feeling them is always positive because they are useful to us and we should feel them freely instead of repressing them or trying to control them. But, as with the rest of the emotions, It may happen that fear becomes a problem, a symptom of a psychopathological process
Fear becomes problematic when our beliefs and interpretations cause us to feel it in an exaggerated and dysfunctional way, making what happens as a result of feeling that fear much worse than what would happen if we did not feel it. That is to say, it does not help us, but rather becomes something disadvantageous and maladaptive. If this happens, we would be talking about a mental disorder or, at the very least, a psychological problem.
A context in which fear is clearly problematic is seen as a symptom of many anxiety disorders, especially phobias. Although in some of them what causes pathological fear makes a certain sense of being feared, the truth is that We speak of a phobia when the phobic reaction, the fear, is more serious than the threat supposedly is
Phobias are mainly divided into three large groups.
Specific phobias
Specific phobias, as their name suggests, are being afraid of something specific This “something” can be a situation, animal, blood or weather phenomena, among others. Some examples:
Social phobia or social anxiety disorder
In this anxiety disorder The star symptom is a persistent fear of one or more social situations for fear that the subject will find themselves immersed in an embarrassing situation People who have this type of fear are afraid of giving public talks, parties, starting a conversation, or eating and drinking in public.
Related article: “Social phobia: what is it and how to overcome it?”
Agoraphobia
Although socially understood as the fear of open spaces, the truth is that this idea does not fully correspond to what agoraphobia is. This disorder involves a pathological fear of finding oneself in a situation in which the patient believes that, if they suffer a problem, they cannot be helped or escape from it Thus, people with agoraphobia are not only afraid of being in open spaces with large crowds, but they may also be afraid of being alone in their home and, for example, while eating, choking and that no one can help them.
You may be interested: “Agoraphobia: what it is, causes, symptoms and treatment”
As we have seen, fear is a basic and fundamental emotion for our survival. We cannot live without fear Although we have been told the opposite, that fear brings unhappiness, the truth is that our happiness and well-being depends a lot on it, because not being afraid of things that could harm us is running the risk that they can affect us. Fear helps us avoid the dangers that life brings us, as long as it is a functional fear. If, on the other hand, fear deprives us of opportunities and does us more harm than good, that is when we must remove it from our lives.
