WHY ARE WE SCARED?: THE STORY OF FEAR

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WHY ARE WE SCARED: FEAR

Salutation dearest reader,

Welcome back to the BEING HUMAN blog. So as usual this blog explores various themes in the human condition. On the platter today is fear.

So to explore fear, we are going to talk about the following areas;

  • ·       WHAT IS FEAR?
  • ·       WHY DO WE HAVE FEAR?
  • ·       IS FEAR ACTUALLY GOOD OR BAD?
  • ·       IF ITS BAD, HOW CAN WE FACE THEM?

WHAT IS FEAR ACTUALLY?

We all know when we are scared or when we experience fear but what is fear anyways? So according to the Oxford dictionary of English, Fear is defined as;

“A UNPLEASANT EMOTION CAUSED BY THREAT OF DANGER, PAIN OR HARM”

That’s pretty obvious right, most of us experience fear when we are in danger or pain or harm. So how can you know you are scared of something or someone or someplace. Some sources online give the symptoms of fear. According to verywellmind.com, some symptoms of fear include:

  1. ·       Rapid heartbeat
  2. ·       Nausea
  3. ·       Sweating
  4. ·       Chills
  5. ·       Chest pain

·       And a plethora of other symptoms (Most of the symptoms can be subjective)

WHY DO WE HAVE FEAR ANYWAYS?

I leave in a pretty macho nation. Most men and young men are expected to be fearless but for me it’s quite the opposite. I have various fears like various animals, heights, planes and even sometimes human interaction itself. It would be a lot helpful if I had no fears, it would really boost my masculinity but then WHY DO WE EXPERIENCE FEAR?

According to the Paul Ekman group, Fear is essential for survival for a species. Fear helps organisms recognize danger or threats to their existence. In some studies, organisms who do not experience fear do not reach the age for procreation, they just die out.

So fear is some sort of bodily and evolutionary alarm system against the various dangers found in the environment. In some organisms and people, fear even has a sort of happiness-trigger. That’s why some people get thrills when they are in usual dangerous situations like roller-coasters or sky diving or many other situations which I would probably would not do.

IS FEAR GOOD OR BAD?

So we now know fear is an evolutionary alarm system against danger. So is fear good for us? Yes, and no.  Fear has its advantages and disadvantages like most things in life.

According to Medicaltoday.com, Fear has advantages like keeping us safe from danger, tells us what is bad for us and keeping us alive I guess.

But fear also has its disadvantages. According to medicaltoday.com again, fear has the following disadvantages;

·       Fear can be imagined

Sometimes fear can be imagined and all in someone’s head. This doesn’t mean imagined fears are stupid, not really. Some things can cause harm but the probability they can is low causing an imagined fear. For example; Planes can feel scary. I myself has a fear of planes and flying. The thought of being hundreds of feet in the sky can cause fears of crashing but the actual probability of a plane crashing is 1 in 9821.

So the fear of planes can cause someone to not experience air travel, that’s where the problem starts. Imagined fears can cause someone not to experience somethings in life.

·       Fear can cause stress

Stress can simply be defined as emotional or physical tension in someone. Some studies show that fear can cause stress in people. As most people know stress can cause a variety of health problems from balding to heart problems

This can make fear even lethal.

To conclude, fear like many things in our feeble existence has its advantages and disadvantages. We as humans should learn how to face the fears that cause harm instead of protecting us from harm.

HOW CAN WE FACE OUR HARMFUL FEARS

So I believe almost all of us have some sort of irrational fears or fears that drag us down. I, personally have a great list of fears but what can we do to face these fears.

The NHS (National Health Service) provides some methods for facing our fears. These includes;

·       Talk a time out

·       Breathe through the panic

·       Talk about it

·       Visualize a happy place

·       If it’s an irrational fear, find scientific evidence

To find out more about how to face your fears, you can go to the following sites;

·       http://www.verywellmind.com>phobias>Trearment

·       http://www.psycom.net>facing-your-fear

·       www.everydayhealth.com

CONCLUSION

Fear is a crazy emotion and it can be a friend or a foe. It is an evolutionary alarm system that makes organisms aware of threats and dangers in their environment.

The problem is that fear can also drag us back. We need to face our fears and grow if those fears are invalid.

If read this far, thank you it is appreciated and if you like the blog, you can comment, contact the author and you can tell your friends and family about the log.

Next week’s post: DO WE HAVE TO FIGHT?

 

 

 

 

 

  

Comments

  1. Grayson JuniorJanuary 24, 2022 at 11:22 PM

    Hey guys what stories do you have about fear 😨 tell me about it I post in the stories page

    ReplyDelete

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