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What is fear?
Psychologists define fear as a protective, primal emotion that evokes a biochemical and emotional response.
Whereas the biochemical changes that fear produces are universal, emotional responses are highly individual.
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Fear produces biochemical and emotional reactions to a perceived threat, whether that danger is actual or imagined.
Biochemical Reaction
Fear is both a natural emotion and a survival mechanism.
When confronted with a perceived threat, the body responds in specific ways.
Physical reactions include sweating, increased heart rate, and high adrenaline levels that cause extreme alertness.
This biochemical reaction is likely an evolutionary developmentan automatic response that is crucial to survival.
Emotional Response
The emotional response to fear, on the other hand, is highly personalized.
Some people areadrenaline seekers, thriving on extreme sports and other fear-inducing, thrilling situations.
Others have negative reactions to the feeling of fear, avoiding fear-inducing situations at all costs.
Symptoms of Fear
Fear often involves both physical and emotional symptoms.
Diagnosing Fear
Talk to your healthcare provider if you are experiencing persistent, excessive feelings of fear.
Your healthcare provider will also ask questions about your symptoms including their duration, intensity, and triggers.
Depending on your symptoms, your diagnosis may be related to an anxiety disorder, such as a phobia.
They perceive their fear responses as negative and go out of their way to avoid those responses.
A phobia is a twisting of the normal fear response.
The fear is directed toward an object or situation that does not present a real danger.
Though you recognize that the fear is unreasonable, you’ve got the option to’t help the reaction.
Over time, the fear worsens as the fear of fear response takes hold.
Others are learned and are connected to associations or traumatic experiences.
Phobia treatments that are based on the psychology of fear focus on techniques such assystematic desensitizationand flooding.
Both techniques work with the bodys physiological and psychological responses to reduce fear.
Systematic Desensitization
Systematic desensitization involves being led gradually through a series of exposure situations.
For example, someone who fears snakes might spend the first session with a therapist talking about snakes.
This is usually accompanied by learning and applying new coping techniques to manage the fear response.
For instance, someone who is afraid of planes might be encouraged to go up anyway.
Coping With Fear
Coping strategies focus on managing fear’s physical, emotional, and behavioral effects.
Here are a few to consider.
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Finding ways to control your fear can help prevent anxiety from taking hold.
For more mental health resources, see ourNational Helpline Database.
National Alliance on Mental Illness.Anxiety Disorders.
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