Fear. Anger. Sadness. Joy. Disgust. Trust. Anticipation. Surprise. According to Robert Plutchik, these are the 8 primary emotions human beings feel at any moment. It's interesting to see how humans use physical actions to sometimes express what they are feeling. Of course me being the brain-obsessed person I am, I decided to look into the reasons as to why we express these emotions the way we do. This is what I found concerning fear:
Fear
Fear is the response to a specific and immediate danger. Fear describes a particular and sudden danger to your physical well-being. The thing about fear, though, is it strives to protect us from danger. Due to our natural inclination to feeling fear, there are numerous unlearned triggers for fear such as:
Something hurling rapidly toward you (i.e. a truck racing toward you).
Sudden loss of support (i.e. the floor giving away).
The threat of physical pain.
Knowing that there are multiple natural fears a person can feel at any time, there are several learned fears that the human brain has associated with a horrific sort of image, like receiving a letter from the IRS, being called down into the principal's office, or entering a dark room. People usually also fear losing control, being humiliated, or feeling shame and/or insignificance.
As we can see, our brains do their very best to avoid threats.
Because of this, fear induces a variety of reactions depending on the intensity, timing, and coping options available.
Such physical reactions include:
Freezing in place and feeling terror.
Running or escaping from the immediate danger.
Focusing our attention and mobilizing us to act to reduce or eliminate the danger ASAP.
Panic (i.e. shortness of breath, racing heartbeat, inability to focus on anything but the feared future event).
Fighting to destroy said fear.
Fear can often also cause cold hands, deeper and more rapid breathing, increased heart rate, increased blood pressure, sweating, dry mouth, trembling, or tightening of the muscles (especially in the arms and legs).
Our brains analyze the risks and vulnerability almost instantly, and then decides to fight, freeze, focus, or flee based on the assessment made.
I don't know about you, this information would not suffice. I had to dig deeper, and discover why exactly our body responds the way it does when in a state of fear. According to Dr. Tian Dayton, there are two pathways of fear: one conscious, the other unconscious. Considering we have delved into the physical reactions of fear, I decided to look into the unconscious path which deals with the amygdala--the amygdala is a set of neurons located in the brain's medial temporal lobe and plays a key role in the processing of emotions.
Our sense of danger activates the amygdala. So when we get scared, the amygdala's discharge patterns activate our body's fear circuits, thus causing our heart rate and blood pressure to increase, as well as creating sweaty hands, dry mouth, and tense muscles.
In order to respond quickly to a threat (flee or fight), the body tries to divert blood flow from the digestive areas, face, head, and neck so that it can be used elsewhere. This, in turn, elevates the heart rate, blood pressure, and respiration.
And of course, the adrenaline rush also kicks in. Adrenaline prepares the skeletal muscles for strain in the occurrence of running for escape (flight) or protecting self and/or property (fight). If the dispersion of blood from the cortex is too quick, this is where we see the physical reactions of fainting, going numb, or freezing. Not engaging in vigorous physical activity following the alert is when uncomfortable physiological changes may occur, like the trembling of the arms and legs; general weakness; or a heightened awareness of breathing and heart rate.
If these urges to flee or fight are never acted upon by the triggered fear, they will arise throughout our lives and will drive reenactment patterns. So next time you feel in danger and begin to notice the fear-kindled reactions, act upon them! It is no use to get our body all ready and ammo-ed up if we are not to use it.
Next week we will dive into anger; stay tuned!
