Explain How Fear Works Essay

How fear works

Fear is an unpleasant emotion caused by the belief that someone or something is dangerous, likely to cause pain, or a threat. It is a basic survival mechanism that signals our bodies to respond to danger with a fight or flight response. When a person experiences fear, the brain short-circuits more rational procession paths and reacts immediately to signals from the amygdala. When the body experiences fear, there are many short term and long term effects. Fear is caused when the amygdala and organs in the limbic system detect possibilities of dangers and then send the signals that generate the fear emotion. Fear is an emotion that acts instantly. It will send signals so that it can avoid danger, but if it is unavoidable it intensifies and you will begin to subconsciously store all the details around the danger. Some details include sounds, smells, sights, time of day, weather, and much more. While this is helpful to keep yourself safe, it can later become a problem. After your body has experienced fear and remembers all the details of that situation, the sight, smell, or other details remembered can become a stimuli themselves and trigger fear when no danger is near. This can cause a person to suffer from post-traumatic stress disorder

One method is to first, acknowledge what your fear is. Sometimes, a stimulus can make a person feel fear but they are not sure what they are afraid of. Then, a person should define its contours. This means to know things like when the fear began, what triggers your fear, how the fear affects you, is the source of your fear actually dangerous, and so much more. Last, a person should imagine the outcome they desire with their fear. For example, if a person is afraid that someone might try to hurt them someday, they could take self defense classes to help make themselves feel at ease because they will know how to react to the