The Effects of Fear

Effects of Fear

Fear is described as “an intense emotional state caused by specific external stimuli and associated with avoidance, self-defense, and escape” (Strickland 244). As a primary emotion, fear is felt by everyone, although some people feel fear in a more intense way than others. Fear has the ability to affect people in many different ways both mentally and physically.

First off, fear can cause people to desire power. This is because “underlying the quest for power is fear, and the desire for power is to eliminate fear” (Wilson 1). The correlation between the amount of fear, and the amount of power desired to rid a person of the fear remains that a person will desire power to feel they no longer have a reason to live in fear. If the person in fear has power, they will feel it allows them to be free of the fear. This correlation has been shown through many people in history. For example, “Joseph Stalin, Adolf Hitler, and Saddam Hussein were all raised by brutal parents who frequently beat them. Growing up, they lived in daily fear. All of them went on to become dictators, who maintained complete control over their people through the use of fear-inducing terror” (Wilson 1). They all grew up terrified, and as a result, they ended up ridding themselves of the fear they felt by causing other people fear. These historical figures took revenge on the innocent for the fear they felt as children.

There are also many physical effects of fear. Some “consequences of long-term fear include fatigue, clinical depression, accelerated ageing, and even premature death” (Impact of Fear and Anxiety 1). Experiencing fear for excessive amounts of time can take a toll on a person’s body, just as stress and anger can harm a person. Fear “can ...

... middle of paper ...

... a familiar face approaches and you feel safe again. Most people know the fear of being lost in an unfamiliar place. Whether that fear was as a kid being separated from your mom in the mall or grocery store, or driving and ending up in an unfamiliar place, most people know it.

The fear most people feel is minor. Most people will never understand the fear soldiers returning from war with PTSD will experience. Most people won’t understand what an anxiety attack feels like. Most people are lucky enough to get the lesser side of fear. Those who aren’t so lucky envy those who are. Fear gets the chance to choose who will never be set free from fear, and those who will rarely experience fear. As to how fear chooses, there is no way of knowing. Maybe fear goes through an elaborate lottery, but just as with Shirley Jackson’s lottery, the winners aren’t really lucky at all.