What is fear, what is it like and how to overcome it? What is fear and how to use it Conventionally, human fears are divided into three types

From the works of famous intelligent psychologists, we know that fear is given to us by nature for survival. This feeling warns that a situation has arisen or may arise that threatens you or your loved ones with loss of health or life. Let's now figure out whether to scold nature or thank us for such a gift.

A man was born. He has not yet had the sad experience of falling, burning, or loneliness. He was not eaten by predators, nor was he stolen by other people's uncles. Watch his behavior - he is already afraid!

• When he is very young, he is afraid of sudden rises and falls. His vestibular apparatus sends information to the brain and it sends a command to be afraid. The baby sharply spreads his arms to the sides, throws up his head and sobs convulsively. If he were a chick, he would certainly fly. (This innate reflex makes us think about our origins.)
• Notice how strongly the grasping reflex is developed. Babies are afraid to be left alone. Seeing a new unfamiliar face, they scream in fear. By the way, crying and screaming are also one of the weapons of fear. It is unknown how many of our ancestors were saved by timely fear. But the fact that the civilization of homo sapiens lives and prospers owes much to this feeling.

Signs and reaction of the body

What is fear? By and large, fear, which we all consider a feeling, is a set of physical processes occurring in our body. A person has several senses:

• eyes provide vision;
• skin touch;
• ears hearing;
• tongue with taste buds provide information about taste;
• the nose is responsible for the sense of smell;
• The vestibular apparatus provides balance.

The brain received information from the senses about the danger, quickly analyzed it and immediately gave the command for the urgent mobilization of all hidden resources.

Orders given by the brain:

1. Eyes. In order to better control the situation and receive more visual information, the brain sends a command to the visual organs, and the pupils dilate. There were cases when a person began to look at himself from the outside. Often, on the contrary, people close their eyes out of fear, so as not to see the danger, to hide from it inside themselves.
2. Mouth, throat. The “lump” in the throat is explained by the fact that the muscles are tense, the mouth becomes dry, and the secretion of gastric juice and saliva stops for greater conservation and accumulation of energy.
3. Adrenal glands. By order from above, they begin to intensively produce adrenaline - the hormone of fear.
4. Lungs. They begin to work more intensely to provide the body with more oxygen.
5. Heart. The body suddenly needed energy. The pulse quickens, the heartbeat increases. Circulatory system begins to distill oxygen faster, feeding muscle mass with it.
6. Stomach. Discomfort in this organ is explained by a sudden cessation of saliva flow and gastric juice production.
7. Liver. Among other things, it is also a storage facility for glycogen reserves. In a stressful situation, it begins to rapidly convert it into glucose.
8. Sweat glands. To prevent overheating during intense work of the whole body, it is necessary efficient system cooling. The sweat glands begin to perform its function properly. The man sweats a lot.
9. Leather. Assuming painful sensations, the brain orders some of the blood to be diverted from the surface of the epidermis, thereby reducing pain. The man turns very pale. Sometimes, as a result of a sharp reduction in blood supply to the hair follicles, people turn gray from fear.

All parts of the body listened to the brain and are ready to either carry the body away from danger or resist it. This is the mechanism that nature provided, worked out over thousands of years and fixed at the genetic level.

Why do we react differently?

But, you and I are all so different, individual and original! For some, all generations of ancestors lived on a desert island without predators or enemies. Their genes recorded only the danger of thunder and storms. When faced with a danger unfamiliar to the brain, it either does not react as it should, or, conversely, experiences horror.

In addition to unequal “instructions”, corrected by time, we have different mentality, character, temperament. Armed with the same weapon, one person will rush to run, another will rush into battle, the third will be confused and will wait for instructions from above or a poke in the side.

At the analysis stage, different conclusions and methods for solving a problem may arise in the analytical center (brain) of different people. And this is with the same initial data and equal sizes of sensory information:

1. Your brain will decide that there is no danger and there is nothing to be afraid of. Yes, it happens that ignorance saves you from disaster. But it is not logical to hope that beginners are lucky.
2. At the neighbor's Gray matter will play a full charge against a trifling danger and give the command not just to be afraid, but almost to panic.
3. A person who often finds himself in stressful situations, and his analytical center already has some experience in solving such problems, will realistically assess the situation and will be afraid enough to neutralize it.

How to resist and control

Forewarned is forearmed. Now you know that your paleness, trembling knees and dry mouth are nothing more than weapons. Therefore, panic is excluded, there is no fear either, there is a readiness to confront danger.

One of effective ways control- compiling a list that will list all the objects, creatures, life situations, natural and social phenomena that cause you fear, fear and phobias. Don't hide from yourself and write down everything you remember, from biting bees to a huge meteorite.

Now arrange your problems as the strength of their impact on you increases. Identify the easiest problem and start fighting there. The very first victory will increase your confidence, and after solving the third or fourth problem your wings will grow.

Causes of fear

Real fear

There are many situations in which a person can suffer physically or mentally. Your reluctance to end up in one of them is normal and natural. You are afraid of pain, death, isolation, losing a loved one, falling from a height, drowning.

Your concern is justified by the follow-up actions. You take measures to avoid getting sick, toughen up, love and care for your loved ones, don't walk on a tightrope, don't use a faulty elevator, and don't dive off a bridge.

There is no point in fighting such fears; they just need to be understood and controlled. For example, an illogical fear of underwater monsters, if you are a good swimmer, can be brought to order simply by diving and inspecting the surrounding water area.

Pathological fear

Obsessive fear, phobia, panic - all these feelings and emotions do not help a person, but interfere with life. In a stressful situation, a panic attack is either the cause of a phobia or, conversely, its consequence.

Sometimes a person experiences constant unreasonable fear. In this case, his condition cannot in any way become an assistant in solving the problem. It only means that a problem exists and you need to contact a psychologist. Modern science has long been armed with the necessary techniques and experience to treat any phobias.

In psychology, pathology is also called the desire to tempt fate again and again, risking your life, not for the sake of saving someone or something, but for the sake of the risk itself. There is such a deviation from the normal state when for a person the test of fear becomes a necessary drug. He cannot live without fear, and ordinary everyday horror stories no longer excite him.

Video: What is fear?

(psychiatrist)

10.06.2015

Maria Barnikova

Fear is an individual emotion that arises upon the onset or anticipation of threatening real or imagined intractable situations.

Fear is an individual emotion that arises upon the onset or anticipation of threatening real or imagined intractable situations. From the point of view of modern psychology, fear is not always a negative emotional state, although most people attribute a negative connotation to the experienced state.

It is impossible for fear to command the mind;

Otherwise, we move away from accomplishments,

Like a beast when he imagines it.

Dante Alighieri

According to the theory of differential emotions ( ), fear is an innate, genetically predetermined basic human emotion with strictly defined somatic and psychological components: specific physiological symptoms and peculiar subjective sensations. The purpose of fear: informing the body about the danger and threat to its functioning, mobilizing protective resources. Its functions: informative, protective, adaptive, research, search. In most cases, fear is accompanied by painful symptoms, although the emotion can act as a signal for the need for protection, since the main function of the brain is to preserve the integrity and vital functions of the human body.

The occurrence of this response depends on a variety of internal and external factors, inherited or acquired personality characteristics. The stimulus for the manifestation of symptoms of fear can be: inferiority complex, feelings of loneliness and rejection by society, feelings of depression, the threat of imminent fiasco, pressure of guilt, feelings of worthlessness or inadequacy.

Mental pathologies based on the presence in an individual obsessive fear upon the occurrence or anticipation of certain circumstances, belong to the category of “anxiety-phobic disorders”.

Fear: degrees and types

The state of fear is usually divided into degrees of intensity of the reaction manifested, which is described by various terms: horror, panic, fright, anxiety, excitement, confusion. Intense panic fear that arises and intensifies with the approach or occurrence of specific events, which cannot be controlled, understood or explained logically, is usually called.

According to the classification developed by the professor Shcherbatykh, fears are systematized into three categories:

• Biological (based on a threat to human life and health);
• Social (based on fears of a change in social status or incorrect self-esteem);
• Existential (related to the intellectual and emotional spheres).

Obsessive fear

Obsessive fear differs significantly from standard emotional reactions: the individual understands that his anxiety is groundless and illogical, but he cannot control his condition. This is a widespread pathology that unites a huge number of different objects of fear and frightening situations. Panic fear often manifests itself as uncontrollable and painful symptoms that arise suddenly, limit a person’s activities and introduce many difficulties into life.

How to overcome fear?

Although the factor that provoked the emergence of panic fear is not always obvious, understandable and realized by a person, there is always a reason for its formation. Not everyone is able to independently identify primary cause, and even more so, eliminate it or correct it, since quite often it lies deep in the subconscious of the individual, often having its roots in genetic (hereditary) memory. Therefore, one of the most effective methods of getting rid of obsessive fear is the technique of classical psychoanalysis. However, such sessions are quite expensive procedures, and not every compatriot can afford this method of treatment.

There are various techniques that allow you to independently get rid of or minimize the negative manifestations of fear. However, you should not try to get rid of phobias instantly, radically, completely and irrevocably: experiments in the form of a “frontal attack” can lead to the emergence of new, more dangerous problems. It should be remembered that suppressing obsessive fear is a wrong path; expressed emotions must be directed in a positive direction. An integrated approach, a strict regime, patience, diligence, gradualism, confidence in success are true allies in the battle with fear.

Running away from fear

The most banal and fastest way, but not always possible to implement, is to change your lifestyle and make changes to your activities so that the object of fear loses its relevance and significance. For example: the sufferer can refuse air flights and use exclusively land modes of transport. If a person is afraid of closed spaces, and lives on the twelfth floor, then you can either go up the stairs to your home, or find an apartment on the lower floors.

However, trying to get rid of the problem in this way is just an illusion of solving it. By avoiding “dangerous” objects, the individual creates relatively comfortable conditions for existence, without getting rid of the fear itself: without defining, but often “burying” the real reason deeper into the unconscious. With this approach, it is impossible to establish the primary factor that is the source of the problem, since often the real cause is another “frightening” object that has no connection with the manifested fear (for example: claustrophobia may be associated with a conflict situation in the family).

Putting aside worry

The main condition for successful results this method: clearly acknowledge the presence of obsessive fear and allow yourself to be afraid. The program is aimed at a large-scale study of one’s own anxieties and taking personal control of the moment when negative emotions are triggered.

Must be practiced daily this technique, allocating at least 15 minutes for training. The allotted period of time must be consciously devoted to existing negative thoughts and studying the object of your fear, increasing emotional discomfort to the maximum. It is recommended to express disturbing situations out loud, trying to accurately describe your feelings. During the exercise, we do not allow positive thoughts to arise, we concentrate exclusively on negative emotions. At the end of the session, we take a deep breath and, exhaling slowly, let go of our worries.

The paradox of this strange, at first glance, technique is that after experiencing an artificially created strong panic fear and remaining in this state for some time, a person stops worrying. This is explained by the fact that the psyche can remain under tension for only a short period, then the brain triggers the existing protective mechanisms, and a phase of relative stability begins.

By practicing the technique daily, after just 10 sessions, previously uncontrollable symptoms of anxiety will begin to change, transforming into boredom, since the body’s stress response system will not be triggered when familiar stimuli appear.

We recognize the problem

This technique is aimed at realizing and accepting the fact: the object of fear itself is not a problem, the difficulties lie in an inadequate response to frightening situations. And you can get rid of your worries by radically changing the way you perceive stressful events. Training a new response model goes as follows: you need to imagine a panic-inducing situation in your mind and try to take control of the emotions that arise for a few seconds. To facilitate this process, it is necessary to mentally “move away” from the object of horror and look at what is happening from the outside. There is no need to analyze and describe your feelings; it is enough to admit that obsessive fear exists and convince yourself that the reaction you are experiencing is normal and natural.

Describing our fear

You can get rid of manifestations of obsessive fear by keeping a personal diary. It is necessary to record your negative feelings on paper throughout the day, trying to describe every moment and characterize every emotion, without retelling or evaluating the situation, but conveying all impulses word for word. The excellent result of this technique can be explained by the fact that fear, stated in writing, takes on clear outlines, materializes and is perceived by the individual as meaningless, trivial, illogical and causeless. Over time, the daily description of fears becomes a tedious task for a person and a desire arises to quickly get rid of this burden. Fear loses its strength and relevance, replaced by a feeling of slight excitement.

Singing our fear

The essence of the following successful technique: when negative sensations arise, hum the anxiety-causing sensations, using a simple motive as a basis. You should try to express your perception of fear as clearly as possible in the song. For example: “What a terrible snake! She’s crawling towards me, she’ll definitely bite me, it’ll hurt me a lot, I’ll probably die soon!”

No matter how paradoxical it may seem, the method works perfectly: when a person sings about objects of horror, the brain is simply not able to produce and maintain symptoms of panic fear. When the intensity of anxiety begins to decrease, you need to switch to chanting positive affirmations.

Changing the visual image

In cases where the object of obsessive fear cannot be described in words, and only a frightening picture is fixed in the head, it is necessary to mentally replace the image with another image that is completely opposite to the frightening object. For example: a person suffering from thanatophobia is recommended to create in his imagination an image of a healthy and happy person. You can also give your “tormentor” clear outlines, mentally communicate with him in the tone of an overlord and “drive” him away. The further the object of anxiety moves away, the less often and weaker the person will experience negative emotions.

We act despite obsessive fear

You should develop the habit of continuing to act, despite the manifestations of fear. The longer a person remains in a state of inaction and postpones indefinitely the performance of any professional, social functions or household duties, the more fear takes possession of his consciousness. An intensifying negative feeling appears before the individual like a stone wall, but as soon as the individual takes even a tiny step towards fear, it becomes obvious: anxiety is just an illusion, it exists solely in the imagination. You should come to terms with the presence of fear in the subconscious, accept your feelings and not stop living a full life.

Let's use logic

It’s worth trying to get rid of obsessive fear by using logic and imagination. If anxiety symptoms occur, you should develop and analyze the worst-case scenario for resolving the situation, and think about the most tragic outcome of events. Even the most fatal consequences are not as terrible as the uncertainty of the future. As a rule, after assessing the worst ending, fear loses its relevance and ceases to be perceived by the individual as a significant threat.

Learning to make decisions

It is precisely the need to accept the only the right decision forces a person to pull himself together, overcome uncertainty and take the necessary actions. Panic fears “live” only in the vicinity of uncertainty, doubt, indecision and inactivity, rewarding a person with anticipation of failure, failure, shame and strengthening the feeling of worthlessness and guilt. Obsessive anxiety focuses attention on the expectation of negative circumstances, while decision-making focuses on the expectation of positive emotions. Having made a choice and made a decision, a person gains confidence in his own abilities, receives a motive and incentive for action, is charged with vital energy, and extracts resources hidden in the body.

Increasing our own self-esteem

There is an amazing pattern: the better a person thinks about himself, the less and less often he experiences fears. It can be argued that high self-esteem is a reliable guardian of the individual from negative emotions, and it absolutely does not matter whether the perception of one’s own importance is true and adequate or whether it is fictitious and false.

In addition to the methods described above, there are other ways to overcome obsessive fear, including:

• Prayers, faith in God;
• True love;
• Meditation techniques;
• Charitable activities.

Final tips:

• You should not focus your attention on annoying mistakes and offensive failures;
• You should remember to praise yourself for your efforts and appreciate even minimal success;
• It is necessary to avoid self-criticism, self-accusation and self-flagellation, and destroy self-hatred;
• You cannot place extremely high demands on yourself or set unrealistic goals;
• It is important that a person is honest with himself, proud of his actions and enjoys his activities.

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Fear. It would seem that there are only five letters, but how powerfully this word is filled with information. Each of us is familiar with the feeling of dry mouth, damp and sometimes cottony palms, cardiopalmus and the feeling that the heart is about to burst out of the chest or “go to the heels”, unpleasantly shaking knees, involuntary “rumbling” in the stomach. This list can be continued indefinitely. And although we are all different, our body reacts almost identically to this emotion.

In their book “The Cure for Fear,” the Weiner brothers, in my opinion, characterize the problem of fear in the best possible way: “We are all prone to this disease - a natural reaction of our distant ancestors to the world, mysterious, dangerous, incomprehensible! We carry it in our genes. But some fight fear all their lives and win, while others surrender to it - immediately or gradually. Humanity is infinitely rich, beautiful and wise, and only one thing prevents it from being happy - fear. Fear is an executioner, a murderer and a thief, and it prevents people from loving sublimely and working talentedly.”

Fear as a basic emotion of the body

As a starting point for my further reasoning, I would like to use the interpretation of the meaning of this word. As a result of a long search for a more accurate description of fear, it turned out that there are many different interpretations of its meaning. In addition, there is no generally accepted understanding of the causes and mechanism of fear among representatives of the psychological direction in the study of the phenomenon of fear. So, V.K. Viliunas notes that a general theory of fear has not yet been created; The fact that there is no generally accepted understanding is evidenced, in particular, by those definitions of fear that we find in domestic and foreign works recently. Thus, the Psychology dictionary states that “fear is an emotion that arises in situations of threat to the biological or social existence of an individual, and is directed at the source of real or imaginary danger.” Author of the book “Personality Psychology” N.I. Reinwald believes that “the need for self-preservation can, depending on the circumstances, be expressed in a passive defensive emotion - fear.” R.M. Granovska in her work “Elements of Practical Psychology” agrees that the most “strong negative emotion is fear, which is defined as the expectation and prediction of failure in carrying out an action that must be performed under given conditions.” In the work “Neuroses in Children and Adolescents” A.I. Zakharov proposes to understand fear as “an affective, heightened perception of a threat to a person’s life, well-being and well-being.” In most studies in the field of psychology of emotions, the prevailing interpretation of fear is as a result of the reflective activity of the subject, who plays an important role in the functioning of self-preservation mechanisms.

So what should we take as a basis to characterize this emotion in verbal form? I offer a relatively generalized interpretation, created from several interpretations, but, in my opinion, reflecting the essence of the meaning of fear. Fear is an internal, negative emotional experience (state) caused by a threatening real or perceived disaster. It refers to basic emotions, and not only signals a state of danger, but also depends on many external and internal, congenital or acquired reasons. It is an innate emotional process with a genetically specified physiological component, with strictly defined facial expressions, and specific subjective experiences. Fear mobilizes the body to implement avoidant behavior, running away, since the causes of fear are considered to be real or imaginary danger. The danger that causes fear can affect a person’s life and health (we call such fears biological), his material well-being or status in society (social fears), and also not have material confirmation, but be a reflection of his own thoughts (existential fears). Psychiatrist A. Kempinski believed that there are two types of “metabolism” between a person and the environment. One is material, in the form of the exchange of substances and energy between the body and the external environment, and the other is qualitative, consisting in the exchange of information with the outside world. If the normal course of any of them is disrupted, according to A. Kempinski, a feeling of fear arises. In the book “Psychopathology of Neuroses” he wrote about this: “Violation of the structure of both energy and information metabolism always threatens the body, since it is unknown how this violation will end. The subjective signal of threat is a feeling of fear.” According to the concept of A. Kempinski, the higher the discrepancy between the expected and actually received information, the higher the level of fear.

What are the levels of fear?

Levels of fear can be different - fear, anxiety, horror, phobia, persecution mania, persecution complex. But no matter what term we use to characterize this or that level, it will still be a basic emotion - an emotion that is inherent in all healthy people and which manifests itself equally in representatives of the most different cultures living on different continents. The criterion of emotion is the similarity of external expressive movements and the presence of a physiological basis (the presence brain structures, responsible specifically for this emotion). It turns out that when there is a mismatch between the expected and received information, fear arises in our brain. And in order to come as close as possible in my reasoning to the origins of fear, I propose to further examine in more detail physiological aspects the appearance of this emotion.

Where does the feeling of fear come from?

Any reaction of our body to the events that happen to us has a physiological basis, I would even say evolutionarily enshrined in genes. For example, when experiencing fear, the heartbeat quickens (“the heart goes to the heels”), the blood vessels of the skin narrow (“the face turns gray with fear”), and the pupil also enlarges (“fear has large eyes”).

To create a more complete picture of the world around us at the moment, our brain needs more information, and because... We receive the bulk of this information through vision; then by dilating the pupil, the power of perception of the visual flow increases. An increase in blood circulation in skeletal muscles occurs due to a decrease in blood flow to a minimum in the stomach and intestines, which leads to inhibition of the activity of the digestive glands (“the mouth is dry from fear” and there is a chill “in the pit of the stomach”). By increasing sweating, our body prepares for either flight or defense, which means our body temperature may rise; and if there is no cooling skin, then the body cannot withstand overheating. All other reactions accompanying fear in humans and animals were also initially useful: the hair standing on end from horror on the head was supposed to frighten a potential enemy, and the so-called “bear disease” reduced the body’s weight and confused the aggressor. And this whole mechanism, which helps maintain the relative integrity of our body, works thanks to special chemicals– hormones. These substances are produced in special organs - endocrine glands, or, as they are also called, glands internal secretion(adrenal glands, thymus, pancreas, pituitary gland, pineal gland, hypothalamus, etc.). But the endocrine glands cannot independently produce and release this or that hormone into the blood; they need an impulse. But the impulse—the command to produce a certain amount of a particular hormone—is given by our brain. More precisely, the area of ​​the brain that was active at the time of receiving information, both from the external environment and from the body itself.

And since fear is an ancient emotion that increases the body’s chances of survival, the brain structures responsible for it are located in older, central areas of the brain - the limbic system, which includes the hippocampus, tonsils, piriformis lobe and several other brain structures . It was originally thought that there was one center in the nervous system, the activation of which caused fear and the reaction of avoidance of a frightening object. That's why for many years scientists have called the amygdala the center of fear.

Data from many experiments conducted with both animals and people indicated that it is in this area of ​​the brain that emotions associated with something scary, terrible, and panic are formed. One of the groups of American scientists has revealed that people’s sense of fear is completely “switched off” when one of the areas of the brain, the amygdala, loses its functionality, which can be used to develop methods of combating phobias and fears. The conclusion of a group of researchers led by Justin Feinstein from the University of Iowa in the USA is based on observations of a unique woman whose amygdala was completely devoid of functional properties.

Similar results were previously obtained in animals, but this is the first time their validity has been confirmed in humans. In order to better understand the patient's emotions, Feinstein's group asked her to fill out appropriate questionnaires and surveys. Over three months of tireless observations, scientists have never been able to record the patient’s emotions in any way related to fear. For example, when encountering snakes, the patient, despite assurances that she hated reptiles, almost immediately began to touch them and look closely at them. As scientists have found, the culprit is a sense of curiosity that outweighs disgust. However, another group of researchers, from the same University of Iowa, expresses a different opinion: we can get scared without the help of the amygdala, since there are other structures in the brain that can do the job of creating a feeling of panic. Scientists worked with patients suffering from a rare genetic disease - Urbach-Wiethe disease. Despite its exceptional rarity, this disease is quite well known, since it literally deprives a person of fear: the amygdala, with Urbach-Wiethe disease, hardens, shrinks and generally collapses. Sufferers of this disorder react poorly to horror films, large spiders, snakes and other things that usually cause panic fear. It is believed that the amygdala turns on fear and panic when it senses an increase in the dose of carbon dioxide (CO2) in the blood. An increase in CO2 levels indicates that the body is overusing oxygen and there is a threat of suffocation (even if the increase in CO2 has not yet reached lethal levels). But if the amygdala does not work, then carbon dioxide will not produce its terrifying effect. Researchers asked three patients suffering from Urbach-Wiethe disease and twelve healthy person breathe a gas mixture containing 35 percent CO2. To the surprise of the scientists, all subjects immediately experienced an attack of fear, and the fear was stronger in patients than in healthy people. For one of the patients, this was the first time she experienced fear. According to scientists, the role of the amygdala in relation to the reaction to a terrible stimulus is beyond doubt. But, oh her (amygdala)

Nothing definite can be said about participation in the awareness of fear. Now researchers intend to closely study the brains of people with Urbach-Wiethe disease - perhaps tomographic methods will show new centers of fear in the human brain. These data, although not very detailed, suggest that in our brains,

most likely, there is no zone that exclusively controls the feeling of fear. And since fear is still an innate emotional process with a genetically specified physiological component, it means that our genes play a key role, because they contain the program in the form of the body’s self-preservation instinct, and the DNA molecule is present in every cell of our body.

And thanks to such a property of our brain as neuroplasticity, neurons specialized in performing other physiobiological tasks take over the execution of genetically fixed programs if the areas of the brain responsible for this do not cope with the given function.

The source of fear is in the genes

The desire of scientists not only to rid people of various phobias, panic attacks and fears, but also the understanding that it is necessary not only to influence certain brain structures (and we have already found out that there is no exclusive zone responsible for fear), contributed to the conduct of many experiments and a detailed analysis of the results. After all, along with innate fears and phobias, a person develops acquired ones throughout his life, which either strengthen or disappear over time. So why, in some cases, not only is the impact of innate fears not weakened, but new ones are also consolidated at the genetic level? And in other cases, the activity of congenital ones decreases, new ones, although they are fixed, are “erased” after a certain period of time; and that part of the gene chain that was “responsible” for the occurrence of a fear reaction to a specific event occurring becomes inactive?

Elizabeth Phelps and her colleagues from New York University conducted a study to find out how fear arises. After all, you won’t be afraid of neutral objects, such as a blue rectangle. But with a light blow electric current you can force a person to do it. If this happens a couple of times, you will know that the blue rectangle means you may get an electric shock. Your body will exhibit a classic fear response.

The subject sees a series of simple colored figures on the screen, and then a blue rectangle appears, after three shocks the subject begins to flinch at the sight of the blue rectangle, even when the electric shocks stop, he continues to react to the figure in the same way. Next, in order to understand what is happening in the head, the subject is subjected to a test. This time using MRI, which will allow you to look inside the human brain when the test subject sees a blue rectangle, and observe which parts of the brain are most active. When you see a blue rectangle, neurons, mainly in the amygdala, appear brighter. The same tiny part that stores information about our old fears also stores information about new ones. It turns out that the subject will now shudder for the rest of his life at the sight of a blue rectangle?

To answer this question, the scientists continued their experiment, but not with one participant, but with a group of volunteers who were also subjected to electric shocks while being shown colored cards. Then they were “retrained”: they were shown the cards without shocking them. And in the process of retraining, scientists decided to go from the other side. The fact is that when remembering, a slightly different process occurs, reconsolidation. Every time we remember the sandwich we ate in the morning or our 5th birthday, the memories of them change slightly, new associations are superimposed on them, and the facts themselves are often distorted. A year later, the second stage of the experiment was carried out. It turned out that those who were “retrained” more than 6 hours after the resurrection of memories retained their fear of the cards. Those who were "retrained" within the first six hours showed no fear. “What is imprinted in our memory is not the original event itself, but the last time we remembered it,” Phelps explained. This means that memory, or rather memories, also play an important role in the occurrence of fear.

Researchers from the University of Queensland (Australia) decided to find out what molecular mechanisms in the brain they maintain a balance between memory and forgetting. In an article published in the journal Nature Neuroscience, scientists describe a certain microregulatory RNA, which is found only in the brain, and which erases unpleasant memories as unnecessary. RNAs of this type do not themselves encode proteins, but interfere with the synthesis of other proteins, interacting with messenger RNAs and suppressing the reading of information from them. In this case, according to the researchers, the microregulatory RNA miR-128b selectively suppresses the production of proteins that are responsible for strengthening the synapse and increasing its lifespan. The stronger and more reliable the synapse, the better and longer it conducts the signal, and the longer the memory is stored. But in the case of terrible memories, microregulatory RNA suppresses the synthesis of proteins, among which is the so-called calmodulin signal transduction regulator. This protein is involved in the transmission of nerve impulses in dopamine neurons; suppression of its synthesis leads to a weakening of the signal passing through dopamine-dependent synapses. As a result, if we have not been in stressful circumstances for a long time, the fear signal that corresponds to these circumstances gradually fades in the brain. This process is necessary for the formation of more plastic and adequate everyday behavior: resources nervous system freed from the need to maintain “terrible” memories that have become unnecessary. Considering all of the above, we can roughly imagine it as follows.

• Our brain, having received information from the outside world and superimposed this information on the experience gained not only during life, but also recorded in DNA without our conscious intervention, manages the internal processes in the body.
• Neurons, mainly the amygdalae, respond through memory to events occurring around us according to the program that is currently available in our genes.
• More developed gene programs react first, and the so-called “self-preservation instinct” program is activated first. This is our body’s unconscious reaction to current events.
• Next comes the impulse through nerve endings neurons to the endocrine glands, and they, in turn, begin to produce and release the corresponding hormone into the blood.

- When fear occurs, there is an active release of adrenaline, which chemical composition in the blood and leads to the appearance of the above-described physiobiological and psycho-emotional states characteristic of fear.

How to get rid of fear and stop being afraid

Many of you may suggest that if fear is embedded in us at the gene level, then do we need to strive to get rid of it as quickly as possible, is it really necessary to turn off the self-preservation program in our genome? And if we imagine for a second that people are deprived of the instinct of self-preservation, will humanity survive if it is fearless?

In my opinion, it is impossible to give a definite answer here. I agree that we need the instinct of self-preservation at the moment; it protects any form of life in our world from death.

After all, it is fear that helps to adequately evaluate environment and avoid unpleasant surprises on her part. Lack of a sense of danger can play a cruel joke on a person.

Fear is a unique means of understanding the surrounding reality, which helps an individual avoid potentially dangerous situations. It prevents us from going out towards moving traffic, jumping from a height without safety devices, or coming into contact with predatory animals (of course, if you are not a trainer). Fear of punishment prevents some people from committing criminal acts. This list of deadly actions and behaviors goes on and on. But, at the moment, I am more inclined to believe that the negative meaning of fear is much broader than the positive. It can keep a person in constant tension, give rise to self-doubt and prevent the personality from being realized in full force. Fear fetters a person’s activity, in some cases literally paralyzes him, and chronic condition anxiety and fear leads to various psychosomatic diseases.

If the group is relatively calm people If a person appears who feels fear, then after some time people in this group will also begin to experience a similar feeling. Research shows that fear is spread by pheromones, the smell of fear is not conscious, but triggers a subconscious reaction among the entire group. There is an uncontrollable growth of panic. At the same time, a special change in the state of consciousness is observed among the mass of people, when increased suggestibility and receptivity of the emotions of those around them appears. Sensory signals travel from person to person, stimulating the amygdala in the brain and triggering the fight or flight mechanism. When people around you panic, the mind retreats and emotions take over. Fear, in this case, spreads like a virus, and as Bale wrote: “the mind, like the body, can become the object of epidemic diseases.”

“If we are hostages to the work of our genes, brain cells and are blindly led by the instinct of self-preservation, then are we able to change anything?” We always have the opportunity to change something.

Scientists say: the instinct of self-preservation is a complex unconditioned reflex only in animals; in humans it is subordinate to consciousness. Man is the only living creature on the planet capable of resisting the instinct of self-preservation and not succumbing to this feeling. The human instinct of self-preservation has two components. One is saving oneself, and the second is saving, at the risk of one’s own life, not only one’s own species (other people), but also representatives of other species of flora and fauna, which at the moment may be in mortal danger. In a matter of seconds, your brain, by “weighing” various emotions generated by competing needs, makes a choice. For example, fear and a sense of duty, fear and shame, etc. And what choice you make will depend not only on your genes and upbringing, but also on your awareness, which will be based on your intelligence, altruism and immune responsibility . Thanks to the development of these qualities in ourselves, we influence not only changes in ourselves as individuals, but also influence the world around us.

I have already mentioned that our focal dynamics are a set of our experiences, potentials, abilities and interests. The reality around us provides us with the opportunity to realize our interests. That is, speaking in acting language, you can only play this role with these scenery and with these participants in this scene. And if you are very interested in this role, then you will begin to dive into it in more detail and deeply. Moreover, interest does not always arise in something, in our understanding, good. Even when arguing with someone, we recognize ourselves in these negative states. The following conclusion immediately suggests itself: if we do not work with our fears, then life will provide us with more and more new opportunities to work with them. And as soon as the interest is realized, the role is played, new experience is gained, the scenery and participants change. Because our brain has a new interest in learning. Accordingly, by consciously working with our fears, fewer and fewer events will occur in our lives that make us experience this feeling.

Bravery, courage and responsibility

Cultivating courage and bravery helps you cope with fears. But we always need to remember that even in such antipodean qualities as courage and bravery, components of intelligence, altruism and responsibility must always be present.

Ovid said: “Sometimes it is through fear that people become brave.” Bravery is a character trait that manifests itself in an individual’s ability to overcome feelings of fear in a situation of danger and risk oneself in order to achieve a goal. And here it is very important what the goal is, what a person wants to achieve by overcoming his fear. After all, each of us has different goals. Some people’s goal is to show by their actions that they are not “weaklings.” For such people, it is easier to jump into the water from a bridge than to be ridiculed and accused of cowardice. For extreme sports enthusiasts, mindlessly driving your car along the highway, without thinking about the consequences of such an act, strokes your pride and strengthens you even more in the illusion of your own importance. Most of us would call these and similar actions irresponsible, devoid of intelligence and altruism. A person, fighting his fears, risking his life, does them for himself, and not for the benefit of other people. And in this case, his goal is to satisfy mercantile interests. With such motivation, the body, following the release of adrenaline, produces the hormone cortisol - the stress hormone. But in our society there are people whose meaning and purpose in life is to devote themselves to serving others. For example, in medicine there are many facts where scientists, overcoming the fear of death, infected themselves various diseases in order to study in more detail not only all the symptoms of the disease, but also to try out various treatment methods. One of these was I.I. Mechnikov is a great scientist and a charming person. He was passionately devoted to science and did not spare his life for it. Twice Mechnikov put himself in mortal danger to test the correctness of his scientific assumptions. Once he introduced the blood of a patient with relapsing fever into his body to find out how infection with this disease occurs. The scientist suffered a severe form of relapsing fever, but became convinced that infection, as he had expected, occurred through the blood. Another time, he infected himself with weakened cholera microbes in order to test their effect on himself. And when a person is driven by the desire, even at the cost of his life, to serve others, a completely different hormone is produced - oxytocin. This hormone is classified as a hormone of joy, generosity and altruism. And even without being knowledgeable in physiology human body, many of us will not only understand the difference, but also remember our feelings from stress and from a state of joy.

Despite the internal altruistic impulse, intelligence must always be present in any action. And if we consider the example of the commander of a rescue squad, then before sending his subordinates to the place of rescue, the commander collects information, weighs various options, and calculates moves in order to minimize the number of victims. It is the awareness of one’s responsibility, at a dangerous moment, from the position of intelligence and altruism that leads to the maximum concentration of abilities, helping a person to act clearly and purposefully. Because initially, in fear itself there is already energy for contact with danger, for its exploration, exposure and victory. And it depends only on ourselves where we will direct this energy, how courageous we will be in the moment of danger. Here is what, for example, the Spanish monk Baltasar Gracian writes about courage as a personal quality in his “Pocket Oracle”: “They don’t joke with valor: if you don’t dare, you retreat once, you will have to retreat a second time, and so on until the last. In the end, you will face the same obstacle as at the beginning - wouldn’t it be better to decide right away? The strength of the spirit exceeds the strength of the body; like a sword, keep it always ready in the sheath of prudence. She is the shield of personality. The weakness of the spirit is more harmful than the weakness of the body. There are many people with remarkable virtues, but without courage.” And our beliefs help us a lot in cultivating courage and strengthening our fortitude.

Beliefs are purely human phenomena, not known anywhere else in living nature. Their essence is that “embedded” in a person’s consciousness, in the process of social development or “grown” by himself, behavioral programs often turn out to be stronger than genetically innate programs that dictate to the consciousness completely different response strategies in a given environment. And such actions of people show us the true greatness of the human spirit, soaring above the crude biologism of our animal programs. And as I mentioned above, a person not only receives information from the outside, but he himself is its translator. Therefore, through calm understanding, courage, and awareness in actions, we break the closed ring of panic reactions in our body. But besides this, our reaction affects the people around us, because we are able to “infect” people not only with panic and aggressive states, but also with joy, patience, and the desire to help in difficult times.

Learn to control your fear and use its energy for your own purposes. Fear is a constant companion for most people, especially in modern urban environments, where violence and confrontation with each other have become the norm. Of all the emotions that a person can experience, we are most familiar with fear, because... It is fear that has the greatest influence on us.

Living without fear is almost impossible for many people; After all, fear is an integral part of our life. This is an integral part of our Everyday life, like other emotions, and therefore trying to rid yourself of fear is useless.

WE ARE FORCED TO RECOGNIZE - FEAR WILL NOT GO ANYWHERE!

We really need fear; it serves in various reactions to maintain personal and collective survival. Fear is a reaction to an emotion that you can learn to control so that you can use it to your advantage, rather than allowing that strong emotion to negatively affect you. In fact, fear is a powerful weapon that will help you survive in extreme situations if you make some efforts to master it and learn to direct its energy in a positive direction.

This article is devoted to how to do this. From it you will learn how to turn an emotion that most people consider negative into a powerful invisible weapon that can multiply your capabilities in a dangerous situation. First, let's try to figure out what fear is and why it has such an impact on us.

WHAT IS FEAR?

Let's take the following definition as a starting point: “Fear is an emotional experience, a feeling of anxiety that a person experiences when there is a possible or obvious impending danger.”

When the brain senses danger, it releases adrenaline, which in turn causes the so-called “fight or flight” response.

This is a huge release of adrenaline that can be felt in the pit of the stomach. It forces us to react one way or another to the perceived danger: either stay and attack (fight) or flee (run). Of course, there is also: freeze, burp, but the problem is that often this reaction leads a person into a stupor.

You literally stand rooted to the spot, unable to move or make clear decisions about what to do next. This is why so many people see fear in a negative way - it negatively affects their condition, but in its direct form it should protect.

HERE ARE SOME OF THE BODY'S RESPONSE TO THE FEAR REACTION:

EYES

The pupils dilate, more light enters. This allows you to be more alert and aware of the situation. Some people experience a strange feeling of unreality, as if they don't really exist.

MOUTH AND THROAT

The oral cavity dries out so that digestive juices do not reach the stomach. The energy of the body is conserved. The muscles in your throat become tense, making it difficult to swallow. This leads to the sensation of a lump in the throat.

HEART

The heart beats faster: it needs to transport blood and oxygen throughout the body. The result is palpitations or cardiac excitement. Blood pressure also increases.

KNEES

Too much adrenaline causes the knees to become immobilized and blood to rush to the extremities; you feel weak in your knees.

BLADDER AND INTESTINES

Muscles Bladder and the intestines relax so much that there is a desire to go to the toilet in order to relieve our body for faster action.

FINGERS AND TOES

There is a tingling sensation in the fingers and toes because they are not getting enough blood.

LIVER

Carbohydrate glycogen stores are converted into glucose to increase energy.

STOMACH

A sharp reduction in the digestive juices of saliva leads to the formation of acid, which causes discomfort to the stomach.

ADRENAL GLANDS

They produce the hormone adrenaline.

SWEAT GLANDS

The body overheats due to an increase in metabolic rate, so the sweat glands produce a large number of sweat to help cool the body.

LUNGS

Breathing increases so that more oxygen can enter the body.

LEATHER

The skin turns pale due to the drainage of blood. This is the body's most basic instinct to protect itself from pain.

BRAIN

The brain determines the fight or flight response, preparing the body to fight or flee.

However, fear only affects you negatively when you allow it to. By releasing so much adrenaline into the bloodstream from the adrenal gland, your body really wants to help you. In a short period of time, your entire body becomes like a turbojet engine, ready for action. You will feel stronger, faster, and less sensitive to pain, allowing you to better withstand violent attacks.

So, if the fight-or-flight response is good for us in extreme situations, then why do so many view it from a negative perspective? Because people do not prepare themselves to react correctly when such situations arise and end up panicking.

It is believed that the occurrence of affect (stupor) is predisposed by any extreme or non-standard situation in which a person must act to save his life, but at the same time he does not know how to act.

For example: two travelers, one of whom, knowing about the danger on the road, prepares in advance and arms himself. He may worry on the way, but when faced with a dangerous situation, he does not experience a state of passion, since he is ready to react adequately. The second traveler, unaware of the danger, behaves completely differently. During an attack, he may experience a state of passion, since he is not ready to act adequately in this situation, or he will do something that no one can imagine.

As we see, one of the reasons for the development of affect is the lack of preparation for actions in unforeseen situations. This is caused by us simply mistaking adrenaline for fear. As a result, all the necessary energy is gone, and the person freezes in a daze in the face of impending danger. Our body can produce adrenaline in different ways depending on the circumstances. The two most in important ways are slow and fast adrenaline releases.

A slow release occurs when you are anticipating confrontation with something.

The body can produce adrenaline very slowly, sometimes over several months, leaving you feeling constantly anxious or afraid. This may happen, for example, before some important event for you - an upcoming exam, a divorce from your spouse, a job evaluation, etc.

An instantaneous or rapid release occurs when you are not expecting anything or when a situation develops unexpectedly quickly. Often this feeling turns out to be so strong that a person freezes in place, because... mistakes the sensation experienced for real fear.

At the same time, there is a secondary adrenaline rush that occurs when something does not go according to plan, and you begin to imagine the consequences of the situation. And here your body is trying to help you not succumb to fear.

The sooner you learn to recognize and accept the fight-or-flight response as your means of coping, the sooner you can begin working on your fear.

HOW TO CONSIST YOUR FEARS?

The first step in facing fears is to be honest with yourself. You need to really look inside yourself and decide what your real fears are and where you think they come from.

Many people never get past this very initial stage because they are often embarrassed or afraid to admit their perceived shortcomings. Perhaps they consider it weak to admit things that do not seem serious enough to them.

One way or another, we are all afraid of this kind of introspection. By acknowledging your fears, you are taking a major step in the right direction to combat them. Many people say to themselves, “It’s not something I’m afraid of, it’s just something I don’t want or don’t like to do.”

HOW MANY TIMES HAVE YOU SAID THIS PHRASE TO YOURSELF AND OTHERS?

But if you are honest with yourself, you will quickly realize that this is just an excuse to avoid doing anything to manage and gain control over the energy of fear. So, we must be honest with ourselves if we want to overcome our fears and give ourselves the chance to reach our full potential. In a good way To begin this work, you will need to compile a list of fears.

LIST OF INSURANCES

First, take a piece of paper and write down all the fears that you may have. Remember, be honest with yourself! No one but you will see this list, so there is no point in lying to yourself.

If you are afraid of getting hit or punched in the face, for example, write it down. If you are afraid of meeting an enemy armed with a knife, this should also be written down. And so on. Just be brutally honest and realize that this is your only chance to help yourself. After making such a list, you need to decide where to start. First, it is advisable to choose your least fear, which will be easiest to cope with.

By arranging your fears in this way, you will easily overcome them one by one. And by the time you get to your biggest fear, you will have enough confidence and willpower to overcome it.

One way to work with a list of fears is the following exercise. You place your smallest fear at the bottom of your imaginary fear tree and your greatest fear at the top, and thus build a hierarchy from smallest to largest. Then you start with the smallest fear to “work your way up.” This method promotes steady progress and increased confidence over time. Your next step is to deal with this very first fear.

IMPACT OF FEAR

To overcome any fear, you must be willing to face it. Unfortunately, there is no other way to do this. You can't avoid it if you really want to overcome it. So start with the least fear, whatever it may be. Dealing with your fear is not just an opportunity to be honest with yourself, but also a way to prevent adrenaline from slowly poisoning your life over time. If you really want to make progress in mastering personal safety, you must make every effort to overcome the barriers that prevent you from doing so. As they say - “be afraid, but do it.”

Over the years, we have taught ourselves that fear is something that slows us down and prevents us from doing what we want. However, on the contrary, fear exists to help us achieve what we want, because... it prepares our body and brain for decisive action. This is especially evident in self-defense situations, where we think we are experiencing fear, when in fact it is just our body's process of preparing to help us deal with the situation more effectively. For people who have undergone special training, the adrenaline rush is not something supernatural. They know that it is simply the energy needed to cope with a dangerous situation.

You have to look at fear the same way. Learn to recognize your fears, and when you face them, use them to your advantage. Don't think of fear as fear, think of it as super fuel that motivates you to take action. Why should you be afraid when you have such powerful resources at your disposal?

How often do we underestimate the harm of fear? This emotion seems natural and even ordinary to us. Indeed, it is quite logical to tremble in the face of danger. However, there is little in this world that can cause such serious harm to a person as pathological horror, squeezing our will and consciousness in a vice. Let's look at what fear is, when it is good and when it is evil for our mental well-being, and how to deal with it.

Fear is a vivid emotion that arises at the moment of danger - both real and imaginary. This feeling is present in almost all living beings, however, to a greater extent it is characteristic of humans due to their subtle mental organization.

The dictionary defines the concept of “fear” as follows: “ emotional condition, a negatively colored experience that causes not only mental but also physical discomfort.” In psychology, the definition of the gradation of the strength of fear varies from mild, quickly passing fear to panic horror, shock and panic. The difference in the strength and duration of the fear experienced depends on a number of reasons, both external (the degree of threat to life, health, well-being, etc.) and internal (a person’s level of anxiety, lack of confidence in oneself and one’s strengths, a negative outlook on the world).

Interesting! The natural result of fear will be flight or aggression (aggressive defense), which depends on the specific situation and the animal or person’s assessment of their strength. In psychology, this phenomenon is usually called in English - fight or flight (fight or flight).

This emotion is based on the oldest and strongest instinct of all living beings - the instinct of self-preservation, and has as its main function the protection of life and physical health in the face of impending danger.

In the history of human development, fear for own life also played an important role. Fear of external threats predetermined the emergence of ancient communities, thanks to which it became easier for people to protect themselves and their family. It also became one of the factors that influenced the emergence of states, world religions, and the development of science.

Thus, fear and fear perform quite useful functions both for the individual and for all humanity:

1. Signals danger.
2. Promotes adaptation to external unfavorable circumstances.
3. Forces you to look for effective ways to avoid or get rid of dangers.

Fear, phobia, anxiety - the main differences

In psychology, it is common to distinguish between such concepts as fear, phobia and anxiety. All these emotions are united by a feeling of anxiety and excitement. However, they also have a number of obvious differences.

Fear is an emotional state that is characterized as an acute sense of impending danger. Normally, it always has a certain source, which really threatens those who are afraid of it. Another important feature of this emotion is that with the disappearance of the threat, the fear gradually weakens and disappears completely.

What distinguishes anxiety from fear and phobia is that its subject is often hidden from a person’s consciousness. This emotion can be experienced due to the uncertainty of the future, before significant events. We can say that anxiety is natural to human nature. However, if anxiety becomes a personal property, then it becomes psychological problem and requires adequate psychotherapy. Various phobias often “grow” out of anxiety, and constant jitters negatively affect many functions of the human body.

A phobia is a psychological disorder in which certain objects and phenomena that are not objectively dangerous cause a person to have a constant and difficult to overcome feeling of irrational horror.

At the same time, the phobia has a constant, stable nature, being an obsessive and often irrational horror for a person that does not have a clear logical justification (such as antophobia - fear of flowers or somniphobia - fear of sleep).

Types of fear

Fear how philosophical concept was introduced by the Danish philosopher Soren Kierkegaard in 1843-1844, who divided ordinary fear into real, empirical fear and unaccountable, existential fear-anguish. With the development of psychology there appeared various classifications this emotion. First, fear is divided into levels:

1. Normal (natural).
2. Pathological.

Normal fear is momentary and disappears as soon as the dangerous situation is eliminated. Its appearance does not affect a person’s personal guidelines and character, and, accordingly, does not affect his relationships with others.

Pathological fear is characterized to a greater extent severity (up to horror, panic, shock) or more protracted nature.

Professor Yu.V. Shcherbatykh divides fears into three groups:

1. Biological (natural).
2. Social (for example, loss of status).
3. Existential (horror of aging, death, eternity, religious fears).

They can also be divided according to age criteria:

1. Children's.
2. Adults.

Children's thoughts occupy a special place in psychology because they can be brought into adulthood and develop into pathological, obsessive anxious thoughts. Z. Freud called them neurotic. This fear has no real basis, representing an “illusion of the mind”, and is a psychological deviation.

The famous psychiatrist B. Karvasarsky offers a more detailed classification of fears and divides them into the following groups:

1. Fears of space (for example,).
2. Social (social phobias).
3. Fear of loss of health (nosophobia).
4. Fear of death (thanatophobia).
5. Fear of harming yourself or others (obsessive-compulsive).
6. Individual (fear of saying something rude, blushing, etc.).
7. Fear of being afraid (phobophobia).

The most common fears

The most common phobia currently is (aerophobia). Moreover, according to official statistics on transport accidents, the airplane is the safest vehicle.

Meanwhile, many people are so afraid of taking an airplane flight that they refuse to travel, meet with distant relatives, and even refuse prestigious work if it involves business trips. Panic begins to set in at the mere thought of the upcoming flight - the pulse quickens, anxiety and excitement arise, and sweating increases. Sometimes a person does not even understand what it is, where the strong fear came from - and only accidentally finds out that he has become a victim of aerophobia.

On video: a small but colorful cartoon about how our fears and phobias are formed

After the phobia of flying on an airplane, the following fears follow in terms of prevalence:

1. Fear of public speaking.
2. Fear of death.
3. Fear of failure.
4. Fear of commitment.

Causes of fear

Such properties of human consciousness as imagination, memory and speech contribute to the consolidation of fleeting fear and its transformation from ordinary to pathological. Our subconscious draws us terrible prospects, our memory stores frightening memories from childhood, and speech helps convey scary stories and forecasts from mouth to mouth. And, despite the fact that most of them are nothing more than illusions, many people are capable of truly being afraid of these “ghosts”.

Like any psychological phenomenon, the feeling of fear has its own reasons, which can be divided into two large groups:

1. External reasons (real danger or threat).
2. Internal causes (childhood traumas, memories).

According to the degree of a person’s awareness of the causes of fear, we can distinguish:

1. Obvious reasons (pain, height, confined space, loneliness).
2. Hidden reasons (objectively not dangerous phenomena, but perceived as such by humans).

By the way, the strongest of all fears is considered to be based on the basic instinct of self-preservation. And no less terrible can be the horror of social “death” - the fear of shame, rejection by society. Once upon a time, when people lived in large communities, expulsion from it for any “sin” was equivalent to physical death, since a person alone could hardly live to a ripe old age. Therefore, the fear of being rejected has penetrated very deeply into the genetic memory, and is often observed in modern people.

Signs and symptoms

The physiological manifestations of acute fear are the same for all living beings and vary in severity, which depends on the severity of the threat.

First of all, the sympathetic nervous system is activated, mobilizing all the energy resources of the body. The activity of all organ systems is reconfigured in order to adequately respond to the received danger signal. The body is preparing to respond to aggression or to escape and save itself.

Moreover, changes manifest themselves not only on the emotional, but also on the physical level. When experiencing a feeling of horror, a person experiences a number of unpleasant physical symptoms:

• the pulse quickens, blood rushes to the muscles;
• trembling or muscle weakness, jitters appear;
• the blood “leaves” from the face, the person turns pale;
• the pupils dilate, vision and hearing become sharper;
• sweating increases.

A number of changes also occur in the human or animal body during severe fear:

• the level of glucose in the blood increases (the main “fuel” for the functioning of the brain and muscles);
• blood clotting increases;
• secretion of glucocorticoids increases (protection from anaphylactic shock in case of possible injury).

All of these reactions are caused by the work of the nervous system, as well as the adrenal glands, which release hormones into the blood - adrenaline and cortisol.

How to overcome fear on your own

“Normal”, natural fear associated with a real threat is determined by human nature. We easily overcome this condition and our emotional and physical state returns to normal.

Unfortunately, with the development of humanity and the complication of psychological processes, ordinary fears began to give way to pathological ones, and anxiety began to develop into chronic. At the same time, a person risks his health - his the immune system, psychosomatic diseases arise.

The illusion of mind control over our emotions, including fears, leads to the problem being pushed deeper into consciousness. Over time, we cease to be aware of the causes of constant anxiety, often without even understanding the true source of our anxiety.

Meanwhile, awareness of fears and their causes is the first and most important step towards getting rid of them, a step into a healthy and happy life, free from the shackles of anxiety and doubt.

There are a number of ways to independently get rid of the fears that haunt a person:

1. The method of rationalization is the logical conviction of oneself that one’s own fear is irrational and far-fetched.
2. Objective assessment of the danger - try to assess the chances of its implementation in reality and the scale of possible damage. Is the damage so great that you are in a state of horror and anxiety every minute?
3. Determine the place of your fear among other objective dangers, compare the danger that frightens you with much more serious misfortunes (for example, war or a natural disaster).
4. Imagine that the worst thing happened. Imagine the worst possible outcome and try to rationalize even this situation. It is possible that a situation that seems like a catastrophe to you is actually completely solvable, normal, or not so dramatic.
5. Fill your life with activities and emotions. Don't let worry take up your time and attention!
6. Live according to the principle of “here and now!” Don't be scared of a future that hasn't happened yet, enjoy what you have now.

Interesting! The basis of positive thinking, which is also used to combat phobias, is reframing (the literal meaning of this word is “frame replacement effect”) - the ability to reformulate negative circumstances into favorable ones. A famous master of this type of substitution was Milton Erickson, who used reframing to treat his patients.

Therapy of fears under the supervision of specialists

Sometimes the level of anxiety reaches a critical level, and independent work over yourself may not be enough. The help of professionals is especially urgently needed if a person has psychosomatic (“nervous”) diseases.

In psychology, there are a number of generally accepted methods for treating chronic anxiety and phobias, including:

1. Behavioral therapy (behavioral therapy) is a branch of modern psychiatry that aims to eliminate unwanted behavior and develop useful behavioral skills.
2. Cognitive-behavioral therapy (cognitive-behavioral psychotherapy) — complex form psychotherapy that combines cognitive therapy with behavioral therapy.
3. Problem-oriented therapy is a concept of psychotherapy that combines elements of psychoanalysis, Gestalt therapy, behavioral therapy and body-oriented therapy.
4. Neurolinguistic programming (NLP) is a direction in psychotherapy and practical psychology, based on the technique of modeling or copying successful behavior, and a set of connections between speech, eye movements, body and memory.
5. Psychoanalysis - a method of treatment mental illness through identifying and analyzing repressed and traumatic experiences.
6. Hypnosis.
7. Autogenic training is a psychotherapeutic method aimed at restoring the dynamic balance of homeostatic mechanisms.

For treatment severe forms phobias and chronic anxiety can be used and medications- antidepressants, tranquilizers, antipsychotics. Sometimes therapy is carried out in a hospital because the patient feels so bad that he needs constant medical supervision.

Conclusion

As we see, fear can very well be our friend if we do not allow it to linger in the heart for a long time. The choice is only ours - to succumb to negative experiences or to fight for our health and peace of mind, on our own or with the help of specialists.