Fear

From TinWiki.org

Fear: Be Afraid

Fear is an emotional response to threats and danger. It is a basic instinct, a survival mechanism that occurs in response to a specific stimulus such as pain or the threat of pain. It is unpleasant, but completely natural, helping people recognize and respond to dangerous situations and threats.

There are several stages of fear. The first is real fear, or fear based on a real situation. The second is realistic, or possible fear. The third is exaggerated or emotional fear. Emotional fear affects how people handle conflict.

Healthy fear, which has a protective function, can evolve into unhealthy to pathological fear, which can lead to exaggerated or violent behavior. Fear differs from anxiety in that anxiety occurs without any specific external threat. Fear is related to the specific behaviors of escape and avoidance where anxiety is the result of threats that are perceived to be uncontrollable or unavoidable.

The meaning of the word fear started out as meaning not the emotion but the event itself. The first recorded use of fear referring to an emotion is found in a medieval work written in Middle English around 1290.

Fear is one of a small set of innate emotions. The set also includes joy, sadness, and anger.

Contents 1 Varieties of Fear 2 Causes 2.1 Roots of Fear 3 Characteristics of Fear 4 Dealing with Fear 5 Fear and Religion 6 Health and Fear 7 External Links

Varieties of Fear

Fear can be described by different terms according to the relation of its varying degrees, both in personal fears and fears within a social network.

• Caution: taking care with an unknown situation
• Worry: negative self-talk that often distracts the mind from the problem at hand; feeling of concern about someone else, something else, or a condition
• Anxiety: normal reaction to stress; occurs without an identifiable triggering stimulus; physiological and psychological state characterized by cognitive, emotional, and behavioral components that create painful feelings
• Terror: pronounced state of fear when someone becomes overwhelmed with a sense of immediate danger
• Fright: state of extreme fear of something that is strange or shocking
• Paranoia: disturbed thought process that is characterized by excessive fear and anxiety; often irrational or delusional; often includes persecutory beliefs concerning a perceived threat
• Horror: feeling of revulsion that usually occurs after something frightening is seen, heard, or experienced
• Panic: sudden fear that dominates or replaces thinking
• Persecution Complex: deals with the perception of being persecuted for various reasons, imagined or real
• Dread: extreme fear; profound and deep-seated spiritual condition of insecurity and despair
• Hysteria: a state of mind of unmanageable fear or emotional excesses
• Mass Hysteria: manifestation of the same or similar hysterical symptoms by more than one person
• Distrust: lack of trust
• Phobia: intense fear reaction to a particular thing or situation

Causes

Fear is an innate emotion, but fear can also be learned. Certain fears are more common than others. For example, fears concerning heights are much more common that fears of clouds. Fear can also be influenced by cultural trends.

Roots of Fear

• Delusions
• Attachment: fear based in being separated from someone or something that one thinks ensures happiness or security
• Anger
• Actual Threats
• Ignorance
• Selfishness
• Nightmares: the unconscious mind relating to fears of individuals

Characteristics of Fear

• Behavior
  • Lack of expression of free will
  • Violence
• Physical Changes
  • Quickening of heart rate
  • Perspiration
  • Tightening of muscles
  • Instinctual protection of vulnerable body parts

Dealing with Fear

Fear is a personal issue; therefore, the ways to deal with fear are focused on the individual. In general, fear can be dealt with by becoming aware of fear, identifying how fear is expressed, recognizing situations that trigger fear, and using behavioral techniques to reduce fear and stress.

Fear and Religion

Studies have shown that the fear of death may motivate one's religious commitment. Also, religion can ease the fears of some due to the religion's stance on an afterlife.

Health and Fear

Studies have shown that death from fear is possible. Fear and stress can lead to cardiac episodes. Some people have been literally scared to death, suddenly dying under situations of extreme fear or emotional trauma, dying from fright brought on by anything from earthquakes or amusement park rides.

Fear can cause cardiac damage, blood clots, and thrombosis.

External Links

• Fear
• Resisting Fear
• Fear and Phobia
• Fears and Phobias
• Dealing with Fear