What is fear for?

Fear is one of the six basic emotions. (joy, sadness, disgust, anger, fear, surprise) that Charles Darwin described in 1872. It has a well-differentiated gesture: open eyes, trembling mouth and a feeling of perplexity. Now, what is fear for?

Although we all experience this emotion throughout our lives, many of us are not very clear about what its function is – if it exists – and what message it wants to convey to us. Because what would become of us if fear did not exist? Is possible a life free of this emotion? Let’s see it.

Fear plays an important role

Fear as such can be defined, according to the dictionary of the Royal Spanish Academy, as a distressing disturbance of the mood due to real or imagined risk or harm. The word derives from Latin metus, which has a similar meaning. There are also some terms that are associated with the word, such as ‘shocking, alarm, fear, apprehension, horror, dread, terror, panic, phobia, scare’.

All emotions serve a purpose. For example: anger helps to set limits, surprise to recognize and discover, joy leads to sharing, disgust to reject, sadness to reflect and fear helps us protect ourselves from danger.

Thus, experiencing fear is a biologically inherited response that It makes it possible to develop a defensive reaction in the face of danger. It is a genetic endowment shaped by centuries of evolution that allows us, through rapid and automatic responses, to protect ourselves from threatening situations and potential dangers. That is to say, It is aimed at preserving our lives.

But it is also an intense unpleasant sensation caused by the perception of danger (real or imaginary). It is common to all animals when faced with a threatening situation. In that sense, Fear is a normal emotion and beneficial for the survival not only of an individual but of the species.

A fear can be considered normal when its intensity corresponds to the dimension of the threat. That is, the object that generates fear has characteristics that could threaten the person’s life.

The relationship between the brain and fear

The ultimate expression of fear is terror. In the territory of pathological fears, the intensity of the fear attack has no relation to the danger that the object can generate, as in the case of phobias of harmless animals, such as a rabbit or a sparrow.

On the other hand, fear is a subjective sensation that leads us to develop certain behaviors and a physiological response complex. During life-threatening emergencies, the sympathetic system is activated. This nervous mechanism is what gives rise to the classic fight, flight or freeze responses.

When a stimulus is perceived through the senses and is perceived as dangerous, the thalamus quickly evaluates it and sends it to the amygdala. This, which is the emotional regulation center, together with the hypothalamic-pituitary axis, is responsible for the physiological reaction. The adrenal gland is stimulated, causing a significant release of adrenaline and norepinephrine.

Systems involved in sympathetic activation

Fear activates the cardiovascular system, vasoconstricting. This causes blood pressure to increase and blood flow to the extremities to decrease. Excess blood is redirected to the skeletal muscles, where it remains available for vital organs that may be needed during an emergency. This gives rise to several effects:

Pallor: as a result of less blood flow to the skin.Shuddering and piloerection: They conserve heat when blood vessels are constricted.Hot and cold periods: are experienced during extreme fear.Increased heart and respiratory rate: in order to provide the oxygen necessary for blood to circulate quickly.

The increase in blood pressure is also intended to deliver oxygen to the brain. It is necessary to stimulate cognitive processes and sensory functions that allow us to be more alert. In this way reflexes and the flow of thought are accelerated.

For its part, the liver releases more glucose into the bloodstream to provide energy to various muscles and fundamental organs, such as the brain. The pupils dilate, possibly to allow a better view of the situation. The hearing is sharpened to detect danger and digestive activity is suspended, resulting in a lower flow of saliva.

In the short term, the evacuation of waste materials and the elimination of digestive processes further prepares the body for concentrated action and activity. This is where the pressure to urinate and defecate, and even vomit, comes from.

Fight, flight or paralysis

The flight or fight action is important, since thousands of years ago those who reacted strongly were more likely to survive dangers than those who had weak responses. The human species suffered from the pressure of competition in the environment, both when it came to finding food and from suffering attacks from other animals.

Fleeing is a way to avoid danger, although facing it is part of the defense against risk, but the prelude to both reactions is paralysis. Paralyzing ourselves involves the entire cognitive and neurophysiological process that we describe, it is the moment of preparation to take an action strategy.

Paralyzing silence, as a behavior prior to action, makes us sharpen our vision and hearing. These are those moments in which you feel your own heartbeat accelerate, your breathing becomes sharper and your muscles tense, there is bowel movement, freezing of movements, focusing of attention, catastrophic fantasies, tremors and sweating.

When is fear a problem?

Fear is a problem when it is permanently present or appears when it should not, that is, it is dysfunctional.. In the case of phobias, for example, an irrational fear is felt, that is, one that does not respond to a real threat.

Another dysfunctional form that this emotion takes is anxiety and panic disorders. The permanent activation of fear produces negative effects on the body and it is necessary to treat them, since we are not prepared to endure fear every day.

Social utility of fear

One of the functions of fear is to motivate immediate action to save life. Cues of fear, such as facial expressions or vocalizations, They also fulfill a communicative function: alert the rest of the group. In this way, the survival probabilities of the groups are also increased.

Therefore, it is not necessary to deny fear, since it is a valuable emotion and, as such, essential for survival. So much so that it is what has enabled us, since the first hominids, to adapt to life, defend ourselves from risks and help us survive in extreme situations.

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