Source: www.tigerfreedom.com
1) By Avoiding Fear, It Gets Stronger
Psychologists have found out that avoidance strategies increase fear. Whatever you resist will persist. In fact, avoiding fear can lead to a “fear spiral” and climax in a panic attack.
Panic is the fear of fear itself: You might feel an uncomfortable body-sensation and falsely interpret it as “having a heart attack” or choking. But in reality it’s just a normal and “healthy” symptom of fear (for example tightness in the chest, racing heart, tight muscles etc.). But by thinking that you’re having a heart attack, you get even more scared and as a result the symptoms you’re afraid of get stronger. Within seconds of entering the “fear spiral” a full-blown panic attack can occur. That’s why exposure works so well to overcome fear. Avoidance-strategies never get rid of fear. They only blow additional wind into the sails.
2) Without Fear You Couldn’t Survive A Single Day
Although many of our fears are irrational, a lot of them are not. Evolution has designed fear to help us survive. And that’s exactly what it does. Without fear you couldn’t survive a single day. You would jump off buildings, touch electric wires, walk over the street while there’s traffic and you wouldn’t run away when there’s a real threat.
It’s important to realize that fear is your ally. It’s here to help you survive and without it you would probably not be able live for any longer than 24 hours.
Fear is a gift given to you by evolution.
3) Fear And Anxiety Are Two Different Things
A lot of people confuse fear and anxiety. Fear is an emotion; it takes over whenever there’s a real or perceived threat and helps us guide our behavior. Within milliseconds your body activates your fear-system by releasing stress hormones such as adrenaline and cortisol. All your bodily processes get focused solely on dealing with the danger through fight or flight. Your blood pressure increases, your muscles get tenser, your mind is highly alert, your heart beats faster and your breathing gets shorter. Once the danger is over, your body relaxes again and all the “symptoms” disappear.
However, when the stimulus that causes us to be stressed doesn’t go away, our fear can become chronic. In that case, fear turns into anxiety. Instead of getting a boost of adrenaline and cortisol when we really need it, our body continues to release stress hormones. If we say someone is stressed, it really means that person is experiencing the symptoms of anxiety. There are lots of things that can lead to chronic anxiety and stress: The fear of losing our job, looking silly in front of others, being lonely, not living up to society’s standards, financial insecurity and so on. This permanent, low-level fear can be called anxiety. So always keep in mind: Being stressed really means being anxious.
4) Some Of Your Fears Are Ancient Relics
Some of our fears are ancient relics and are hard-wired into our genes. For example: A lot of people are scared of spiders or snakes. Those are archaic fears, it made sense to be scared of spiders and snakes at the time our genes got “programmed”. Evolution had learned that a lot spiders and snakes kill us when they bite us. So it gave us fear to ensure that you won’t get anywhere near a spider or snake. The same is true for heights. How many people do you know that are scared of heights? It’s normal. Evolution had learned that we die if we climb on a high rock and fall down. So it gave us fear to stay away from any possibility of falling down a tree or rock. Conversely, flying in an airplane and being extremely high in the sky causes less fear for most people than standing on a balcony in the 8th floor and looking down. The reason for this is simple: Evolution hasn’t learned about airplanes and extremely high heights yet, that’s why we don’t have an archaic fear of flying. It’s also why we don’t have an archaic fear of getting an electric shock if we touch a power cable. Evolution doesn’t know those things. Yet.
5) Fear Can Be Learned And Unlearned
Apart from these hard-wired fears, evolution has given us another great gift. Neuroscientists call it neuroplasticity. Our brains are so smart that they can adapt to pretty much anything. We can learn and unlearn any behavior or skill. We can even learn and unlearn fear. If we get on high buildings and expose ourselves to our fear of heights over and over again, we will eventually lose the hard-wired archaic fear of heights. However, conversely we can also learn new fears that make absolutely no sense. For example: We can get scared of social interactions, we can get scared that we aren’t good enough or scared that we will end up being poor. These are all irrational fears that are learned later on in life. They are irrational, learned fears.
Anyway, no matter if your fear is archaic or learned, your brain is able to unlearn it. That’s why behavioural therapy can be so powerful to overcome fear.
6) Anxiety Suppresses Your Immune System
Did you know that the stress hormone cortisol suppresses the immune system? That’s right. Whenever your fear system gets activated your body releases adrenaline and cortisol. One of cortisol’s “jobs” is to shut down your body’s immune activity. Whenever you’re facing a threat or danger, your body needs all available resources to deal with it. No energy will be wasted on other bodily-processes. Your immune system is a bit like an antivirus program on your computer. It runs in the background all the time. But it needs energy and CPU. In an urgency situation, which means when your fear system is activated, your antivirus program is shut down to “save energy”.
Once you’ve successfully dealt with the threat or danger, your fear goes away and your body stops releasing adrenaline and cortisol. That means your body’s immune suppression stops and your “antivirus” program can run again.
But what if your fear never goes away? What if your fear becomes chronic and turns into anxiety because your life is so stressful? Well, there’s some bad news about that.
If you’re chronically stressed or are suffering from chronic anxiety, it means that your body is constantly flushed with cortisol. It also means that your immune system gets chronically suppressed. One big job of your immune system is to create T-Killer cells. These are cells that your body creates as a way to deal with and eliminate dangerous cancer cells. So the rumours are true: If you’re stressed it means that chances of cancer increase dramatically. Also of heart disease and other uncool stuff.
7) Aggression Is The “Opposite” Of Fear
Popular psychological research suggests that there’s only two ways to deal with fear. This is also known as the fight-or-flight response. Both responses are ways that allow you to deal with danger or threat, and they are both forms of aggression. I’m referring to aggression in its original meaning, derived from the Latin word “agredere”. In this sense healthy aggression is a form of moving forward, taking action and resolving inner and outer blockages. Fear always results in a form of healthy aggression. Thus one could say that aggression is the opposite of fear: Fear activates your body and makes you ready and alert. Then your body responds with motoric aggression: You use your body, arms, and legs to run away, fight or threaten your opponent. However, if this healthy response of aggression is suppressed, for example during traumatic experiences such as sexual abuse or being lost in helpless fear, it stays trapped in the body. That’s why a big part of body-psychotherapy is to get out that healthy aggression which was not available as a resource during the initial traumatic event. Working with that aggression helps overcoming the post-traumatic fear that’s still trapped in the patient’s body.
8) Relaxation Is The “Opposite” Of Anxiety
While healthy aggression helps your body release fear and deal with threats, and thus can be viewed as the “opposite” of fear, relaxation can be viewed as the opposite of anxiety. When your body is stimulated by anxiety, you’re stressed. When your body is free of anxiety, you’re relaxed. That’s why doing daily relaxation exercises (such as meditation, yoga, etc.) can help dramatically reduce anxiety and flush your body from unwanted adrenaline and cortisol. The results are a better immune system, a more balanced muscle tension, a healthier heart, better sleep and so much more.
9) Successful People Also Have Fear
Fear is the most predominant emotion. Everyone has it. That’s some good news. Even the “cool” people who never seem to have fear, actually do have a lot of fear. Stop categorizing yourself as someone who has fear and other successful people as “fearless” people. We all have fears and anxieties. It’s normal. And it’s healthy to a certain extent. The difference, however, is that successful people don’t let themselves get held back by their fears. They heave learned to accept them, use them as “fuel” and transform them.
The question isn’t about having fear or not, the question is how you deal with it.
10) Other People Can Feel Your Fear As If It Was Their Own
Neuroscientists have discovered something that they call “mirror neurons”. Mirror neurons are special nerve cells in our body, which allow us to feel what other people feel. Did you ever wonder how mass panic occurs? It’s the mirror neurons that make it possible. Were you ever in a bad mood and everyone you talked to walked away or gave you an uncomfortable response? And were you ever in a great mood and everyone you talked to loved you? It’s because of the mirror neurons. People feel whatever you feel.
The same is true for when you’re scared. Your mirror neurons work so well that even a horror movie is able to transfer the fear onto you. Whenever you feel scared, be aware that other people might also feel scared in your presence. It’s not because they don’t like you or because of your personality, it’s because of what you’re feeling inside you.
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