Fear - Don't Be Afraid, Be Aware
Fear is a feeling induced by perceived
danger or
threat that occurs in
certain types of organisms, which causes a
change in metabolic and organ
functions and ultimately a
change in behavior, such as
fleeing, hiding, or
freezing from
perceived traumatic events. Fear in human beings may occur
in response to a specific
stimulus occurring in the present, or in
anticipation or expectation of a
future threat perceived as a
risk to body
or life. The fear response arises from the
perception of danger leading to
a confrontation of a
defense response or
fight
response, or a
flight response to escape and
avoid the threat. Some extreme cases of
fear mongering,
horror or
terror, can influence a
freeze response or
paralysis, where you don't fight and you don't run, which would be the
same response that you would give if you incorrectly thought that you were
not in danger, because you're either
over
confident or
ignorant.
Fear is an
instinct that all humans are born with.
Fear helps us to
respond to things that
are either
dangerous or unknown to us. But as soon as we identify
the thing that we were scared
of, and when we have determined that something is no longer a
threat, we are
no longer afraid of it, or we become less and less afraid of it over
time. We need to identify
dangers or
risks so that they we can react quickly and correctly in order to
protect
ourselves or protect others. As we get older, most of our fears
are no longer needed. An adult will now
rely on experience, knowledge,
awareness and information to help them identify
dangers, so that they may
react accurately and effectively enough in order to protect themselves. An adult should
in place of fear, learn to use
awareness,
physical conditioning,
training and
adrenaline
to help quicken response time and to help increase energy levels when
needed. Fear for an adult could be a
distraction. This not to say that adults will
stop having fears, this is just saying that adults should be quicker at
analyzing situations so they are not
paralyzed with fear, but instead, they are
clear headed and
ready for the challenge that they are faced with. Remember that
fear is an
emotion, and that fear is not an
analyzer of information, so you have to use your
brain.
Dread
is to be afraid, scared and
frightened
of something. A fearful expectation
or anticipation of some horrible and
terrorizing
event. Dreadful is something exceptionally bad or displeasing or very
unpleasant.
Horrendous is something
causing fear, dread or
terror.
Panic is an overwhelming feeling of fear
and
anxiety. Sudden
mass fear and
anxiety over
anticipated events.
Afraid
is being filled with fear or apprehension. Filled with
regret or concern; used often to soften an unpleasant statement. Feeling
worry
or concern or
insecurity. Having feelings of aversion or unwillingness.
Thrown into a state of disarray or confusion. A mental state characterized
by a lack of clear and orderly thought and behavior.
Mistakes.
Apprehensive is quick to understand.
Mentally upset over possible misfortune or danger etc.. In fear or dread
of possible evil or harm.
Anxiety -
Paranoia -
Dangers -
Fear Mongering
Fright is an
emotion experienced in anticipation of some specific pain or danger
(usually accompanied by a desire to
flee or fight).
Coward is a person who shows fear or
timidity, sometimes without
valid
reasoning.
Timid is showing fear and
lack of confidence. Lacking
conviction, boldness or
courage.
Timidity is fear of the unknown or unfamiliar, or fear of making
decisions.
Conformist.
"Fearing the future
may stop you from doing something good today." -
Marcus AureliusFaint of Heart is someone who is
lacking the skills or the
courage to face something
difficult or
dangerous. A timid person who cannot
handle too much intensity.
Sensitive to
over reacting or
susceptible to
passivity.
Confusion is a
disorder
resulting from a failure to
behave predictably. A mental state characterized by a lack of clear and
orderly thought and behavior. An act causing a disorderly combination of
elements with identities lost and distinctions blended.
Assumptions -
Gut Feeling
Paranoid is a psychological
distortion characterized by
delusions of persecution or
harm.
Brain's 'escape switch' controlled by threat sensitivity dial.
Researchers reveal neurons that regulate sensitivity to threat and thereby
start and stop escape behavior in mice. Neuroscientists have discovered
how the brain bidirectionally controls sensitivity to threats to initiate
and complete escape behavior in mice. These findings could help unlock new
directions for discovering therapies for anxiety and
post-traumatic stress disorder or PTSD.
Do I Run Away or Do I Defend Myself?
Fight or Flight Response is a physiological
reaction that occurs in
response
to a
perceived harmful event, attack, or
threat, in which you might have only two choices in order to
survive,
defend yourself or run. And you have to make this
decision while
your body is having a hormonal response of
norepinephrine
and
adrenalin.
In situations of
fight-or-flight response, the
reptilian brain
overrides the neocortex (which is slow and demands more energy). And
activates the body’s fight-or-flight response. The actions and emotions
that emerge from the
reptilian brain do so automatically, without us
having to think about them. The reptilian brain is “stupid” but very
efficient at keeping us alive.
Fight or Flight
Response (youtube).
Tonic Immobility is almost always displayed when the person is
overwhelmed by threat and not allowed and
not able
to act aggressively against the threat. Thus immobility functions
to suppress anger in the victim and acts bi-directionally to inhibit
aggression.
Analysis Paralysis
-
Nervous -
Passive -
Fight or Freezing in Place -
No Confidence -
Inexperience -
Insecure
-
Paranoid
-
Amygdala
Why do we freeze when startled? New study in flies points to
serotonin.
A study in fruit flies has identified
serotonin as a
chemical that triggers the body's startle response, the automatic
deer-in-the-headlights reflex that
freezes the body momentarily in response to
a
potential threat. Today's study reveals
that when a fly experiences an unexpected change to its surroundings, such
as a sudden vibration, release of serotonin helps to literally -- and
temporarily -- stop the fly in its tracks.
Apparent
Death is a behavior in which an animal
takes on the
appearance of being dead. This form of animal
deception is an
adaptive behavior also known as tonic immobility or thanatosis. Apparent
death can be used as a
defense mechanism or as a form of aggressive
mimicry, and occurs in a wide range of animals.
Playing Dead may save your life.
Self Defense -
When to Use Force -
Duty to Retreat -
Psychological Resilience -
When to Negotiate
-
Reflex's -
Triggers -
Two Sides to a Coin
Tend and Befriend
is a behavior exhibited by some animals, including humans, in response to
threat. It refers to protection of offspring (tending) and
seeking out the
social group for mutual defense (befriending). Tend-and-befriend is
theorized as having evolved as the typical female response to stress, just
as the primary male response was fight-or-flight.
Aggressive Mimicry is a form of
mimicry in which predators,
parasites or parasitoids share similar signals, using a harmless model,
allowing them to avoid being correctly identified by their prey or host.
Defensive mimicry or
protective mimicry takes place when organisms are able to
avoid harmful encounters by deceiving enemies into treating them as
something else.
Survival, Evasion, Resistance and Escape is a program that provides
U.S. military personnel, U.S. Department of Defense civilians, and private
military contractors with
training in evading capture,
survival skills,
and the military code of conduct. Evasion planning, Resistance to
exploitation & political indoctrination, Escape planning. Military acronym
SERE.
Survival Stress is sometimes
called fear induced
stress, is caused by
hormonal changes
brought on by the perception of danger. The
hormones cause an elevated
heart rate that effect a person’s cognitive
decision making skills. There
are four instinctual reactions to fear-induced stress: Fight, Flight, Posture, Submit.
Focused Control.
Run screaming or slow retreat? New study advances understanding of
brain responses to
emotionally-charged scenes. Using cutting-edge modeling of brain
activity divided into tiny cubes (of under 3mm3) the study discovered that
the
occipital temporal cortex,
a region at the back of the brain, is tuned to represent both the type of
stimulus (single human, couple, crowd, reptile, mammal, food, object,
building, landscape etc.) and the emotional characteristics of the
stimulus -- whether it's negative, positive or neutral and also whether
it's high or low in
emotional intensity.
Modeling this data using small 2.4x2.4x3mm chunks or 'voxels' of brain
activity, the researchers found that regions of occipital temporal cortex,
in the back of the brain, showed differential representation of both
stimulus semantic category and
affective value.
I have the Feeling that Someone is Looking at Me
The biological phenomenon known as "
Gaze Detection" or “
Gaze
Perception.” Neurological studies have found that the brain cells
which initiate this response are very precise. If someone turns their gaze
off of you by turning just a few degrees to their left or right, that
eerie feeling quickly fades.
The amygdala
registers threats and is involved with
gaze detection somehow.
Sometimes it almost feels like
ESP,
this ability to
detect another person stare, because it often comes at the
fringes of our awareness.
Enhanced Vigilance.
Psychic Staring Effect is a supposed phenomenon in which
humans detect being stared at
by
extrasensory means.
Midline Nuclear Group may be involved in general functions such as
alerting.
Amygdala in the brain
registers threats or
perceived threats, and may also be
involved with gaze detection
and letting us know when someone is
starring at us, such as a wild animal
who's looking to pounce on you and eat you.
Instincts.
Basolateral Amygdala consists of the lateral, basal and
accessory-basal nuclei of the amygdala. The lateral nuclei receives the
majority of
sensory information, which arrives directly from the temporal
lobe structures, including the
hippocampus and primary
auditory
cortex. The information is then processed by the basolateral complex and
is sent as output to the central nucleus of the amygdala. This is how most
emotional arousal is formed in mammals.
The amygdala is the brain's "save" button.
It functions as an alarm system that tags
emotionally intense
experiences as worth remembering. Emotional intensity. The brain is
more likely to save information that's exciting, shocking, painful, or
upsetting. The intensity and energy of an event influences the brain's
decision to save it. Other parts of the brain involved in memory include:
Basal ganglia and cerebellum: Handle motor
memory, such as playing a piano.
Hippocampus: Stores
memories The brain also makes new neurons throughout life, which are
important for learning and memory.
Psychedelic Assisted
Therapy - Reducing an over sensitive amygdala in order to have a more
accurate interpretation of its signals and to
stop fear mongering yourself.
Amygdala Hijack is an emotional response that is immediate,
overwhelming, and out of measure with the actual stimulus because it has
triggered a much more significant emotional
threat. The output of sense organs is first received by the
thalamus. Part of the
thalamus' stimuli goes directly to the amygdala or "emotional/irrational
brain", while other parts are sent to the neocortex or "thinking/rational
brain". If the amygdala perceives a match to the stimulus, i.e., if the
record of experiences in the
hippocampus tells the amygdala that it is a
fight,
flight or
freeze
situation, then the amygdala triggers the HPA (hypothalmic-pituitary-adrenal)
axis and hijacks the rational brain. This emotional brain activity
processes information milliseconds earlier than the rational brain, so in
case of a match, the amygdala acts before any possible direction from the
neocortex can be received. If, however, the amygdala does not find any
match to the stimulus received with its recorded threatening situations,
then it acts according to the directions received from the neocortex. When
the amygdala perceives a threat, it can lead that person to
react irrationally and destructively.
Defend or Run -
When to Fight and
When to Run -
Nervous
System -
Senses -
Spatial Intelligence
Amygdala Depotentiation is the
erasure of long-term potentiation at the synapse. Depotentiation is a
particular type of synaptic plasticity that only occurs at a particular
type of synapse, and not so much a type of synapse, but a synapse that is
in a particular state. Depotentiation is a reversal of
conditioning-induced potentiation that has been proposed as a cellular
mechanism for fear extinction.
Amygdala-Midbrain
Connections Modulate Appetitive and Aversive Learning. The central
amygdala (CeA) orchestrates adaptive responses to emotional events. While
CeA substrates for defensive behaviors have been studied extensively, CeA
circuits for appetitive behaviors and their relationship to
threat-responsive circuits remain poorly defined.
Role of Amygdala Central Nucleus in Aversive Learning produced by
shock or by unexpected omission of food. Many psychological learning
theories have noted commonalities between aversive states produced by
presentation of negative reinforcers, such as electric shock, and the
omission of expected positive reinforcers, such as food.
Aversive Event is any
stimulus or occurrence that evokes
avoidance or escape behavior.
Aversive
State is a distinct incident of mild pain or
stress caused when an animal is trying to escape. Upon cessation of
the aversive stimuli, the animal tends to recover from the aversive state,
psychologically and neurochemically.
Aversives are
unpleasant stimuli that induce changes
in behavior via negative reinforcement or positive punishment. By applying
an aversive immediately before or after a behavior the likelihood of the
target behavior occurring in the future is reduced. Aversives can vary
from being slightly unpleasant or irritating to physically,
psychologically and/or emotionally damaging. It is not the level of
unpleasantness or intention that matter, but rather the level of
effectiveness the unpleasant event has on changing (decreasing) behavior
that defines something as aversive.
Aversive Music -
Hate Speech
Panic is
a sudden sensation of fear, which is so strong as to dominate or prevent
reason and logical thinking, replacing it with overwhelming feelings of
anxiety and frantic agitation consistent with an animalistic
fight-or-flight reaction. Panic may occur singularly in individuals or
manifest suddenly in large groups as mass panic, which is closely related to
herd behavior.
Body Mind Connections -
Parasites that Reduce Fear
Animals May Smell Your Fear.
Hormones and
Pheromones are chemicals in our bodies that are the result of euphoria,
happiness, sadness, fear, panic and anger. Animals can sense these
chemical odors and interpret them, and thus may have the ability to understand
our feelings.
Scared
Scared is being afraid and fearful of
something or someone, which may cause you to lose
courage.
The only time fear is somewhat enjoyable is during
Horror Films,
Adventurous Activities and
Scaring
Someone.
Fear is a question that you haven't answered yet. Fear of the unknown. An abrupt change that you
were not prepared for. Just because you don't know something or don't have an
answer for something doesn't mean that it should produce fear. If you don't know
something then it should only produce questions, unless you have to
defend yourself, then it's defend first and ask questions later.
Yes, something's can go wrong, and
yes, you can never be totally
aware of everything around you. But it's better to understand something
then it is to fear something. Fear is a question that you should only have to
ask once, otherwise fear will become your enemy, because fear will not prepare
for some appending danger, a danger that may or may not even happen. Fear is a
distraction when you're
Planning and
Preparing. Even your
Adrenalin
needs to be controlled and used wisely. Remember, urgency takes focus, so don't
let fear distract you from your
Focus.
I like to make some of life's challenges
into a
game, this way I'm
not stressed out. I consider certain problems in life as a challenge. So I
can pretend that these challenges are a game or a puzzle that I must
solve. I like to time myself to see how long it takes to solve a
particular problem. I also like to document important information so that
I can use the experience and knowledge again to solve similar problems in
the future.
Stress is one of your biggest enemies.
Appealing
to Fear: A Meta-Analysis of Fear Appeal Effectiveness and Theories
(pdf)
Rhythm of breathing affects memory and fear. The difference between
breathing through the nose and mouth.
Barricade
is any object or structure that creates a barrier or obstacle to control,
block passage or force the flow of traffic in the desired direction.
Adopted as a military term, a barricade denotes any improvised field
fortification, such as on city streets during urban warfare.
Know Thyself -
Phobias -
Anxieties
-
Trauma
-
PTSD
Even though human’s can never totally rid themselves of fear, they should be fully aware of how to
control fear instead of having
Fear Controlling Them.
How the Media makes
people live in Fear
Fear Mongering
(spreading fear)
Appealing to
Fear: A Meta-Analysis of Fear Appeal Effectiveness and Theories (pdf)
How our Politicians
and the Media creates Fear. Making people afraid will not solve our
problems. Making people live in fear just creates more problems and makes
problems worse. We need to inform everyone and empower ourselves with the
knowledge we need to solve every problem that we are facing today. Our
most important investment is the the education of the human mind. And for
any gambler, our intelligence is the best bet that we have. Everyone wins,
even the house, our house.
Fear
Conditioning is a behavioral paradigm in which organisms learn to
predict aversive events.
Social
Conditioning (influencing)
Chilling Effect (law)
Passivity is
allowing others to do things to you without
complaining or
pushing back.
Submission is allowing someone or something
else to
control you.
Control is having
the
power to
influence or
direct people's behavior or the course of events.
Conformity -
Confidence -
Focus -
Self-Discipline
-
Risk Assessments
Your fears can be different then other peoples fears. So
fears are part
personal perception. And fears can be created by
conditioned responses that can
program your behavior, so fears can be a learned behavior.
Mothers Teach Babies their own Fears via Odor
Aggression is a
disposition to behave aggressively. A feeling of
Hostility that arouses thoughts of attack.
Violent Action
that is hostile and usually unprovoked. The act of initiating hostilities.
Anger. Deliberately unfriendly behavior. Very unfavorable to life or growth.
Sports Wisdom
Xenophobes are people who fear
foreigners.
Discrimination -
Bias
-
Bravery -
Facing Danger
"The oldest and
strongest emotion of mankind is fear, and the oldest and strongest kind of fear
is fear of the unknown. So it
makes sense that the more you know the less fear you will have. Keep learning my
friends."
"You are easily scared when you're
young because you don't know enough to understand that fear comes
from not knowing. Once you know and understand something, the fear is gone. This
is why people become more fearless as they experience more.
Reconsolidation Therapy
Exposure
Therapy is just another word for learning. But remember that not being
afraid is not always an accurate measurement of reality.
Memory Failures -
Emotion Regulation
Systematic Desensitization is a type of
cognitive behavior
therapy used in the field of clinical psychology to help many people
effectively overcome phobias and other anxiety disorders that are based on
classical conditioning, and shares the
same elements of both
cognitive
psychology and applied behavior analysis. When used by the behavior
analysts, it is based on radical behaviorism and functional analysis, as
it incorporates counterconditioning principles, such as
meditation (a private behavior/covert
conditioning) and
breathing (which
is a public behavior/overt conditioning). From the cognitive psychology
perspective, however, cognitions and feelings trigger motor actions. The
process of systematic desensitization occurs in three steps. The first
step of systematic desensitization is the identification of an anxiety
inducing stimulus hierarchy. The second step is the learning of relaxation
or coping techniques. When the individual has been taught these skills, he
or she must use them in the third step to react towards and overcome
situations in the established hierarchy of fears. The goal of this process
is for the individual to learn how to cope with, and overcome the fear in
each step of the hierarchy.
Risk Management -
PTSD
Immersion Therapy is a psychological technique which allows a patient
to overcome fears (phobias), but can be used for anxiety, panic, and
sexuality disorders as well. First a fear-hierarchy is created: the
patient is asked a series of questions to determine the level of
discomfort the fear causes in various conditions. Can the patient talk
about the object of their fear, can the patient tolerate a picture of it
or watch a movie which has the object of their fear, can they be in the
same room with the object of their fear, and/or can they be in physical
contact with it? Once these questions have been ordered beginning with
least discomfort to most discomfort, the patient is taught a relaxation
exercise. Such an exercise might be tensing all the muscles in the
patient's body then relaxing them and saying "relax", and then repeating
this process until the patient is calm. Next, the patient is exposed to
the object of their fear in a condition with which they are most
comfortable - such as merely talking about the object of their fear. Then,
while in such an environment, the patient performs the relaxation exercise
until she or he is comfortable at that level. After that, the patient
moves up the hierarchy to the next condition, such as a picture or movie
of the object of fear, and then to the next level in the hierarchy and so
on until the patient is able to cope with the fear directly. Although it
may take several sessions to achieve a resolution, the technique is
regarded as successful. Many research studies are being conducted in
regard to achieving immersion therapy goals in a virtual computer based
program, although results are not conclusive.
Somatic Experiencing is a form of alternative therapy aimed at
relieving the symptoms of
post-traumatic stress
disorder (PTSD) and other mental and physical trauma-related health
problems by focusing on the client's perceived body sensations (or somatic
experiences). Sessions are normally done in person, and involve a client
tracking his or her own experience. Practitioners are often mental health
practitioners such as social workers, psychologists, marriage and family
therapists (MFTs) or psychotherapists, but may also be nurses, physicians,
bodyworkers, physical therapists, chaplains, clergy, or members of other
professions.
Certified practitioners
complete a three-year training course (216 hours of instruction) and must
complete 18 hours of case consultations and 12 hours of personal sessions.
Somatic Experiencing is used for shock trauma in the short term and for
developmental trauma as an adjunct to psychotherapy that may span years.
Somatic Experiencing attempts to promote awareness and release physical
tension that remains in the aftermath of
trauma.
Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing is a form of
psychotherapy in which the person being treated
is asked to recall distressing images while generating one type of
bilateral sensory input, such as side-to-side eye movements or hand
tapping. It is included in several guidelines for the treatment of
post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). The way it might work is uncertain.
Gamma-Aminobutyric Acid is the chief inhibitory neurotransmitter in the
mammalian central nervous system. It plays the principal role in reducing
neuronal excitability throughout the nervous system. In humans, GABA is
also directly responsible for the regulation of muscle tone.
Dendritic
Cell are antigen-presenting cells (also known as accessory cells) of the
mammalian immune system. Their main function is to process antigen
material and present it on the cell surface to the T cells of the immune
system. They act as messengers between the innate and the adaptive
immune systems.
Disrupting Reconsolidation of Fear Memory in Humans by a Noradrenergic
β-Blocker.
Norepinephrine - feeling aware and awake.
Beta
blockers (also β-blockers, beta-adrenergic blocking agents, beta
antagonists, beta-adrenergic antagonists, beta-adrenoreceptor antagonists,
or beta adrenergic receptor antagonists) are a class of drugs that are
particularly used to manage cardiac arrhythmias, and to protect the heart
from a second heart attack (myocardial infarction) after a first heart
attack (secondary prevention). They are also widely used to treat
hypertension, although they are no longer the first choice for initial
treatment of most patients according to current guidelines.
Propranolol is a
medication of the beta blocker type.
Propranolol.
Emotional Memory Reconsolidation Interference. Memory Reconsolidation
Interference as an Emerging Treatment for Emotional Disorders: Strengths,
Limitations, Challenges and Opportunities
Reconsolidation of Maladaptive Memories as a Therapeutic Target:
Pre-Clinical Data and Clinical Approaches
Beyond Extinction: Erasing human fear responses and preventing the
return of fear.
Anxiety.
Berlioz - Symphonie
Fantastique - Dream Of A Witches Sabbath (youtube)
Mouse Scares Man
Silly || ViralHog (youtube)
New Brain Region that Suppresses Fear Identified. A small brain region
in the
thalamus called
the nucleus reuniens plays a role in inhibiting fear in rats. Prior to
this discovery, the region was thought to act primarily as a pathway by
which sensory information travels from the periphery of the brain to the
cortex, the part responsible for performing complex thought.
"Nothing in life is to be feared, it is only to be understood. Now is the time to understand more, so that we may fear less." -
Marie Curie.