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 Aurelius

Faint 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.