Fear

When faced with unexplained phenomena, the witness may experience a variety of emotions: surprise, curiosity, indifference, but most of all - fear. It is typical for people of any age and gender, and not always dependent on their faith in the paranormal, because fear of the unknown is inherent in almost all.

What is fear? According to the Explanatory dictionary of the living great Russian language of Vladimir Dahl: "Fear is a disturbing state of mind from fear, from the imminent or imagined disaster." Psychologist and doctor A. I. Zakharov has defined fear as "an affective (emotionally pointed) reflection in consciousness of a specific threat for life and human welfare".

Thus, fear is a very strong emotional state, relative to the base. It signals the danger depends on many external and internal, congenital or acquired reasons. In essence it is a protective mechanism that serves for realization of the instinct of self-preservation (apart from pain).

A. I. Zakharov also noted that fear is based on the instinct of self-preservation, has a protective nature and is accompanied by physiological changes of higher nervous activity, which is reflected in the frequency of pulse and respiration, blood pressure, secretion of gastric juice.

Physiologically, fear is not much different from other motivational mechanisms and is associated with the excitation of certain neural centers in the brain, which in turn activates the reticular (net) formation. This structure, consisting of twisted and branched nerve fibers, provides a nonspecific arousal of the cortex and other overlying parts of the brain.

Development of a sense of fear is determined by two neural paths which, ideally, operate at the same time:

• The first way allows a person to respond quickly to any danger, but he has a lot of false positives. When this emotional stimulus, reflected in the sensitive nuclei of the optic thalamus, closes on amygdalar the nuclei of the optic thalamus, causing an emotional response.
• When the second path (high, long, cortical) emotional stimulus, reflected in the sensitive nuclei of the optic thalamus, ascends in the sensory region of the cerebral cortex and goes to nucleus amygdala (almond-shaped) complex, forming an emotional response. It allows you to more accurately assess the situation and if the danger signs are assessed as not real, the fear is blocked.

Phobias while the second path is not functioning adequately, which leads to the development of a sense of fear to stimuli that do not carry danger.

Interestingly, fear can be experimentally modeled using electrical stimulation of the so-called motywacyjny centers of the hypothalamus.

When a person gets scared, induces the production of certain hormones and peptides. The most famous hormone is adrenaline (often called "rabbit hormone") and norepinephrine (called, in opposition to the "hormone of the lion").

Adrenaline causes palpitations, constriction of the abdominal vessels, muscles, mucous membranes, promotes relaxation of the muscles of the intestine, dilated pupils, etc. the Main objective of this hormone is to adapt the body to respond to stress. The adrenaline helps to improve the function of skeletal muscle. If this hormone a long time has an effect on the body, increases in size of the myocardium and skeletal muscle.

Norepinephrine is both a hormone and however, a neurotransmitter. Its level also increases under stress, shock and in other similar conditions. Norepinephrine constricts blood vessels and increases blood pressure. The duration of action of norepinephrine in less time than the action of adrenaline.

He and the other hormone cause tremor.

Directly after the definition of a stressful situation, the hypothalamus secretes corticotropin, which, reaching the adrenal glands, encouraging the production of adrenaline and noradrenaline.

Thus, fear activates the body to protect from danger.

Professor Y. V. Shcherbatykh proposed the following classification of fears:

• biological (associated with threat to human life);
• social (fear for change in their social status);
• existential (related to the intelligence and are caused by reflections on issues concerning life, death, and human existence; it is the fear of death, before the time, before the meaninglessness of human existence, etc.)

Fear can also be divided into conventional (short-term) fear, not affecting nature and human behavior, and pathological, characterized by long duration, unsubstantiated and nepoznannogo.

Speaking of pathological fear, it is worth mentioning phobias. It is a mental disorder in which certain situations or objects, relatively non-dangerous, cause anxiety and fear.

But back to the fear of the unknown. Fear of the unknown, the uncontrollable, with no explanation known to mankind for a very long time and inherent nature. It is believed that it is closely connected with the fear of death and lack of control.

Ideas about mystical creatures, of which man is afraid of (or afraid of) originate in childhood. Parents often frighten children of different invented creatures like the Boogie man or the Baba Yaga, which can come for a naughty child. And here the little man is already starting to seem in a dark room, scary silhouettes. With age the flow of information increase, and these mythical characters are replaced by characters of horror movies, spirits and the like.

Afraid of a sudden in a dark room silhouette perfectly normal, but if starts throwing in a shiver from the thought that ghosts, goblins and UFO's exist and can be somewhere near you, then it is a phobia.

Can you give some examples of common phobias:

• Fazmofobiya - fear of ghosts, devils, hobgoblins, devils and other fantastic creatures
• Satanophobia – fear of the otherworldly forces of evil, the fear of the evil forces
• Demonophobia - the fear of the devil, evil forces
• Wiccaphobia – fear of witches and sorcerers

All these fears and phobias can be based on absolutely different situations, but if the case is not moved to the clinical, you can try to deal with this unpleasant condition yourself. How? To start you can also. If we consider the "folk horror" as a reflection of children's fears, an instinctive desire to laugh at them, invent a humorous alternative ending is really working psychological defense mechanism that helps to cope with fear. Also a good way can be considered as an attempt to rationally look at the subject of fear, to assess its real danger and turn the unknown into the known.

Thus, fear is the norm. He takes man from birth to death, giving impetus to the development and movement. Fear is useful, but only in the case when does not acquire pathological traits.

Translated by «Yandex.Translator»