What is fear? Characteristics of this emotion

We have all felt fear at some point, a totally normal, basic and fundamental emotion for our survival. It is not only presented by humans, but also by other mammals and most vertebrates.

We feel fear when there is a threat nearby, something that could do us a lot of harm. Thus, if it were not for this emotion, we could hardly live. Who does not avoid what can hurt him, ends up very harmed or, worse, dead.

What exactly is fear? We will answer this question below.

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What is fear?

Although it is still a subject of debate, it is assumed from experimental psychology that the human being possesses six primary emotions, apparently codified in our genetic code and universal calls: joy, surprise, anger, sadness, disgust and, the one that concerns us today, the fear. They are not the only emotions, since each culture has a particular emotional repertoire, evidenced in a specific vocabulary for emotions that other languages ​​do not seem to possess (p. g., Portuguese saudades, German Sehnsucht, Galician homesickness…).

Fear is a basic and primary emotion, present in all cultures on the planet. And not only do we find it in the human species, but it can also be found in other mammals, in addition to other animal species. This has a lot of reason to be because, from an evolutionary perspective, it is fear that makes us survive, that we avoid what hurts us. It is an uncomfortable emotion, unpleasant to feel, but necessary to avoid dying, basically.

If we did not feel fear, it would be very difficult for us to survive in a world in which, no matter how much In the case of people who live in developed societies, we are surrounded by all kinds of threats. In the past, in times of Homo sapiens prehistoric, human beings who lived in contact with nature and at its total mercy, being afraid was absolutely necessary. The man who was not afraid was a dead man.

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What is this emotion for?

Although we have already suggested it in the previous section, we will repeat it again: fear, the "healthy" one, is used to survive. Despite this fact, In our society, fear, along with emotions such as anger and disgust, are viewed as negative and therefore should be avoided at all costs.. Fear is linked to unhappiness, and since we are bombarded with the idea that we should be happy all the time, fear is a weakness that needs to be eradicated. However, this vision could be described as unnatural. If fear is found in all the cultures of the world and even in other species, it will be for a reason.

The fear it is an adaptive mechanism, something that helps us to identify possible threats and flee before giving them the opportunity to do us real harm. It helps us to react quickly to potentially dangerous situations. This threat does not have to be only physical, harmful to our body (p. g., a lion attack), but can also imply a psychological threat, attacking our self-esteem or self-concept.

Thus, although unpleasant, fear fulfills the function of protecting us from possible threats, which in itself can be conceived as something positive. It helps us to move away from a danger for which we are not prepared or we do not have the possibility of being victorious in case we face it.

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When does fear become a problem?

The current mentality about emotions is that, although there are some that are more pleasant than others, they should not be conceived in terms of “positive” and “negative”. All of them are positive insofar as they are adaptive. Feeling them is always positive because they are useful to us and we must feel them freely instead of repressing them or trying to control them. But, as happens with the rest of the emotions, it can happen that fear becomes a problem, a symptom of a psychopathological process.

Fear becomes problematic when our beliefs and interpretations cause us to feel it in an exaggerated way and dysfunctional, making what happens as a result of feeling that fear much worse than what would happen otherwise. feel it That is, it does not help us, but rather becomes something disadvantageous and maladaptive. If this happens, we would be talking about a mental disorder or, at the very least, a psychological problem.

We have a context in which fear is clearly problematic as a symptom of many anxiety disorders, especially phobias. Although in some of them what causes pathological fear has a certain meaning to be feared, the truth is that We speak of a phobia when the phobic reaction, the fear, is more serious than the threat is supposed to be..

Phobias are mainly divided into three large groups.

specific phobias

Specific phobias, as their name suggests, is being afraid of something in particular.. This "something" can be a situation, animal, blood or meteorological phenomena, among others. Some examples:

• Arachnophobia: fear of spiders and similar arthropods.
• Cynophobia: fear of dogs.
• Dentophobia: fear of the dentist.
• Coulrophobia: fear of clowns.
• Trypophobia: fear or disgust of repetitive patterns.
• Thurophobia: irrational fear of cheese.

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Social phobia or social anxiety disorder

In this anxiety disorder the star symptom is a persistent fear of one or more social situations for fear that the subject is immersed in an embarrassing situation. People who have this type of fear fear public speaking, parties, starting a conversation, or eating and drinking in public.

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Agoraphobia

Although socially understood as the fear of open spaces, the truth is that this idea does not fully correspond to what agoraphobia is. This disorder involves a pathological fear of being in a situation in which the patient believes that, in the event of a problem, he cannot be helped or escape from it. Thus, people with agoraphobia are not only afraid of being in open spaces with large crowds, but also They may also be afraid of being alone at home and, for example, eating, choking and no one can to help.

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Conclution

As we have seen, fear is a basic and fundamental emotion for our survival. We can't live without fear. Despite being told the opposite, that fear brings unhappiness, the truth is that our happiness and Well-being depends a lot on it, because not being afraid of things that could harm us is taking the risk that they can harm us. to affect. Fear helps us avoid the dangers that life throws at us, as long as it is a functional fear. If, on the other hand, fear deprives us of opportunities and does us more harm than good, that is when we must remove it from our lives.