The 8 differences between functional fear and pathological fear

At some point in our lives, we have all experienced episodes of more or less intense fear in function of the experiences that we have had to live or the threatening stimuli that are presented to us present. It is normal for this to be the case, since fear is one of the most basic emotions of the human being and it is something that we experience as a survival mechanism and response to the unknown.

Now, not all versions of this emotion are useful to us; there are some that contribute to wearing down our mental health. Therefore, in this article we will explore the differences between functional fear and pathological fear, taking into account that the second is closely linked to anxiety disorders such as phobias.

• Related article: "Emotional psychology: main theories of emotion"

How to distinguish between pathological fear and functional fear?

It is important to bear in mind that fear is a psychophysiological response resulting from natural selection; animals that are incapable of experiencing this emotion have a handicap that makes it difficult for them to survive long enough enough to reproduce, since they are devoid of an important instinctive tendency to move away from what could be very dangerous. Thus,

in vertebrates, the inability to experience fear is considered a health problem.

For this reason, fear is so important, since it has allowed us to avoid all kinds of threats since we were children; It is a survival mechanism that has been vitally important for our species. The few individuals who do not experience the emotion of fear are considered to have a neurological problem, caused by brain injury or a malformation in the brain.

However, it is essential to know the differences between pathological fear and functional fear, because there are cases in which, without meaning to, we internalize dysfunctional ways of managing this emotion; ways that place us in a vicious circle of anguish and anxiety, since our predictions about what happen to us make us incapable of learning which situations are truly dangerous and which are not. are.

1. functional fear

Functional fear is the "normal" fear that people experience throughout our lives in situations that pose a real threat to us. It is an adaptive fear that allows us to successfully overcome the various risks and dangers that can happen to us on a daily basis..

Functional fear only generates a feeling of loss of control over the body in situations of serious imminent danger, and physiologically we helps to set in motion a series of organic processes that allow us to quickly flee from that threatening stimulus or confront it in a way adequate.

Another characteristic of functional fear is that it allows us to act quickly and without thinking, something that It is very useful in cases in which the response must be immediate and proportional to the type of threat that we experience.

In addition to that, this functional or normal fear is transient and temporary, and has a determined duration attached to the time in which the stimulus poses a threat to us. Once this threat is overcome, the fear disappears and we return to the normal state..

Functional fear is a biological equipment that human beings have had since the dawn of our species, something without which we could hardly have survived until today.

• You may be interested in: "What is fear for?"

2. pathological fear

Pathological fear does not consist of a normal biophysiological reaction to a stimulus that poses a real threat to the individual, but is rather related to the development of states of fear or terror in the face of certain life situations that are experienced as threatening by the person when in reality they do not imply any actual danger.

Unlike what happened in cases of normal or adaptive fear, pathological fear makes us lose control in a determined situation but it does not allow us to act adaptively to the demands of the threat experienced, but rather blocks and makes it impossible for us to react logically to any situation.

This type of pathological fear makes us more prone to harboring paranoid-type thoughts in which we assumes that any stimulus is a danger signal, even when assuming that implies taking too many for granted things.

Pathological fear makes us afraid of fear itself, which ends up causing us to develop anxiety problems and other pathologies that directly affect our mental health.

In conclusion, we can define pathological fear as a maladaptive response that some people develop by generalizing the fear response in situations where it does not provide any benefit or is useful in any way manner.

Besides that, in these cases self-fulfilling prophecy is also common, a phenomenon that occurs when the person fears suffering states of anxiety or fear in certain situations and ends up experiencing that same feared problem.

• Related article: "Types of Anxiety Disorders and their characteristics"

Summary of the differences between functional fear and pathological fear

So, ultimately, the key ideas to take into account to differentiate between normal fear and pathological fear are the following:

• Pathological fear is based on anticipatory anxiety
• Functional fear is based on a risk analysis informed by experience and reason.
• Pathological fear prevents us from seeing that we were wrong by exaggerating the risks.
• Functional fear allows us to assess when we overreact to stimuli.
• Pathological fear may be based on widely believed superstitions.
• Functional fear does not let superstitions condition us much.
• Pathological fear can be caused by dysfunctions of the brain (especially in the amygdala of each cerebral hemisphere).
• In functional fear, there are no alterations in the amygdala.
• In pathological fear, the apparent trigger changes arbitrarily.
• In normal fear, when the specific danger or risk disappears, this emotion is extinguished.

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