Human fears

Human fears are not a new topic, but they are still relevant today. Initially, human fears helped people survive, they were one of the main instincts, however, they can still help if they are not suppressed, but at least studied.

It is known that human fears are the embodied realization of the instinct of self-preservation, which is on the list of basic, preceding the famous sexual, in fact - the instinct of continuation and reproduction of the race. Considering fear to be a negative emotion, we strive to get rid of it in all possible ways. Much earlier, human fears led to three types of reactions - aggression, that is, attack, flight and freezing (stupor, in animals - anabiosis). If you look into it, modern man still uses these three reactions depending on his mental structure, character traits and social skills. Human fears are different from animals, which are also capable of experiencing this emotion. In animals, everything is simpler, they are not hindered by social attitudes and rules of decency, they react to a negative stimulus almost instantly, which often saves not only their nervous system, but also their lives. Modern man is characterized by the suppression of emotions in principle.

It is believed that the concepts of human fears and "phobias" are identical, but there is a significant difference between them. Fear, as a rule, is a transient phenomenon with the loss of threat: as soon as the danger disappears, is neutralized, and this feeling disappears after it. Phobia is a constant emotion, often not associated with a specific object, situation. From the point of view of psychiatry, psychotherapy - this is a complex of reactions, as a rule, they are obsessive (obsessive), irrational. Its symptoms are very characteristic:

Vegetative reaction – tachycardia, tremor, often nausea, dizziness, increased or decreased blood pressure, often stupor. Such sensations are completely beyond conscious control, even when the object of irrational fear is absent, a phobic reaction can overtake a person at any time, in any place. The trigger can be anything – a smell, associatively causing an unconscious instant memory; thoughts, which, as a rule, are intrusive from the beginning; a color or word, indirectly reminiscent of a previous fear.

What causes human fears?

Why human fears arise has not yet been clarified, but there are several concepts accepted by the medical world.

The famous theory of Sigmund Freud, the founding father of psychoanalysis, states that human fears are a consequence of excessive defense, the repression of hidden and suppressed anxiety. Suppressed emotion, or more often a complex of emotions, is transferred to the outside world and tries to be released with the help of a phobic reaction.

John Watson, the creator of the theory of behaviorism, claimed that human fears are a formed conditioned reflex. If a person experiences fear for the first time, the reaction is fixed, and in the future, constant avoidance of the situation, object leads to a complete loss of control over one's emotions.

The theory of unconscious modeling belongs to A. Bandura, who said that a person learns the perception of a threat from the example of others, usually close people (empathy).

Existentialists – R. May, V. Frankl put forward a theory about the reflection of one’s own powerlessness, alienation and loss of the meaning of life as consequences of depersonalization and loss of individuality.

The humanistic theory, represented by A. Maslow, speaks of phobia as a neurosis. The impossibility of self-realization is presented as the culprit.

Be that as it may, human fears today haunt every eighth inhabitant of the planet, and all these people are little interested in the etiological reasons for their conditions, they just want to get rid of these feelings as soon as possible.

How to treat a person's fears?

Before treating a person's fears, it is necessary to determine the condition that a person calls a panic attack, a phobia, or anxiety. When the emotional state is unstable, it is hardly possible to accurately specify your illness on your own, so you should contact specialists - a clinical psychologist, a psychotherapist. It is desirable that the person to whom the person suffering from fears and phobias turns for help has a medical education. This is due to the need to exclude mental disorders that can also be accompanied by fears. Schizophrenia is sometimes combined with senesthopathy (irrational, objective sensations in the skin), hypochondriacal fears of a person are possible. Depression is accompanied by purely neurotic disorders, adaptation disorders. In addition, panic attacks in ICD-10 are described as an independent unit in the rubric "panic disorder" - F.41.0. Also, a person's fears can be one of the symptoms of a real somatic disease, for example, bronchial asthma or hypertension. Only a correct and accurate diagnosis will help to correctly build a treatment strategy and work on the disease syndrome, and not remove the symptoms.

In addition to drug therapy (minor neuroleptics, anxiolytics, antidepressants), which is certainly effective, positive results are brought by psychotherapy, since its methods and techniques are diverse and supported by centuries of clinical practice. Human fears are effectively treated by cognitive methods, behavioral psychotherapy techniques, body-oriented therapy, psychoanalysis and elements of neurolinguistic programming. Human fears are often treated by the method of systematic desensitization, when a person gradually forms resistance and stability.

Human fears are a phenomenon that requires one of the types of instinctive reactions: run away, attack or freeze. Modern medicine is quite capable of defeating human fears by skillfully “attacking” them. There is no point in choosing the reaction of avoidance or stupor when there are so many effective and efficient methods that help a person live a full life and experience positive emotions.