Fear : A Battle With Ourselves

Fear: A Battle With Ourselves

We see thousands of different things a day. Some of them are meant to make you laugh, some are meant to teach you different things, but what about the ones that make us cringe or affect us in a negative way? The negative things the average person sees in their everyday life are the ones that cause us to develop fears and subconscious thoughts and makes us not want to do the things we should be able to do but can’t due to fear. We develop fear through first hand experiences but we also develop fear through seeing other receiving the bad end of the stick when they’re in a certain situation.

There was a study that was conducted by New York University regarding the way the brain acquires fears indirectly. The study shows the amygdala, a part within the brain that deals with memory, is known to be critical to the acquisition and expression of fears from personal experience, is also involved during the acquisition and expression of fears obtained indirectly through social observation.

Previous research has shown how people develop fears after first-hand experience of a scaring situation like being stung by a bee or bitten by a dog. In acquiring these fears, a process known as fear conditioning, with which the brain’s amygdala plays a critical role. It is, However unclear if fear conditioning can occur by simply watching other people and obtaining zero personal experience. It is also uncertain what brain processes take place in acquiring fears stemming from events or circumstances not experienced first-hand.

Edward Phelps from scientificamerican.com explained that While using brain imaging techniques, researchers found that the way the amygdala responded was about the same with both when either watching a t...

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...ree people from them. Exposure therapy, a form of cognitive-behavior therapy, is widely accepted as the most effective treatment for anxieties and phobias (CDC). During exposure therapy, a person engages with the particular fear to help diminish and ultimately overcome it over time. A person may look at a photograph of the dreaded object or become immersed in the situation he or she loathes. Fortunately, for those plagued by irrational fears, we can treat a phobia rapidly and successfully without necessarily knowing its origin.

Regardless of where your fear may or may not come from, there is no reason to ashamed of having that fear. Fear, is really what makes us human. If one feels the need to try and get over these fears, there are ways, like the one discussed above, that can help you get over being scared and that will allow you to continue on with your life.