What is fear in psychology

We have all felt the paralyzing sensation that produces fear, because it is a normal and natural emotion in many animals, including human beings. But sometimes it can become an obstacle. In this Psychology-online article, What is fear in psychology, We talk about it. You can better understand what fear is and how it works, what it is for and how to differentiate the "good" fear of "bad" fear. You can also discover the main psychological techniques to overcome fear.

1. What is fear? Definition
2. Types of fear in psychology
3. Overcome fear: psychological techniques

What is fear? Definition

Fear is one of the basic emotions And also considered an emotion primary and universal. Fear is an emotion that generates great consequences on the organism and that has been found in people of all the cultures that have been studied. Fear is born in our brain, which originates the body's alarm reaction. The main brain structure in charge of the fear response is the tonsil.

Sometimes, feeling fear is unpleasant, therefore, it has been labeled as a negative emotion. Nothing is further from reality, because feeling emotions is always positive, whatever. All emotions, well regulated and managed are good for us. All emotions have their why and exercise their function. So you will ask:

¿What is fear for?

As we said, if fear is present in all human beings, ¡It is for something! Fear is a mechanism to adapt to the environment and its dangers. Its function is to protect us from risk situations. Fear is activated when it detects a threat, causing us to retire from this situation. This threat can be for our physical integrity or our life, as well as for our reputation, our self -esteem, self -concept or our security, depending on the idea and beliefs we have about it. So fear is an emotion that reacts depending on our mental filters. In short, fear helps us get away from an event that we are not prepared to face.

¿What would happen if fear did not exist? As we have seen, fear has a fundamental function: ensure our survival. If we were not afraid we would die. Without fear, we would act recklessly and put our life in danger, so we would probably die.

For all this, fear is of great importance. It acts as a regulator of our behavior, warning us of the dangers. How would a prudent mother do: fear takes care of us.

Types of fear in psychology

Fear in itself is positive and essential, but sometimes it is a problem. ¿When is fear a problem? When the fear we feel is dysfunctional, that is, when the situation that generates fear is not a real danger, when the consequence of feeling that fear is even worse for us than what would happen if we did not feel fear. Therefore, we can differentiate two types of fear:

• Functional fear, that is activated by a real danger and helps us survive. Functional fear It is adaptive because it allows us to adapt our behavior to situations, in our benefit. This fear is useful because we are alert to a situation that entails some risk and acting for our benefit in dangerous circumstances. For example, the one that makes us not walk through the highway or on the edge of an abyss, or the one that makes us go to the doctor.
• Dysfunctional fear It is one that hinders our life and our normal performance. It is not adaptive nor useful for us. For example, when there is a strong fear of airplanes and that transport is not used, with the consequence of duplicating the time of displacement, in addition to reducing comfort. That fear is not only due to a real danger, but to the set of experiences and beliefs that form the cognitive filter of a person, through which reality is observed and interpreted.

Overcome fear: psychological techniques

¿How can we overcome fear? It is important to know that fear does not disappear, because it is a necessary emotion that goes with us, but we can learn to use it in our favor. Cognitive-behavioral therapy techniques are effective in learning to regulate and manage emotions adaptively, including fear. The important points to overcome fear are:

Cognitive restructuring to overcome fear

First, we can influence these irrational beliefs so that the cognitive filter allows a more adaptive interpretation of reality. That is achieved by detecting automatic thoughts and irrational beliefs, questioning and replacing them with more adaptive thoughts.

Coping

On the other hand, we must stop avoiding situations not to reinforce, perpetuate and aggravate fear. Before a dysfunctional fear, the situation activates a feeling of intense and annoying fear. When we avoid this situation, the discomfort decreases. This sense of relaxation and decrease in discomfort, serves to reinforce avoidance behavior. This is the way in which fear is reinforced, maintained and even aggravated and generalized over time. For this reason it is important to correctly manage dysfunctional fear as soon as possible, so that a phobia does not become. There are different psychological techniques to face fear, the most used are:

• Exposure techniques. They consist of exposing and prolonged to the stimulus that activates fear until activation decreases. The exhibition can be in imagination, live or through virtual reality technological devices. Not only should we expose ourselves to stimuli, but also to the symptoms that psychophysiological activation produces (increase in heart and respiratory rhythm, sweating, tremor, etc.) so as not to develop fear of fear of fear.
• Systematic desensitization. It consists of exposing them to anxious stimuli gradually and progressively, according to a previously established hierarchical list, with the aim of reducing psychophysiological activation.

This article is merely informative, in psychology-online we have no power to make a diagnosis or recommend a treatment. We invite you to go to a psychologist to treat your particular case.

If you want to read more articles similar to What is fear in psychology, We recommend that you enter our category of emotions.