Fear is a primary emotion fundamental for survival, in fact, without the possibility of recognizing and reacting to dangerous situations the species could become extinct. For example: the typical fear of strangers that emerges in children around the first year of life has the function of maintaining closeness between the newborn and their parent. The fear expressed through the crying of the child has the purpose of recalling the adult who allows his survival.
In fact, when faced with danger, our body produces a hormone, adrenaline, which induces physical and mental changes and which trigger the fight or flight reaction. If we take a step back in time we can understand the adaptive value of this emotion: fear protected our ancestors from wild animals or hostile neighbors.
Today the stimuli that scare us are no longer large lions or nearby invasions, but rather the loss of a job, a change of life or the accumulation of daily problems. However, bodily changes, thinking and behavioral reactions remain the same as our ancestors. Fear therefore has, like all emotions, a usefulness for man, warning him against dangers. However, it becomes a problem when it is experienced in an exaggerated way or out of context.
The main reactions when faced with a fearful stimulus are attack, flight or immobilization:
- the attack allows us to face the obstacle, to fight it;
- escape leads us to abandon the situation before it becomes excessively threatening to our survival,
- freezing, literally freezing, is a tonic immobility, the living being actually seems frozen, which allows you not to be seen by the "predator" while evaluating which strategy (attack or escape) to adopt.
Bodily reactions of fear include:
- dry mouth,
- increased heart rate (tachycardia),
- shortness of breath,
- gastrointestinal symptoms,
- muscle tension,
- increased sweating
- increase in body temperature,
- heachache,
- shoulder and chest pain,
- sensations of nausea,
Our body is preparing for an immediate reaction. Without such changes, in fact, we would be completely inadequate to face the danger.
It can be said that fear and anxiety are two sides of the same coin. But what are the differences?
In the first case, when we feel fear, we are frightened by something real and once the threat ceases, it disappears. If we had to take an exam, it is normal to be afraid. Anxiety, on the other hand, can be activated in relation to a perceived threat, that is, not tangible and shared, often vague and ill-defined. By involving our ability to anticipate and predict events, anxiety can also manifest itself in advance of any dangers and persist even in the absence of a real threat.
To summarize this concept, we could define anxiety as the emotion that anticipates danger, fear as that which accompanies it.
Even in anxiety you experience a series of physiological changes similar to those of fear: dizziness, dizziness, sense of confusion, shortness of breath, sense of constriction or chest pain, blurred vision, sense of unreality, the heart beats hastily or skips a beat, loss of sensation or tingling in the fingers, cold hands and feet, sweat, muscle stiffness, headache, muscle cramps, fear of going crazy or losing control. In short, a very intense experience that can be very scary.