Fear is one of the most basic human emotions and it is programmed into us, to protect us by alerting us to danger. It is a survival instinct which we are born with, and helps us when we are faced with a dangerous or challenging situation by triggering the “fight or flight” response in our bodies.

The reaction is instantaneous and the brain sends a message to the nervous system which causes several physiological changes to our body, such as, pumping blood to our muscles to prepare us for physical action such as fighting or running away, it increases our heartbeat, increases our blood pressure and speeds up our breathing and our skin sweats to keep us cool.

A feeling of fear can be momentary or it can last longer, and like all emotions, we can feel different intensities of it depending on the situation or the person.

The brain will evaluate the situation and will stay in the “fight or flight” state until it gets enough information to realise there is no danger, and then it switches off the fear reaction.

Fear is merely a warning sign, that alerts us to danger and cautions us to be careful, so when is fear “bad” for us?

Fear can also be an unpleasant feeling of apprehension or distress when you just think something dangerous or frightening might happen.

When we imagine something so vividly, our mind cannot tell the difference between “real” and imagined” and responds as if it were real, producing all the same physiological sensations which you may feel in your stomach, head, chest, legs or hands.

Fear is usually triggered by something that is startling or unexpected, however, it is also used to describe something that we are “afraid” of which causes a phobia.

A phobia is created through fear, and because the fear signal is so intense, you can easily be convinced that the danger is greater than it actually is.

A structure in our brains called the amygdala, tracks all the events or situations that trigger strong emotions in us, and as soon as we encounter that same situation again, or if we even just think about it, it signals our brain to respond with a fear reaction.

A phobia can develop from having an unpleasant or scary encounter with that particular thing or situation. Sometimes though, there may be no specific event that caused the phobia to develop.

Having a phobia is not a weakness, it is simply a learned response which your brain has developed in order to “protect” you from that situation or perceived danger.

If you have a phobia, you probably realize that your fear is irrational even though you still can’t control your feelings.