Psychology Of Fear

2024 Author: Harry Day | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-17 15:43

When giving lectures to elderly people, I involuntarily compare how different our pensioners are, "old people" and Europeans. People of the third age - this is what European pensioners are called, who live an active social life. Previously, our compatriots were called pensioners - people aged (over fifty), considered old, they worked less, were sick more and more often “grandmothers and grandfathers”. In the 2000s, the trend changed. Having children after forty is no longer a rare occurrence, and with the development of medicine and information flow, people prolong their youth and undergo training no matter what. As we saw off 2014, we made a metaphorical farewell to fear. I will voice the most often encountered fears of "mature people", what they would like to get rid of forever was the "RATING OF FEARS and vices": - fear, anxiety about children, loved ones; - self-doubt, shyness; - anger, aggression, irritability; - anxiety, suspiciousness; - offense; - fear of loneliness; - laziness; - pride; - fear of poverty, being left homeless; - bad memories.

And they also wanted to get rid of greed, squandering, sacrifice, pain of loss, impressionability, gullibility, fear of losing health, fear of going blind, justification of “sinners”, fear of change, fear of “they don't love me or love me, care less than I want” …

It is customary to consider the following gradation of fear: slight anxiety, anxiety, panic, fear and horror.

Fears are conventionally divided into three groups: biological, social and existential. Biological fears are directly related to the threat to human life or health. In everyday life or in emergency situations, a person has to overcome the dangers that threaten his life, which causes fear, i.e. short-term or long-term emotional process generated by real or perceived danger, alarm signal. Usually fear causes unpleasant sensations, but at the same time it can be a signal for protection, because the main goal facing a person is to stay alive. However, it should be borne in mind that the response to fear can be thoughtless or unconscious human actions caused by panic - a manifestation of severe anxiety.

Social - these are fears and concerns about changing their social status. Fear is a psychological, emotionally "negative" colored reaction to a real or perceived event.

Two necessary conditions for the emergence of fear (not real, "now you are standing on the rails and see a train rushing towards you," but the supposed one): 1. A picture appears (an idea of the event) 2. Belief that the event will happen.

This reaction of the body is not controlled and is genetically inherent. Thanks to her, humanity survived, taking care of its safety. Existential fears are associated with the deep essence of a person and are characteristic of all people, regardless of specific situations.

According to N. Salaté, the “existential given” is a reality that we cannot avoid and that generates in us the anxiety inherent in human destiny. For example, death as an inevitable reality can give rise to fear, denial, depression, etc. You can also perceive existential realities as a source of energy that can produce anxiety, but can also cause joy in life, enthusiasm.

Five main categories are described - the finiteness of being, loneliness, responsibility, imperfection and the search for meaning. Gestalt therapy, in its own paradigm, touched upon each of these topics. This approach examines the mental manifestations that they generate, and how psychotherapy can help in dealing with fears so that each client finds his own answer.

The main responses to fear are attack, flight, or freeze. There are also various defense mechanisms - denial, repression, rationalization, ritualization, and so on.

Frequent and intense experience of fear by a person leads to a mental disorder. Neurosis is a condition caused in most cases by long-term, heavily experienced stressful situations, which, disrupting psychological adaptation, cause depletion of the nervous system (a combination of irritability and increased fatigue), anxiety and autonomic disorders (sweating, palpitations, abnormal stomach function, etc.).

Obsessive, irrational fear associated with a certain object or situation that a person cannot cope with on his own is called a phobia.

Usually people are frightened not by old age itself, but by weakness.

But if a person does not experience such a state, then old age also has its advantages: “An elderly person gets free time, independence, the opportunity to be creative. Goethe said that old age is a golden harvest. Michelangelo worked at the age of 90.

Leo Tolstoy, Repin, Aivazovsky - they are all centenarians. The main thing here is to have a constant load. After all, when athletes leave the sport, the load stops and the muscles immediately sag. Likewise, the brain, if not given a load, a person degrades."

"How to get rid of fears?" the most common question in the work of a psychologist. Below are some guidelines for self research and self-help

1. Recognize fear. Be honest with yourself. You need to really look inside yourself and decide what your fears are and where you think they came from. Many people never go through this very early stage, because they often find it difficult or afraid to admit their perceived shortcomings. Perhaps they consider it a weakness to admit things that do not seem serious enough to them.

2. Acquaintance with fears using the "Fear List" technique Take a piece of paper and write down any fears you may have. If you are afraid of meeting an enemy armed with a knife, this should be written down. Etc. Just be extremely honest to know that this is your only chance to help yourself. After compiling such a list, you need to decide where to start. The first is to choose your least fear, which will be the easiest to deal with. By placing fears in this way, you will easily overcome them one by one. And by the time you get to your biggest fear, you will have the confidence and willpower to deal with it.

3. Exercise "Hierarchy". You place your lowest fear at the bottom of the imaginary fear tree and your highest fear at the top, and thus build a hierarchy from lowest to highest. Then you start with the smallest fear of "working your way up." This method promotes steady progress and confidence building over time. Your next step is to deal with this very first fear.

4. Technique “I can't. I do not want". We have already determined a plan of action, but something prevents us from starting. Look at the problem of the beginning as a fear of failure and change your mindset from "I can't" to "I don't want to." Realizing that you are simply not motivated enough and badly wanted, we change the motto to "I - want", which means "I - can!".

Dealing with our fear is not just an opportunity to be honest with ourselves, but also a way of preparing our bodies to help us deal with the situation more effectively.

Learn to recognize your fears, and when you face them, use them to your advantage. Don't think of fear as fear, think of it as the super fuel that propels you into action.

Why should you be afraid when you have such powerful resources at your disposal?

Try to study your fear and use its energy for your own purposes. In any case, psychotherapists of different directions are ready to help you in your changes. We will be able to jointly develop several "B" plans and this will be a good supporting resource in the future. Come! There is an exit!

“Monsters, generated by reason, are much more terrible than those that actually exist. Fear, doubt and hatred have crippled more people than wild animals. (Christopher Paolini, Eragon. Brisingr). Personal opinion Koshkina Elena