Dark truths to lightening your skin
These hormones can also boost activity in your heart and lungs, and reduce activity in the stomach and intestines, which explains the feeling of 'butterflies' in the stomach.
There's actually a difference between phobias and fears. Fears are common reactions to events or objects. But a fear becomes a phobia when it interferes with your ability to function and your quality of life.
Fear's role in survival helps explain why it sometimes seems a little trigger-happy. In other words, it makes sense to be a little jumpy if you're in a hostile environment.
If you start taking extreme measures to avoid water, spiders, people, etc., you may have a phobia. At that point, you should consider getting professional help.
Sources: (Medical News Today) (Northwestern Medicine)
The fight-or-flight response makes sense from a survival standpoint, but what happens when we freeze? Indeed, when frightened, most animals freeze for a few moments before they decide what to do next.
Sometimes, staying still is the best plan. For example, if you're a small mammal or if you're well-camouflaged, staying still could save your life.
This explains why people enjoy watching horror movies or go to haunted houses, as their sensible 'thinking brain' can overpower the primal parts, which automate fear response.
Studies have found that freezing releases endorphins, which calms the body and also relieves pain. Also, freezing allows one to block out a scary experience, which may be too difficult to process.
These brain regions help us understand whether our fear response is real and justified, or whether we might have overreacted.
If the hippocampus and prefrontal cortex decide that the fear response is exaggerated, they can dial it back and decrease the amygdala's activity.
A brain region that is heavily involved in memory, the hippocampus, and the prefrontal cortex, which aids high-level decision-making, help control the response to fear.
The pituitary gland then releases adrenocorticotropic hormones (ACTH) into the blood.
At this time, the sympathetic nervous system gives the adrenal gland a nudge, encouraging it to release a dose of epinephrine, also known as adrenaline, and other catecholamines into the bloodstream.
The body also releases cortisol in response to ACTH, which causes a rise in blood pressure, blood sugar, and white blood cells. Circulating cortisol turns fatty acids into energy.
Catecholamine hormones, including epinephrine and norepinephrine, prepare muscles for action if you need to fight or run.
The fight-or-flight response begins in the amygdala, which is a small bundle of neurons that is part of the limbic system. It plays an important role in the processing of emotions, including fear.
When a human's hair stands on end, it makes little difference to their appearance. However, for certain other animals it makes them seem larger and mightier.
The amygdala signals the hypothalamus, which then activates the pituitary gland. The pituitary gland is where the nervous system meets the endocrine, or hormone, system.
Your breathing rate and heart rate increases, peripheral blood vessels constrict, and central blood vessels around vital organs dilate to flood them with oxygen and nutrients.
When we face a fear, levels of glucose in the blood spike, providing a ready store of energy if action arises. Similarly, levels of calcium and white blood cells in the bloodstream increase.
Muscles, including those at the base of each hair, also become tighter, causing piloerection, which we all know as goosebumps.
Also, your muscles are pumped with blood, ready to react to whatever is causing the fear.
People often refer to the physiological changes that occur when a person experiences fear as the fight-or-flight response. This means you'll either stay and fight, or run.
Looking at evolution, fear is ancient, and we can even thank fear for our success as a species.
Any creature that doesn't run and hide from bigger animals or dangerous situations is likely to be removed from the gene pool before it has the chance to procreate.
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This is what happens to your brain and body when you get scared
Understand the science of fear
HEALTH Fear
Fear is an unavoidable aspect of the human experience. Generally considered an unpleasant emotion, some people actually go out of their way to trigger it, be it by jumping out of planes or watching scary movies. Whatever the reason, we feel fear because we see or hear something that makes us anticipate harm. But the question is: what causes the fear response in our bodies and brains?
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