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Fear: The Psychological Theories Of Anxiety

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Anxiety is related to fear. Fear is the emotion we feel when we are faced with something dangerous, whether real or not. Information from any of the five senses — or even just our imagination — can trigger fear, explains Debra Hope. She is a psychologist who specializes in anxiety at the University of Nebraska in Lincoln.

Fear is what kept our ancestors alive when a rustle in the bushes turned out to be a lion. Talk about a useful emotion! Without fear, we wouldn’t even be here today. That is because as soon as the brain detects danger, it starts a cascade of chemical reactions, Hope explains. Nerve cells, also known as neurons, start signaling to each other. The brain releases hormones — chemicals that regulate bodily activities. These particular …show more content…

And it triggers some major changes in physiology, or how the body functions. For instance, blood is shunted away from the fingers, toes and digestive system. That blood then rushes to large muscles in the arms and legs. There, the blood provides the oxygen and nutrients needed to sustain a fight or to beat a hasty retreat.

Sometimes we don’t know if a threat is real. For example, that rustle in the bushes might just be a breeze. Regardless, our bodies don’t take chances. It’s much more prudent to get ready to confront or to flee a perceived threat than to assume all is well and do nothing. Our ancestors survived precisely because they did react, even when threats sometimes didn’t turn out to be real. As a result, evolution has primed4 us to be hyper-responsive to certain situations. That tendency to react to things means that our bodies are doing their jobs. That’s a good thing.

The flip side of the coin, however, is that we can experience fear even when there’s nothing to be afraid of. In fact, this often happens before a triggering event even occurs. This is called anxiety. Think of fear as a response to something as it is happening. Anxiety, on the other hand, comes with the anticipation of something that may (or may not)

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