Complete Idiot's Guide to Conquering Fear and Anxiety

Page 9Some fears, such as the fear of snakes or mice, are learned. Other fears are innate­pre­programmed by biological evolution to prepare us to react defensively topotential danger. These are:Darkness, which makes us less aware of dangerBeing alone, because we lose the protection of othersLoud, close, and sudden noises, which indicate possible predatorsLoss of physical support, leaving us vulnerable to fallingStrangers, who might harm usHeights, from which we could fallYour brain automatically interprets any of these conditions as a potential disaster waiting to happen and then evaluates the situation as either "safe" or "dangerous." Ifevaluated as dangerous, you feel apprehensive or fearful. The more clustered these conditions, the more unsafe and anxious you feel. Children, for instance, dislikesleeping in their own room because that summons two innate fears: the dark and being alone. Add noise from a thunderstorm, a parental fight, gunshots or theneighbor's car alarm, and all their protective responses get jostled. Nor, at a gut level, does this change except in degree.In most people, the degree of autonomic arousal you experience matches the degree of threat you encounter. When mildly threatened, say by an impending visit fromyour mother­in­law, you feel slight agitation. In situations that could be perceived as more dangerous, like when your BMW runs out of gas and rolls to a stop in frontof a biker bar, your heart rate and respiration intensify, along with the tightening of your gut and the tensing of your muscles. If the situation becomes imminentlydangerous­someone is pointing a gun in our face­you feel sheer terror and an overwhelming need to escape. This is normal and helps you to take necessary action toflee a potential foe or perilous situation.But sometimes your level of agitation is exaggerated. Remember a frightened Woody Allen trying to pummel two spiders in the bathtub with a tennis racket in themovie Annie Hall. When your response is magnified beyond reason, fear becomes no longer useful but potentially debilitating.Master or Slave to FearWhen real fears match the perceived danger of any particular situation, and imagined fears are kept neatly in check, you are able to meet life head on.But when the actual becomes unrealistically terrifying and (or) the imagined becomes the dreaded, your fears take command of your will