Rational and Irrational Fear and Their Causes

You stroll along the poorly lit sidewalk; the air, brisk and the night, dark; a crescent moon faintly glows in the cloudy night sky. You hear a noise behind you—look quickly back—see nothing and continue on at a slightly faster pace. You hear another noise behind you—snap your head back, eyes searching—again nothing, but even so you pick up the pace. Heart pounding, blood pumping, you now start to run. Another noise. Not bothering to even look, you tear down the sidewalk in blind terror, fear gripping you with its dark, bone chilling fingers.

Fear. From slight anxiety to heart pounding terror, everyone has felt varying degrees of it. Fear is defined as a distressing emotion aroused by impending danger, evil, pain, etc., whether the threat is real or imagined; the feeling or condition of being afraid. Many humans believe fear to be a single, indivisible emotion; however, fear can in fact be divided into two main categories: rational fear and irrational fear, each with their own respective causes and effects. 

The first fear, rational fear, deals with healthy fears that have an amazing amount of usefulness for survival, such as fears that mainly involve fear of sustaining bodily injuries. Healthy fear keeps you alive and well, alert and energized. This rational fear stems from our genetics, in other words it originates from the human brain. There are a number of things that we are hardwired with, and many of them are associated with both mammals or with primates. We are afraid of heights. We are afraid of dark places, not just darkness but dark places. We are afraid of loud sounds - that whole startled response that all of us would have. And then we are afraid of certain animals. Snakes are something that we are instinctively afraid of. It's just hardwired right on in there.

Rational fears, unlike irrational fears, work with the human fight or flight response to danger. When a human sees something that it fears then the human mind will start its instinctive processes to prepare the body “to help you survive a dangerous situation by preparing you to either run for your life or fight for your life (thus the term "fight or flight"). Fear – and the fight-or-flight response in particular – is an instinct that every animal possesses”. The flight or fight response to fear has an extreme affect on the human body. The body’s physical reactions to rational fear include:

·         Secretion of adrenalin

·         Release of sugar from reserves in the liver

·         Increased sweating

·         Diversion of blood flow from the digestive tract to the skeletal muscles

·         Cessation of digestive precesses

·         Acceleration of heart and lung action

·         Inhibition of stomach and intestinal action

·         General effect on the sphincters of the body

·         Constriction of blood vessels in many parts of the body

·         Liberation of nutrients for muscular action

·         Dilation of blood vessels for muscles

·         Inhibition of Lacrimal gland (responsible for tear production) and salivation

·         Dilation of pupils

·         Relaxation of bladder

·         Auditory Exclusion (loss of hearing)

·         Tunnel Vision (loss of peripheral vision)

One can see that these physical responses together have the ability to aid in self-preservation greatly. Rational fears protect people from dangers.

Unlike rational fears which protect people, irrational fears serve no useful purpose. Irrational fear, also known as an unhealthy fear or a phobia, is a persistent, abnormal, and irrational fear of a specific thing or situation that compels one to avoid it, despite the awareness and reassurance that it is not dangerous. Also known as learned or conditioned fears, phobias can have a great variety of causes, with the most common comprising of: traumatic events, a combination of genetic predisposition mixed with environmental and social causes, social component[s], or cultural influences, and danger being associated to things and situations that we cannot prevent or control. 

To clarify, traumatic events can include anything from a life threatening situation to a extremely terrifying one. Many people’s phobias come from traumatic events. Genetic predisposition mixed with environmental and social causes means that humans are more genetically inclined to fear certain things, such as spiders or snakes, the only thing required—a so-called push in the right direction—comes from seeing people acting fearful of things.

The social component cause usually comes from observing others, nearly always as a child, acting fearful of specific things. Children learn from observing others, their sponge-like minds absorbing everything, including other’s behaviors. Because of this, when children see others acting fearful of certain things their minds automatically analyze and store that information for later utilization when they encounter that specific thing.

Cultural influences, similar to social components, involve social influences in cultures. For instance some people growing up in a particular culture may or may not fear things because their culture either did or didn’t fear things. Many people grow up in cultures that do not fear things that others from different cultures shudder at the thought of. People in cultures in South American jungles do not fear the large insects and reptiles that inhabit the jungles because they grew up with them and the other people they grew up with didn’t feel alarmed by them; so why should they? A fine case for the cultural influences comes from a phobia only known in Japan. The phobia, taijin kyofusho, encompasses the fears of offending and/or embarrassing others by showing excessive modesty or respect. One could see that this phobia dwells only in Japan because of the country’s focus on honor, modesty, and respect.

Phobias are also caused by people fearing things or situations which they have no control over or that they cannot prevent; two excellent illustrations include: claustrophobia, the fear of confined spaces, and aviophobia, the fear of flying. This usually comes from the person experiencing a terrifying event which they had no control over.

The effects of irrational fear on people can range from the slight to the extremely severe. The effects of irrational fear differ from the fight or flight response effects of rational fear. The effects of irrational fear on a person include:

·         Shortness of breath or smothering sensation

·         Palpitations, pounding heart, or accelerated heart rate

·         Chest pain or discomfort

·         Trembling or shaking

·         Feeling of choking

·         Sweating

·         Nausea or stomach distress

·         Feeling unsteady, dizzy, lightheaded, or faint

·         Feelings of unreality or of being detached from yourself

·         Fear of losing control or going crazy

·         Fear of dying

·         Numbness or tingling sensations

·         Hot or cold flashes

·         Fear of fainting

The human mind embeds irrational fears in itself as a type of survival template for later utilization, but unfortunately these survival templates are usually detrimental to the user, causing unnecessary fear. Many people live their entire lives suffering from their phobias. These people know that their phobias are irrational and unnecessary, but that does not stop their fear. Phobias can be cured, but it depends on how well the person’s mind responds to treatment. Because some minds do not respond well to phobia treatment, some are either forced to simply endure it for the rest of their lives or until a treatment comes along that can cure it.

To conclude and to recapitulate, there exist two types of fears: the healthy and useful fear, rational fear and its opposite, the detrimental and impractical irrational fear. Rational fear works with the fight or flight response to help ensure the survival of the human body. Much more complicated and harder to define, irrational fear exists as that extreme terror, that slight anxiety, that phobia that has no real purpose, logical thought, or reasoning behind it. It lives as that monster under your bed, that unknown entity in the dark, that thing watching you when no one’s around. Rational fear and irrational fear both come together to form that thing we call fear, that basic human instinct, a part of us. Fear will never leave us.