The Fear Reflex
Dave Parkin
Transformational Leader - Management Consultant, specialising in Consultancy, C-Level Advisory, Transformation, Behavioural Change, and Managed IT Services
Fear is an elemental human response. This ancient, innate reflex mechanism traces its origins to mankind’s earliest days, when humans were small, scared mammals living on the savannah and in dark jungles, always looking over their shoulders and hiding from all sorts of danger. These early humans knew they were prey for ferocious beasts and aggressive, marauding enemies from other clans. The fear reflex alerted and protected them. Although humans have evolved since those early days, both real and imagined danger still triggers the fear reflex.
“That we have to be on guard all the time is a...vestige of our ancient limbic survival response, as if we had never left the jungle.”
The fear reflex is so elemental that even aroma can trigger it. In an experiment to establish that the smell of fear exists and is detectable and persuasive, Dutch scientists had male test subjects watch scary movies. Afterward, the researchers took a sample of sweat from each subject. The test subjects had followed a strict two-day regimen prior to the screening to avoid odiferous foods and to use only “scent-free shampoo, soap and deodorant.” They wore special T-shirts with strategically located “absorbent gauze” to capture their perspiration. After collecting the first sample, the researchers replaced the gauze and had the men watch a soothing BBC documentary about Yellowstone National Park. The scientists repeated the process of collecting the gauze after each movie numerous times to isolate the chemicals associated with fear.
“Fear, like a screaming siren, can catapult us into action for the sake of life itself.”
The scientists had women smell the gauze samples. They exhibited physical disgust when smelling the normally sweaty gauze associated with the documentary, but showed symptoms of physical fear – widened eyes, flared noses, fearful looks – when smelling the sweat samples from men who watched the scary movie. The women had nothing to fear, yet they registered the fear that the test subjects felt by smelling their sweat – clearly showing fear’s remarkable potency.
“Fear is bred through a primitive worry that at any time we may be vulnerable to attack and not be able to fend off danger.”
Results of this unusual experiment show that during prehistoric times, members of the same tribe communicated silently with each other through olfactory signals about imminent dangers. Consider the members of a tribe hiding in a dark cave. One becomes alert to the nearby presence of a dangerous predator in a situation where making any sounds to communicate could result in death or injury. But prehistoric people could smell the fear emanating from their brethren, and so can modern human beings. Today – when most lives are not daily struggles to avoid being eaten by fearsome beasts – humans’ ancient fear reflex, while still useful, can be counterproductive. The ancient “flight and fight and freeze” response is no longer appropriate for many of the fears people worry about today, including a host of imaginary dangers.
Self-Worth
Rational fear can save your life. It can prevent you from being burned in a fire or killed by a truck. Fear can prompt you to avoid dangerous places or to decide not to take addictive drugs. Contemporary people often suffer unjustified fears, based on imaginary dangers or hypothetical situations that never materialize. Although such unrealistic events pose no actual danger, they still fire up the brain’s primitive and protective limbic system. Today, what matters is how people deal with fear, and that often depends on a person’s answer to the question, “Do I have value?”
“There is nothing wrong with fear: It’s what you do with it that can get you into trouble. Our fear reflex can activate just as intensely when danger is not real at all but simply imagined.”
People who lack self-worth act out in numerous self-defeating ways based on irrational fears. They suppress their true feelings. They constantly worry about their supposed inadequacies. They lose their temper and strike out in anger. They retreat within themselves and fail to make friends. In contrast, people who value themselves – and who feel valued by their associates – more easily learn to overcome their fears, no matter how irrational or frightening. Understanding the fear reflex can enable them to “reframe and contain” their fears. Because they can manage the fear reflex and accept themselves as “imperfect,” they can achieve “safety, happiness and success.”
“Fears...are based on the anticipation of an event. Memory is about the past, but anticipation is about the future.”
Current psychological theory works against such positive outcomes. Behavioral-treatment professionals label some fearful individuals as “sick” and regard their actions as pathological. They assume certain people are “broken” and need fixing. This counterproductive labeling doesn’t help frightened people deal with their fears.
The I-M Approach
Instead of categorizing fearful people as broken and ill, view them as simply trying to do their best and potentially able to do better if their “internal and external environments” improve. Often, if you can “change the environment,” you can “change the response.” The “iMaximum resiliency-based approach” (I-M) teaches you to tell yourself, “I am at my maximum, doing the best I can in this situation at this moment in time,” and, you deserve respect. This message builds protective self-confidence and a sense of being in control.
“Anticipation is a function of the PFC. We are always fluidly, unconsciously assessing risk...Do I ask that boy or girl out? Do I apply for that new job.”
When you are at your I-M or “current maximum potential,” you can respect yourself even when you are fearful, rather than becoming angry and excoriating yourself for being afraid. Shifting to self-respect enables you to maximize your strengths and function at your peak. I-M can help you minimize unreasonable fear and can fuel the courage you need to cope with realistic fear. By adjusting your I-M’s reach moment to moment as circumstances change, you will come to understand that you are responsible for your feelings and you control them – including fear. You will gain self-respect. And, you will learn to set aside anger, because anger turned inward leads to fear. When you’re armed with the I-M approach, your negative feelings can’t take over.
“Human beings are not designed to have no fear at all, as fear itself is protective. It is what we do with our fear that can get us in trouble.”
Maximized people don’t run when their fear reflex triggers; they understand they are responsible for their fear and that with such responsibility comes control. They know they can use self-confidence to conquer their fears. That is “the whole basis of the I-M approach,” which offers a road map that shows people why they act certain ways.
“Being afraid decreases our ability to appreciate what someone else is thinking or feeling.”
Using I-M, people can accept that they are performing now at their maximum potential and doing their best, but that they’re still imperfect and so are other people. Self-respect and respect for others are essential to building your I-M. An examination of the word “respect” helps explain why it’s crucial to I-M’s philosophy. Respect has two syllables: “re” meaning again and “spect” – “as in the word inspect – meaning look.” In other words, look anew at what you do and why you do it. Try to examine your actions “without judgment, but with wonder, curiosity and interest.” When you recognize patterns you follow when you succumb to fear or anger, you can gain a clearer perspective that will enable you to modify how you respond to fear and to conquer it.
“Parenting is...the scariest journey...and one in which all the domains of a person’s I-M are widely stressed.”
I-M is active in four domains that interact continually. The first two are internal, in your body, and the second two involve external influences:
1. “The Biological Domain”
Understanding how fear affects the brain enables you to deal effectively with being afraid. The limbic system is the portion of the brain most attuned to fear; it’s responsible for the “fight-flight response.” The prefrontal cortex (PFC) enables rational thought and decision making. Dealing effectively with fear involves letting your PFC dominate and downplaying the panicked danger signals the limbic system emits. The adrenocorticotropic hormone (ACTH) sparks the release of two chemicals – adrenaline and cortisol – in the body. These chemicals change your breathing rate and maximize your heart rate to power the muscles you need to run or to fight.
2. “The Ic Domain”
The Ic Domain – or “I See” – relates to how you see yourself and how you imagine others perceive you. What you think of yourself greatly influences how you deal with fear. Everyone has an innate “Theory of Mind” (ToM), an ability to understand how other people view the world. This “PFC function” enables you to interact socially and helps you determine how others see you.
“Approaching and confronting one’s fear takes enormous courage because the very feeling we are trying to explore is compelling us to run as it activates our flight response.”
The Ic domain also draws on a bodily chemical, oxytocin, which affects emotion. Known as the “cuddle chemical,” oxytocin makes people feel good. You can immediately make people feel better about themselves and send oxytocin through their systems by complimenting them or showing that you care about them. These positive feelings help people deal with fear, not only in the physical realm but also their fear of rejection, the Ic domain’s focus. The more you value yourself and others, the more open you are to fellowship, which means less rejection, and less fear.
3. “The Home Domain”
What happens in the home during childhood exerts a tremendous influence, including shaping what makes people fearful. Parents play a huge role in transforming their children into adults. For example, if a dentist frightens a parent, children often exhibit the parents’ fear of the dentist. One important step is to face your fears directly. For example, if a fear of dentists from childhood still worries you, speak with your dentist who may be able to instill more trust into your relationship.
“Appropriate and rational fear can be a lifesaver; irrational fear can stifle your creativity.”
Do unreasonable fears you picked up during childhood plague you as an adult? If so, use cognitive-behavioral therapy, specifically the “Four R’s” technique, to recognize and manage these fears. The four R’s can help you deal with your elemental reflex fear and puts your PFC – not your primitive limbic system – in charge of your brain functions:
- “Recognize” – Acknowledge your fear and anxiety. Accept and face your feelings.
- “Rate” – Grade your anxiety from 1 to 10, with 10 being the worst.
- “Remember” – Hold onto the fact that anxiety comes and goes. Most people find comfort in knowing that anxiety eventually will dissipate.
- “Reflect” – Consider what scares you. Then think of something that makes you feel better. Change your thinking to eliminate your fear.
“For every thought that makes you anxious, you can construct an opposite thought to decrease anxiety and the fear that feeds it.”
Of course, some childhood fears are reasonable, not unreasonable, and some children sadly do face trauma and abuse that haunts them in adulthood. People can’t just get over some things, but they may need to “come to terms with them to move forward to a different I-M,” which could depend on seeing their own real worth, and value and strengthening their self-respect.
4. “The Social Domain”
Stories in the media regarding news or entertainment dominate the social realm. “Regardless of the validity of the reports, whether it’s Halloween dangers, sexual predators in our neighborhood, invasions of diseases like the Ebola virus or violence in our schools, media-induced fears are pervasive.” The content of these stories influences what people think and feel and what makes them afraid. Many news stories go out of their way to “exaggerate dangers – for entertainment value and to make money.” In so doing, they promote irrational fear. I-M’s essential bedrock is trust; by trusting others, you can drain the relevance from many media-induced fears, especially the fear of other groups of people.
Knowledge and Insight
The I-M approach calls for developing knowledge and insight to enable you to move from “reflexive and limbic” thinking “to reflective and prefrontal.” It offers five strategies for dealing with fear:
- Conquer fear of rejection by connecting in meaningful ways with others. Draw from their respect, approval and acceptance.
- Learn to change fear to trust.
- Learn how the biological fear reflex affects you so you can understand your reactions.
- Study how the media, society and social groups create and promote fear.
- Explore what took place in your home during your childhood and which fears may endure from that time.
“Fear is the main source of superstition and one of the main sources of cruelty. To conquer fear is the beginning of wisdom.” (Bertrand Russell, in Unpopular Essays)
I-M depends on respect and trust; it helps you approach the world with curiosity, interest and wonder. With I-M, you can learn to withhold judgment, especially the fear fueling self-judgment. Use it consciously to increase your belief in your value and escape your fears.
Bentley Moore Executive
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About the Authors
Harvard Medical School psychiatry instructor Joseph Shrand, MD, is board certified in adult psychiatry, addiction medicine, and child and adolescent psychiatry. Leigh Devine, MS, is a journalist, writer and producer.