1. What is fear?
2. What causes fear?
3. What are some physical signs of fear?
4. How do you get over fear?

This can be just general scientific answers or personal answers. I need someone elses points of view.

31pumpkin

Fear is an emotional response to a consciously recognized internal/external source that is perceived as dangerous. No doubt many "fears" are realisticly healthy and keep us from danger. All the physical findings have been mentioned r/t fear response. The concern becomes a factor when a person cannot cope effectively -a decrease in control, objectivity, and judgment occurs when fear is experienced resulting in personality disorganization and impaired ability to maintain self-care(grooming,eating,etc.)
Psychological / developmental factors can include:
Childhood fears, nightmares, past experiences and memories, patterns of pessimism/persistent worry.
Since Val gave a good description and her own prescription, I will only add that the emotions felt with fear are manageable.One can learn coping techniques and can correct distorted perceptions. And yes, perfect love cast out all fear. This is even a Biblical statement.
It is useful to differentiate fear from anxiety as fear is often short-lived in response to a specific threat, whereas anxiety is more vague and chronic.
Also the fight-or-flight response is the sympathetic nervous system actually setting up the body for actual physical mobilization from a threat.
Anxiety is described in levels. Mild- which is good- increases our alertness & motivation and ability to cope with daily problems. Then it gets maladaptive- moderate, severe, and panic. These 3 can be dealt with with effective management.
Anxiety- is the uncomfortable feeling of tension or dread that is unconnected to a specific stimulus; it can be vague or intense.

aqua@home

Thanks pumpkin, I haven't heard from you in a while. I see what you are saying about the emotions related to fear being manageable. I knew about perfect love and it's ability to cast out all fear. Thanks for your input.

Honestly I don't think coping is the answer. As said before, I think a person should recognize the problem that is causing them the fear or anxiety and deal with it. I know, I know...easier said than done.

jurplesman

Val gave a good description about the distinction between real fear and imagined fear.

I would like to elaborate on this using knowledge of biology as to what happens when we experience fear.

When we are faced with a tiger, or we encounter any kind of trauma, grief, rejection of a loved one and so forth, the body floods the system with adrenaline, the fear hormone. Adrenaline helps us to deal with the 'problem'.

Adrenaline activates the Sympathetic Nervous System (SNS) which is a sub-branch of the Autonomic Nervous System.

It controls specific bodily organs to prepare us for fight or flight. These reactions are beyond control of our consciousness.
The SNS dilates pupils of our eyes, shuts down the digestive organs, increases heart palpitations, relaxes the smooth muscles of bronchi and bronchioles, the smooth muscles of the digestive tract is inhibited, so peristalsis stops, sphincter of the bladder also contracts and the bladder wall relaxes. Blood vessels supply to the skeletal muscles are dilated. It is obvious that these reactions helps to prepare the body for strenuous and quick actions in the face of environmental danger.

Please note that in anxieties we see many symptoms - such as heart palpitations, stomach upsets and so forth - that are the works of the SNS.

The Parasystematic Nervous System (PSNS) on the other hand reverses the SNS and counteracts the SNS. This system is triggered by the neurotransmitter acetylcholine, which may be a important piece of information to people suffering from Bipolar Disorder.

Thus as Val has stated this fear reaction is an important survival mechanism in the face of real danger.

The question is how is this related to anxiety attacks or the irrational fears that can wreck people's lives.

The clue is adrenaline. The question is why should the body produce excess adrenaline out of the blue, without any trigger in the environment, causing us to have unexplainable anxiety attacks and phobias?

The function of adrenaline is to convert sugar stores in our body in the form of glycogen into glucose.

The reason for this is that brain is very sensitive to glucose levels. Although the brain represents only 2 per cent of the body by weight it requires about 60-70 per cent of available glucose in the body to energize the biochemical machinery of brain cells. Glucose is the forerunner of Biological Energy called (ATP), which is essential in the manufacture of the relaxing and feel good neurotransmitter such as serotonin.

Thus when the brain (in fact the hypothalamus) senses a low blood sugar level it will send an hormonal message to the adrenal glands to pour adrenaline into the system. This raises blood sugar level and will feed the brain again, but it also causes us to feel fearful without an external object of fear. The fear is irrational.

Adrenaline not only activates the SNS, but is also a focusing hormone, forcing us to focus on any possible "danger" at the expense of anything else. It causes us to "ruminate". Thus excess adrenaline production also lies at the root of Obsessive Compulsive Disorder (OCD).

Thus now the question is why is the brain starved of energy causing it to trigger stress hormones??

There are many reasons for this, because there are many medical conditions that interfere with the proper absorption of glucose, such as the various digestive disorders, heavy metal intoxication replacing zinc substrates, coeliac disease, Crohn's Disease and Ulcerative Colitis, hypothyroidism and hyperthyroidism. The list is unending.

However the majority cases when the brain is starved of energy is due to Insulin Resistance, which blocks the transfer of glucose (and other nutrients) across cell membranes. This can lead to the hypoglycemic syndrome, with its multitude of psychological and physical symptoms.

This condition can be tested with the four hour Medical Test for Hypoglycemia. It can also be tested with the Nutrition Behavior Inventory Test (NBI) . If you score high you are likely to be hypoglycemic.

The non-drug treatment of this condition is going on Hypoglycemic Diet.

This goes to show that the various forms of mental illnesses (really brain diseases) are due to a Nutritional Disorder.

See:

Depression is a Nutritional Disorder

Depression: a Disease of Energy Production

for a fuller explanation.

aqua@home

Thanks for the great and thorough answer.

Can blood work find a lot of these problems?

What kind of things can a complete blood work up find?

jurplesman

The medical test for hypoglycemia is specifically designed to diagnose hypoglycemia. It is different from the normal test for diabetes, in that blood a samples are taken over 4-6 hours (each half-an-hour).

If the glucose levels are within normal but still with hypoglycemic symptoms it could be due to an imbalance between zinc and copper.

Copper levels may be too high, lowering zinc availability. With zinc deficiency there may be a blockage of sugar metabolism within the ten step glycolysis, that would not show in blood sugar levels.

Nutritional Doctors are trained in these matters.

But people can help themselves to a great degree by going on a Hypoglycemic Diet.

J_9

Never begin a new diet such as this without first consulting your physician!!!!

jurplesman

You don't need a physician to go on a hypoglycemic diet, unless you have allergies or food sensitivities. It is a natural diet that most healthy people are on. You need to see a Nutritional Doctors if you have allergies.

You see a doctor if the diet does not help, in which case there may be some other medical problems.