3 Things About Fear You Should Consider

After posting about ways on how to deal with fear, let us look at some of the facts and myths. You may have heard people saying that fear helped them go through a particular situation. Is fear really a good thing? Let’s find out.

“Fear makes you stronger” – Fear arises from the existence of a perceived threat. In that particular situation, the adrenal glands secrete epinephrine (adrenaline) into the blood, causing an increase of oxygen and glucose to the brain and muscles. At the same time, it decreases the functionality of other bodily processes that are not directly related to the fight-or-flight response. The drawback is that it only lasts for a short time.and you feel a lot of stress afterwards.

“Fear allows you to judge better” – Although some people would claim that fear allows them to make better judgments, what actually happens is that your mind focuses only on the object or situation that you fear and gives you less options to choose from. In effect, it allows you to decide faster but the options that you missed may have been far more suitable than the one that you picked.

“Fear allows you to perform better” – It actually depends on the situation. Often times you will hear people say that their fear allowed them to react better to situations when fear was present. However, the reason for that is related to the fight-or-flight response (see above). This is not always the case. Since fear also hampers your judgment, decisions that could have helped you perform better during the situation may have been left out.

6 Things You Need To Know About Abortion

Here are some abortion facts I found in the Guttmacher Institute’s website. I’ve decided to post these after the news about the 20 – 20 tie vote for the abortion requirement bill in Florida. The bill would require all women in Florida to undergo ultrasound before the abortion itself. Here are the facts (note that these is for the US only).

—

* Nearly half of all pregnancies to American women are unintended; four in 10 of these end in abortion.

* About half of American women have experienced an unintended pregnancy, and at current rates more than one-third (35%) will have had an abortion by age 45.

* Overall unintended pregnancy rates have stagnated over the past decade, yet unintended pregnancy increased by 29% among poor women while decreasing 20% among higher-income women.

* In 2005, 1.21 million abortions were performed, down from 1.31 million abortions in 2000.

* Nine in 10 abortions occur in the first 12 weeks of pregnancy.

* A broad cross section of U.S. women have abortions:
o 56% of women having abortions are in their 20s;
o 61% have one or more children;
o 67% have never married;
o 57% are economically disadvantaged;
o 88% live in a metropolitan area; and
o 78% report a religious affiliation.
—

There are different opinions regarding abortion between the pro-life people and the pro-choice side. I’m still open for opinions regarding the issue so don’t hesitate to post your comment. Let me hear your thoughts!