Patricia’s LiFe…

May 15, 2008

3 Things About Fear You Should Consider

Filed under: tips — Tags: , , , — patriciaholdenmd @ 10:16 am

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.