What happens in our body when we experience fear. What do fear and stress have in common? Physical or somatic signs of fear

Read this article if you are familiar with the feeling of inexplicable fear. Fear-induced mental disorders affect more people than any other form of mental illness. One in five will experience one of the following disorders during their lifetime. In addition, fear is a common symptom that can appear in many other mental disorders, such as schizophrenia, affective disorders, sexual disorders.

What are mental disorders due to fear

Mental disorders Fear-induced illnesses are a group of clinically distinct illnesses, each with its own signs, causes, and recommended treatments.

These include: generalized fear, panic disorder, phobias (specific phobias, social phobias, agoraphobia), obsessions, adjustment disorders with a painful coloring and post-traumatic stress disorders.

Despite their frequency, anxiety disorders are often misclassified and treated. This is primarily because fear accompanies many, often very severe, somatic symptoms.

Therefore, people suffering from fear are mainly considered as somatic patients and see the causes of the disease exclusively in organic factors, prescribing appropriate treatment. Although physicians note that they do not reveal any organic disorders when examining patients, they miss the diagnosis of fear disorder and the corresponding therapy.

Mental disorders due to fear. Some people get so used to their fear that they consider their constant nervousness and irritability to be completely natural and consider them as traits of their character.

Treatment of mental disorders based on fear

Some people turn to alcohol or drugs, and sometimes drugs or other medications, to alleviate their condition. As a result, many people suffering from fear often also suffer from alcohol dependence.

The latest research in the field of pharmacological and psychotherapeutic treatment of fear-motivated mental disorders predicts new favorable prospects for all those who are correctly diagnosed.

Currently, 80% of patients suffering from fears can be significantly helped by the use of behavioral and / or drug therapy. Those who suffer from milder forms of fear, phobias, or obsessions can learn to keep their fears under control.

Causes of mental disorders due to fear

There are various psychological theories of the development of fear and anxiety disorders, which for the most part agree with the “biological” theories outlined above, but on the other hand, offer a completely different approach to explaining and understanding fear.

1. Fear reactions are natural, normal reactions.

Psychological concepts consider fear as a basic, normal feeling that appears in a person in the same way as anger, rage, joy or sadness. Based on the data of psychological research, it can be concluded that fear appears in situations that are rated as threatening, unclear, uncontrollable and unpleasant.

Biological studies have also confirmed that fear is a natural and biologically embedded in our body, a firmly established form of reaction. During periods of certain phases of our development, fears appear regularly and do not exceed the permissible norm, for example, fear in young children when strangers appear.

Experiences of fear can manifest themselves in a variety of forms. Almost all people have experienced sudden fear and fright at some point. For example, in a dangerous situation on the street, the sudden appearance of fear with a strong heartbeat, the thought “how to avoid such a situation in the future” and the feeling “you need to get out of this situation in order to calm down as soon as possible” is characteristic.

Often a feeling of fear arises in various unpleasant situations, for example, a person is afraid to enter the classroom before a difficult exam. Here fear develops slowly and does not carry suddenness, i.e. comes earlier than the situation itself and is characterized rather by timid fears, indecision: “either to refuse, or to be disgraced”.

Many people in certain life situations afraid of different things. They are familiar with the feeling of preoccupation that lasts for weeks and months and is expressed in fearful fears, for example, something has happened to the children, some kind of trouble is about to happen at work, or some kind of material difficulties may appear.

Then the form of fear often changes, sleep is disturbed, complaints of a somatic nature, pain in the region of the heart, bouts of profuse sweat, physical anxiety appear. Others experience seemingly completely inexplicable, sudden onset and almost unbearable attacks of panic fear.

It is less well known that anxiety attacks can be caused not only by certain external circumstances, stresses, specific situations, but by the somatic sensations themselves, for example, the observation that you cannot breathe properly can lead to a feeling of suffocation.

2. Previously experienced fears can become persistent acquired reactions.

In the examples given, we have seen that fear can have not only many guises, but also various reasons for its appearance, namely: dangerous situations, difficult life circumstances, life crises and problems. However, fears and diseases caused by fear can appear in connection with somatic diseases.

As examples, it is appropriate to mention here the complaints of fear in hyperthyroidism or heart disease. Such fears are relatively rare, but these possible reasons complaints of fear should be checked by the therapist during the examination. Therefore, discuss your complaints with your doctor.

Most of the situations in which we experience fear turn out to be acquired, “learned”, reactions of our body to previously experienced experiences. Psychological science confirms that an unpleasant or fearful experience under various conditions can lead a person to continue to try to avoid such a situation, and if this is not possible, go through it, complaining of intense fear.

For example, if a person is stuck in an elevator due to a power outage, then he may almost automatically have thoughts full of fear, which in the future may lead to a completely new attitude towards using the elevator, fear of him, and the person maybe even stop using it altogether.

Symptoms of mental disorders due to fear

Fear reactions are akin to strongly pronounced stress reactions.

In the history of the formation of mankind, fear has also developed as a reaction that helps to survive. In those ancient times, when people lived in harmony with nature, fear was vital as a signal to flee or fight. Certain fears, such as the so-called "anxiety reaction", still make sense today.

If, while crossing the street, you see a car approaching you at high speed, honking loudly, the automatic alarm reaction will make you quickly jump to the side, which may save your life.

Mental disorders due to fear. The typical and often instantaneous somatic changes associated with fear serve to prepare the body for quick action, such as a quick flight if some life-threatening erroneous action is committed.

At the same time, cardiac activity is instantly activated, muscles are tensed, which allows you to avoid danger with maximum speed. Another important and essential benefit of fear is that it warns the body and sharpens attention.

If we are approaching a dangerous situation, such as when climbing a mountain, before a decisive test, or when driving a car during icy conditions, the body sends us signals that warn us against life-threatening actions.

Our heart beats faster, we begin to behave more carefully, focus and act in a completely different way. Before trials, we are driven to a certain extent by fear, which makes us better prepared.

If fear crosses certain boundaries, then it does more harm than good. As psychologists have shown, excessive fear paralyzes our thoughts, behavior, limits the ability to concentrate and endurance. In addition, excessive fear can expose us to great danger in a critical situation, as it can lead to rash and panic reactions.

What do fear and stress have in common?

To understand fear, it is necessary to explore the similarities between stress and fear. On a daily basis, we endure many weaker or stronger stresses (traffic, irritants in the workplace, and many other things called stress in everyday life) that can trigger stress reactions.

After the onset of the reaction that caused the load, many somatic reactions automatically occur, such as an increase in the heart rate and muscle tension. At the same time, the extent of the increase in excitability depends on the intensity of the load, i.e. on our assessment of how threatening the situation is, in other words, on our thoughts.

Heavy loads lead, as a rule, to strongly pronounced stress reactions, and smaller loads pass with automatic weak reactions that we do not consciously perceive at all. It is important that reactions to stress, like fear reactions, are most often short-lived.

Mental disorders due to fear. The properties of our body are such that the balance is usually automatically restored. Stress responses, like fear responses, never stay high, but go down even if we don't do anything. At the same time, strong stress reactions and fear reactions last longer than weaker ones.

When our body and our state of excitability are balanced, i.e. when our tension is at a low level, stress-bearing situations, although they cause an increase in excitability, do not have an unpleasant connotation, since this wave does not reach the experience of fear. Only in a situation with a very strong load does it come to a sudden and so sharp rise in excitability that we experience it as unpleasant and causing fear.

Equal stress situations on days when our overall stress is at a high level are much more likely to elicit a fear response. On such days, medium and light situational loads of equal intensity can immediately lead to unpleasant mental and somatic excitement up to the appearance of fear.

3 components of fear

Another basic and very significant position of psychologists says that fear is always and naturally determined by three components that are independent of each other, but interacting. According to this statement, fear always consists of:

Somatic component, eg heart pain, cold sweat, muscle tension;

A mental and sensual component, such as fear of losing control of a situation or dying;

And finally, the behavioral component, i.e. your choice of a certain form of behavior (say, either you will run away in fear, or you will bypass in advance critical situation).

However, these three components do not always come into play at the same time and are not always expressed with the same intensity. Some people have a more pronounced somatic component, while others have a mental or behavioral component. But all three components play a decisive role in both the emergence and manifestation of fear and form the basis of all the basic theories that we will discuss.

The psychological theories of fear are based on the assumption that fear as such makes sense for a person and is necessary for him, and diseases caused by fear are normal and biologically natural reactions, only more exacerbated.

In almost all forms of fear-motivated mental disorders, dysregulation of fear-stress reactions plays a decisive role.

How do anxiety disorders develop?

Different forms of anxiety disorders can develop in different people in different ways, of which only a few will be mentioned here.

Experts who adhere to learning theory believe that the causes of fear should be sought in personal experience and individuality. As a result of experienced fear, people learn to react in a certain way to specific events and objects.

The so-called "two-stage" theory of Maurer proceeds from the fact that this learning process takes place in the form of two phases. During the first phase, during the experience of an event that causes a feeling of fear, almost every person has a "coupling" between the situation and the fear reaction.

During the second phase, which is more important for the occurrence of fear disorder, some people do not develop fear per se, but the ability to avoid situations that cause fear. Escape from the situation and the ability to avoid it, so as not to re-experience the fear, have a positive, but short-term effect in that they prevent the development of a pronounced fear.

However, the more often and longer we run away from "terrible" situations, the more our tension increases when we expect the onset of a feeling of fear. The greater our tension, the more we are “convinced” that the decision to run away from the situation will be the most correct, that it is dangerous and unpleasant to expose ourselves to this situation.

This can lead to the fact that even at the mere thought of such a situation, a massive reaction of fear appears. A similar way of “learning” anxiety disorders is especially often observed in phobias, i.e. with fears of certain objects and situations.

The emergence of mental disorders due to fear

The psychophysiological model of panic disorder is another mechanism for the development of the fear response, which is mainly observed in panic disorders and agoraphobia. In this model, the "pendulum effect" plays a central role. Scientists proceed from the fact that the panic reaction of fear arises as a result of the process of "rocking" various somatic symptoms that can be associated with danger and interaction with it. This process can be described as follows:

1. Due to various reasons, such as physical stress, the action of chemical substances, situational stresses or emotional reactions, a person regularly experiences physiological or cognitive changes.

2. Sometimes these changes are realized by him, and sometimes they are not. For example, going to bed, in the absence of distracting stimuli, a person experiences a heart rhythm disturbance only because, by changing the position of the body, he began to feel the rhythm of his heart.

The role of the norepinephrine transmitter in states of fear

The norepinephrine transmitter system resides in the Locus coeroleus region, a brain structure thought to play a role in states of terror and fear. According to the figure, norepinephrine is released from the Locus coeroleus and acts on all structures of the brain, including the cerebral hemispheres (which are responsible for all higher mental functions), the hypothalamus (which plays the role of a stimulator of emotions) and the brainstem (through which the brain, among other important functions, communicates with the rest of the body).

3. If somatic and cognitive changes are perceived as dangerous or threatening, the person becomes fearful, which automatically exacerbates physiological symptoms (for example, a light heartbeat turns into heart pain). Not all sensations are equally likely to be associated with danger, for example, sensations associated with vital bodily functions such as heartbeat or shortness of breath are considered more threatening than others.

In the same way, sudden and acute attacks are associated with danger more often than somatic changes that develop slowly. This association of normal physiological processes with danger is especially likely when the interpretation of the danger suggests itself, for example, when a person reads about a heart or other disease leading to death before going to bed.

4. When associations associated with danger appear, a person reacts to the threat with a sense of fear, i.e. physiological, somatic, and cognitive changes that may further exacerbate these symptoms and, in turn, reaffirm the validity of the fear.

If later these spontaneous panic attacks occur more frequently, then in many individuals, under certain conditions, in the intervals between attacks, prolonged physical tension and nervousness, which are described as "fear of fear", may occur. This tendency to evaluate somatic sensations as evidence of a threat to life or illness and subsequently react painfully to them has been described by many authors as sensitive fear, and in cognitive therapy as an erroneous interpretation of somatic symptoms leading to a crisis.

These are the two main models for the occurrence of anxiety disorders. The first can be briefly described with the words “I already have a negative experience”, and the second - “something is wrong with my body”.

Depth Psychology Fear

There are a number of schemes, in particular, formulated as follows: “I never learned this!” - as the patient said, not trained to communicate with people, although it was necessary for her due to her professional duties.

In other cases, it may be a partially inherited tendency to react in a certain way, which becomes crucial. So, on the basis of various studies, we know that diseases caused by fear are often observed in several members of the same family (“this is from my parents - heredity”).

Mental disorders due to fear. There are models that explain how during sudden or prolonged loads, i.e. under stress and / or prolonged overwork, as well as with the participation of other factors, it comes to the appearance of persistent states of fear. This can be compared to a filled glass, which is added drop by drop until it overflows and the liquid overflows. So the feeling of panic, general fear and anxiety, insecurity and anxiety go hand in hand.

In recent cognitive psychology, researchers are developing interesting variations on learning theories. They believe that people are prone to fear when they may feel that their willingness to solve problems does not meet the requirements of a particular situation.

For example, the excellent tennis player Monica T. often lost to weaker opponents, as she underestimated her own abilities and overestimated the abilities of others. Such thoughts about oneself and about situations lead to underestimation of one's qualities, distrust of oneself, a decrease in the ability to concentrate, and make a person so nervous that more and more blows fall to his lot.

From the point of view of depth psychology, fear is seen as a manifestation of internal conflicts. For depth psychology, fear is a signal that the Self is threatened by subconscious fantasies and desires. The psyche reacts to this signal in such a way that the material that excites fear is repressed.

Other psychoanalysts suggest that the conflict between the so-called ideal picture that stands before the eyes of every person and reality is decisive. This basic conflict makes a person susceptible to all forms of fear. Still others believe that the conflict is played out between a person's own ideas about values ​​and social forces that oppose these ideas.

In this article, you will learn what fear, panic attacks, panic disorder, and agoraphobia are and how to learn to recognize and understand these conditions.

Fear

Fear is an emotion given to us by nature for salvation and survival. If we do not experience fear, we will not be able to adequately respond to danger. For example, if you are walking down the street in the evening, and a robber jumps out from behind a corner, then fear makes you gather strength and run away or fight back. In the absence of this emotion, your survival would be in jeopardy.

And one more important point. Fear is given to us by nature for salvation, which means that it is absolutely safe. Yes, it is a very unpleasant emotion. It causes a lot of discomfort. We don't like to be afraid. But the main purpose of these sensations is to draw our attention to a situation that may be threatening to us.

What happens in the body when you are afraid?

To do this, we need to understand how our nervous system works. I will make it as simple and affordable as possible.

The autonomic nervous system has two branches: sympathetic and parasympathetic.

The sympathetic department mobilizes the body's resources for vigorous activity and joins in a period of danger. To this end, the adrenal glands produce activating hormones: adrenaline and norepinephrine. As a result of their action, the heart rate and blood pressure increase, the level of sugar in the blood rises, breathing quickens, muscles unconsciously tense. All these changes occur in order for a person to perform some action and save his life. In our burglar example, the person escapes by fleeing or self-defense. At the moment of his salvation, he does not pay attention to what is happening with the body, but reacts to the actions of the attacker.

After the situation is over, the parasympathetic division of the nervous system turns on. His task is to restore the body and the spent resources. The activation of the parasympathetic nervous system is associated with the process of relaxation and sleep. Under its influence, wound healing, stress reduction, energy accumulation occur.

Now imagine a different situation. Imagine a person who has not completed the task of his boss and understands that he is in for a scolding. He starts to worry about it. AT this case there is no real threat to life. After all, the boss will not put a knife to his throat. But the body reacts as if it were a real danger. The sympathetic part of the nervous system also turns on, adrenaline and norepinephrine are released, and the process is started. But there is no external threat to which attention can be shifted. There is only imagination in the head about scolding from the boss. There is no action to be taken. After all, you can’t run away from the boss and you won’t fight with him. At this point, a person may listen to their body and notice some of the symptoms that come with adrenaline. And he can perceive these symptoms as threatening. For example, heartbeat and breathing changes can be mistaken for the onset of a heart attack. Thus, a vicious circle of panic is formed.

Panic attack

A panic attack is an attack of intense fear that occurs during a period of non-danger. An attack can last from 5 to 30 minutes. The following factors could have influenced the onset of an attack: stress, lack of sleep, alcohol, etc.

Most people have experienced a panic attack at least once in their lives. If a person did not attach any importance to this attack, then panic attacks do not recur. But if a person is very frightened of their symptoms and began to perceive them as catastrophic, then there is a high probability that panic attacks will develop into a panic disorder.

panic disorder

Panic Disorder - Panic attacks can occur without any reason and last from 1 hour to several days. The person feels constant anxiety. Lack of energy and vitality.

What is panic disorder characterized by?

• Sudden recurring panic attacks.
• Fear of a possible recurrence of an attack, expectation of a recurrence of panic symptoms.
• Seizures are not explained by any other disease.

In panic disorder, a person begins to avoid the places where the attack occurs. For example, an elevator or subway. The brain remembers this information and you begin to avoid other places that cannot be quickly left. Today a person does not go down the subway, tomorrow he cannot be in a traffic jam, cinema, theater, supermarket. The brain begins to perceive all situations from the position of “you can escape”, “you can’t escape”.

If a person does not seek help, then panic disorder turns into agoraphobia.

Agoraphobia

Agoraphobia is a state of intense fear of open spaces. Forces a person to stay at home most of the time. A person feels helpless and constantly seeks the support of relatives or friends.

Conclusions:

• Panic attacks are based on fear.
• Fear is an unpleasant but safe feeling.
• Fear of one's symptoms causes panic disorder.
• Avoidance only aggravates the condition and leads to agoraphobia.

In order to quickly and effectively cope with all of the above conditions, you need to seek help from a professional who knows how to work with similar conditions. If you liked the article, then share it on social networks Victoria Repetskaya