Fear

Definition Cause How to overcome fear

What is fear? Fear is an emotion induced by a perceived threat that causes people to move quickly away from the location of the perceived threat, and sometimes hide. It is a basic survival mechanism occurring in response to a specific stimulus, such as pain or the threat of danger.

According to surveys, some of the most common fears are of ghosts, the existence of evil powers, cockroaches, spiders, snakes, heights, water, tunnels, needles, social rejection, failure, examinations and public speaking.

One of the most common fears in humans is the fear of public speaking One of the most common fears in humans is the fear of public speaking. People may be comfortable speaking inside a room but when it becomes public speaking, fear enters in the form of suspicion that whether the words uttered are correct or incorrect because there are many to judge it.

Another common fear can be of pain, or of someone damaging a person Another common fear can be of pain, or of someone damaging a person. Fear of pain in a plausible situation brings flinching, or cringing(退缩）.

other fears

Causes 1 In the real world, fear can be acquired by a frightening traumatic accident. For example, if a child falls into a well and struggles to get out, he or she may develop a fear of wells, heights , or water.

2 The creation of fear is affected by cultural influences and historical experience, especially during childhood or after serious accident happened. For example, in the early 20th century, many Americans feared polio, a disease that cripples the body part it affects, leaving that body part immobilized for the rest of one's life. There are also consistent cross-cultural differences in how people respond to fear.

3 Sometimes fear is caused by human’s natural ability 3 Sometimes fear is caused by human’s natural ability. When some disasters happen(The earthpuake, flood, fire).In a word, it’s the fear of death .

The higher,the better

How to overcome fear 1 Analyze the fear Can it harm you in any way? If it can‘t, then there is nothing to be afraid of . For example, a garter snake cannot harm you, it just eats spiders and bugs. If you touch it, you will not die or get severely hurt . But, rattlesnakes（响尾蛇）, on the other hand, are dangerous and if you touch one, you might get bitten.

2 Try gradual desensitization. If you‘re afraid of spiders, don’t start by confronting a whole nest of real ones. Remind yourself it‘s an irrational phobia（恐怖病） and look at a badly drawn doodle（涂鸦） of a spider done in freaky（古怪） colors. When you can look at that cartoon and control your reaction, move up to photos of spiders. Then try cleaning up dead spiders. As you gain confidence working through each stage of proving to yourself that you can control your phobia, it will diminish until you no longer feel it as anything but a twinge in the most extreme circumstances.

3 Look at what others are doing For example, when you are afraid to ride that totally extreme roller-coaster（过山车） in the theme park, look at the ages of people who are riding it (probably 9 to 50). If you are in that age range, examine your own health condition. Consult your doctor for medical advice. If you are healthy and in the correct age range, you can freely ride a coaster without worrying about getting hurt.

4 Change the way you think and you change the way you act You can control your thoughts. Since you're only able to consciously think about one thing at a time, only allow positive thoughts to go through your mind. Whenever a negative thought or fear enters, simply choose to stop it right in its tracks and immediately change that thought to something positive.

5 Realize the best defense from fear is a good offense What you imagine is almost always worse than the truth. So many times the "truth" you see in your mind is only the truth as you believe it to be. So sometimes the best thing to do is the very thing you fear, even if you have to do it while you're afraid.

6 Use methods to control your unrealistic fear. The Forget method: Tell all your friends your fear. Ask them not to talk about it. Get busy. The Confront method: This isn't as scary as it seems but keep doing the activity next to someone then alone. The Fun method: Print out a picture of it, punch it, kick it! Do anything that makes you feel better and tell the fear you're bigger than it.

As human, you will always feel fear As human, you will always feel fear. But you must be very careful not to empower it so that it adversely influences your actions and decisions,because you are a person who observe fear.

Thank you 洪奕玲 洪晓梦 黄佳佳 洪晓芹