One emotion that we hope to experience rarely is fear. Fear should not be confused with anxiety or stress.

Anxiety is what you feel when faced with a possible, imagined, anticipated, future threat. Maybe a policeman behind you turns on his lights and siren. His actions may have,nothing to do with you. Maybe your boss unexpectedly summons you to his office. It could be for a good reason.

With anxiety you worry, you are tense, your heart rate increases, etc. When we are in a state of stress we worry, we are facing a challenging situation that we just do not seem able to handle or deal with appropriately. A prolonged difficult to solve situation will trigger stress.

Fear is a whole different situation. It is a survival response that is triggered when you are confronted by a real, immediate, present threat. Fear is a survival response that is triggered when you are actually faced with very possible severe injury or even death.

You know it is coming and you better do something. Anxiety is more about a future or possible threat. With fear you have reason to be afraid right now. The source of the fear can be a physically aggressive person, someone trying to rob or rape you, or even a dog that an irresponsible owner has let run loose or is chained so that the animal is close to the sidewalk so it can threaten or even bite you as you walk by.

When we experience fear, what is switched on in that experience?

What is the programming that our ancestors had to develop to survive, and have passed down to us?

The key player that we have inherited in our brain is the amygdala. When a baby is born the amygdala is basically fully developed and ready to go to work.

The amygdala is like a built-in guard that scans our external world and our inner selves looking for any possible danger. Once the imminent danger is detected it triggers a system that you learned in school as the fight-or-flight response. The real name is sympathetic arousal. The alarm is triggered when you encounter something new, or if you are in a situation that matches your memories of threats, dangers, or injuries from the past. It remembers any and all threats that you encountered in the past. It is designed to maintain those memories. They are never forgotten.

The amygdala not only helps you to remember those past situations, it allows you to recognize (generalize) similar objects, things, or situations that resemble the original threat or source of pain. If a person gets bitten by one dog, the alert may switch on for all dogs, or even all animals.

If the threat is intense enough, the amygdala may temporarily shut down thinking about the situation and cause you to act. It says do something now.

A possible downside of this alerting system is that if you have a history of people injuring or hurting you in the past, current or new relationships can harbor or represent the potential or expectation of threat. As a consequence, you may find it difficult to develop new, caring, close relationships. It can certainly impact our relationships with the people we like, and it may cripple our ability to make new friends. The thinking goes like this, I’ve been hurt in the past by other people. I’m not going to let anyone hurt me again.

When your fear has taken control of you, and not only has protected you but limited you, then things have gone too far. This is where psychologists fit in. It is possible to work through your fears and desensitize you so you won’t avoid or withdraw from the people in the present. You won’t avoid or withdraw because someone has done something bad to you in the past.

Otherwise, your amygdala will help you survive when needed.

— Dr. Joseph Switras provides clinical psychological services at United Health District in Fairmont to people age 5 and up.