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ecritureinattentivetblr · 1 year ago

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𝕱𝖊𝖆𝖗 𝖊𝖝𝖕𝖑𝖆𝖎𝖓𝖊𝖉

𓆩♱𓆪 𓆩♱𓆪 𓆩♱𓆪 𓆩♱𓆪

𝕯𝖊𝖋𝖎𝖓𝖎𝖙𝖎𝖔𝖓

Fear (noun) - an unpleasant emotion caused by the threat of danger, pain, or harm.

Fear is a primal emotion, that is to say one of the most basic emotions humans feel (as well as happiness, love, sadness, anger, for instance.)

Fear causes biochemical responses that will provoke behavioral reactions, physical as much as emotional (see Physiological signs & Fight, Flight, Freeze, Fawn).

Fear is triggered by stimulus occurring in the present, in anticipation, or expectation of a risk or a threat to one’s safety, whether it is physical, psychological, real, or imagined. A rational and appropriate fear is called a fear. An irrational and inappropriate fear is called a phobia, and falls under the umbrella of Anxiety Disorders.

𝕻𝖍𝖞𝖘𝖎𝖔𝖑𝖔𝖌𝖎𝖈𝖆𝖑 𝖘𝖎𝖌𝖓𝖘

When stressed, the brain and more precisely the hypothalamus, the area of the brain responsible for body hormone control, releases epinephrine, also known as adrenaline. It causes various types of physical responses such as:

Dilated pupils

Tense muscles

Shaking limbs

Stomach pain

Nausea

Sweating

Quickened heartbeat

Increase in blood pressure

Rapid breathing

Feeling choked

More explanation on healthline, “Fight, Flight, Freeze: What this response means.”

Those signs help your body analyze more stimulus (dilated pupils), or to make your muscles more vascularized to be ready for a run or a fight for instance.

There also are side effects such as nausea and stomach pain caused by the release of adrenaline in the system.

Overall the goal of those physical reactions is to make you aware that you are in danger and ready to face it through psychological and physical response.

𝕮𝖆𝖚𝖘𝖊𝖘

There is a theory as for the appearance of fears; some would be innate and others acquired.

An innate fear is a fear acquired without any learning of how dangerous it can be. For example, most people have a natural fear of loud noises, pain or fear heights. Those are coded in our DNA through evolution as survival techniques, and/or transmitted in genes.

An acquired fear has been learned through experience or conditioning, for instance being scared of spiders, crowded-spaces or clowns. Those fears appear after stimulus causes intense fear, so much so that the brain retains it as a threat.

𝕱𝖎𝖌𝖍𝖙, 𝕱𝖑𝖎𝖌𝖍𝖙, 𝕱𝖗𝖊𝖊𝖟𝖊, 𝕱𝖆𝖜𝖓

Those responses are caused by hormonal and physiological changes, allowing the body to protect itself from threats. They are survival instincts we gained from our ancestors who lived in dangerous environments.

The fear response cannot be anticipated. It is not a matter of willpower, but a matter of brain chemistry. Some people may fight against assault but freeze facing a light car crash. The response is proper to each and everyone’s brain and psychology (heavily based on their traumas and acquired fears).

Responses have both emotional and physical responses.

𝕱𝖎𝖌𝖍𝖙 𝖗𝖊𝖘𝖕𝖔𝖓𝖘𝖊

Tight jaw or grinding teeth

Urge to punch, kick, stomp

Intense anger, homicidal or suicidal thoughts

Crying

Glaring

Upset stomach (caused by adrenaline)

High energy

Confrontation

Ultimately, feeling ready or attacking the source of danger.

𝕱𝖑𝖎𝖌𝖍𝖙 𝖗𝖊𝖕𝖔𝖓𝖘𝖊

Excessively exercising

Being fidgety, tense or trapped

Constantly moving

Restlessness

Numbness in extremities

Dilated, darting eyes

Anxiety/Panic

Avoidance

High energy

Ultimately, feeling ready to run away.

𝕱𝖗𝖊𝖊𝖟𝖊 𝖗𝖊𝖘𝖕𝖔𝖓𝖘𝖊

Pale skin

Sense of dread

Dissociation

Shutdown

Low energy

Feeling stiff, heavy, cold, numb

Loud pounding heart

Decreasing in heart rate

Sensing tolerated stress

Ultimately, feeling unable to move or act.

𝕱𝖆𝖜𝖓 𝖗𝖊𝖘𝖕𝖔𝖓𝖘𝖊

Finding self expression challenging

Not being able to say “no”

Over-apologizing

Holding back opinions that may be controversial

Trying to be a “fixer”

Attempting to control other’s choices to maintain some sort of emotional safety

Denying own discomfort, complaints, pain, needs and wants

The fawn response may be used after unsuccessfully trying one or several of the three options above. This response is more observed in those who grew up in abusive families or situations and suffer trauma from it.

When fawning, one abandons their own needs to serve others’ so that to avoid conflict, criticism or disapproval.

𝕯𝖔𝖊𝖘 𝖊𝖛𝖊𝖗𝖞𝖔𝖓𝖊 𝖋𝖊𝖊𝖑 𝖋𝖊𝖆𝖗

Fear is a primal emotion, meaning it is inherent to a healthy human brain. However, some people may either feel little fear, and in very rare cases, no fear at all.

The Urbach-Wiethe disease is an extremely rare syndrome (400 cases listed since the early 20th century) caused by a gene mutation. In most cases, it changes appearance, causing the appearance of papules (bumps under the skin) around the eyes, plaques, lesions or scars, a hoarse voice, but also the calcification of cerebral tissue. This calcification may lead to complete annihilation of fear.

(On the left, a patient with a healthy brain. On the right a patient suffering from the Urbach-Wiethe disease, with an amygdala calcification.)

The Urbach-Wiethe disease came to my knowledge after reading a novel where the main character suffers from it: “Promets-moi d’avoir peur” by Frédéric Lepage. For those of you who can read French and are interested, I shared an Amazon link into the sources below.

Here is a short translation of the diagnosis scene explaining some symptoms as well as the history of the disease.

𓆩♱𓆪 𓆩♱𓆪 𓆩♱𓆪 𓆩♱𓆪

“The disease we are thinking of,” he explains, ”appears more frequently on caucasian with german of south-african origins.”

He approaches Luna and, from the very tip of his fingers, lowers, one after the other, his upper eyelids.

“At the crease of your eyelids, you have two or three minuscule skin excrescences, some sorts of little bubbles. It is another clue.”

“A clue of what?”

Just as Jasmine did two days earlier, he slightly pinches Luna’s cheek between his fingers and looks closer at the crease it creates.

“The skin is dry, but not lumpy yet,” he says, turning around to Jasmine who nods.

“You didn’t answer me,” she insists. “A clue of what?”

Kane takes his gloves off, places them back into their plastic cover and throws them into the trash can.

“In 1929, a dermatologist and an otorhinolaryngologist from Vienna treated, each on their own, the same patient. The first one, for a stiffening of the skin. The second one, for a voice illness, making it hoarse. The first doctor was named Erich Urbach, the other, Camillo Wiethe. To all appearances, symptoms had nothing in common. However, they realized they were simultaneously observed on a few other patients, ever since 1908.”

“I see how this relates to me,” questions Luna, “but I’m not sure why. It can’t be that because I have some lumps on my eyelids that I’m becoming a textbook case?”

“There is something else. We quickly noticed that a certain behavioral disorder could add up to those symptoms.”

“You must guess which one,” whispers Jasmine Coleman, holding Luna’s hand.

“The absence of fear?”

“Yes,” answers Kane, “a calcification of the amygdala, which provokes a gradual loss, partial or total, of the feeling of fear.”

𓆩♱𓆪 𓆩♱𓆪 𓆩♱𓆪 𓆩♱𓆪

𝖂𝖗𝖎𝖙𝖎𝖓𝖌 𝖙𝖍𝖊 𝖆𝖇𝖘𝖊𝖓𝖈𝖊 𝖔𝖋 𝖋𝖊𝖆𝖗

Once again, I will here translate a extract of the book that captures the absence of fear, and how it impacts the character’s life. It may not be the greatest scene to display the illness, but I chose a spoiler free scene.

The main character went on a roller coaster with her nephew, and the latter goes to pick up a picture taken during the amusement ride. Here you can see the difference between her and people who feel fear.

𓆩♱𓆪 𓆩♱𓆪 𓆩♱𓆪 𓆩♱𓆪

Theo rushes to the stall where lay photographs taken by an automatic camera during the big fall. They are for sale for fifteen dollars. At the time of the capture, speed isolates one expression: the pure spirit of fear. In the picture, the kid exhibits a face deformed by fright, bulging eyes, contracted jaws, his neck muscles tense like strings. Luna, herself, only has a face changed by the acceleration. The skin stretches to the back, a flow of air forces its way between her lips and fills her cheeks, her hair is flattened against the headrest, but nothing in her betrays dread. Her eyes linger on the scenery. Her posture doesn’t show any other tension than physical, provoked by inertia. Luna gives herself over to entertainment more than she suffers a torment. On the little train loaded with thrilled others that fear would retrospectively make them reach climax, she only remains impervious. Her eyes could be checking up on her make up thanks to a pocket mirror, her expression at the worst timing of the attraction wouldn’t be so much different.

It takes Luna a couple of seconds to recognize herself in this shut and sourpuss character who excludes the collective emotion. She takes a look a little closer, somehow ashamed. On the glazed paper, this woman, stranger to the fear that elates his companions, who wonders about something else while anxiety paralyzes Theodore, that’s her. She’s already known, sometimes, this indifference to communal fear, but for the first time, she feels it like a disability, because it took away a moment of complicity with her nephew.

𓆩♱𓆪 𓆩♱𓆪 𓆩♱𓆪 𓆩♱𓆪

𝕿𝖍𝖊 𝖊𝖓𝖉

Thank you for reading me, I hope you learned a thing or two that may help with your writing.

If you have any questions, related or not, you would like me to touch on, feel free to message me on Instagram at ecriture_inattentive.

Warm regards,

𝕰𝖈𝖗𝖎𝖙𝖚𝖗𝖊 𝖎𝖓𝖆𝖙𝖙𝖊𝖓𝖙𝖎𝖛𝖊.

𓆩♱𓆪 𓆩♱𓆪 𓆩♱𓆪 𓆩♱𓆪

𝕾𝖔𝖚𝖗𝖈𝖊𝖘

Fear - Wikipedia

The psychology of fear - Verywellmind

Signs of fear - WebMD

How your heart reacts to fear - Main Line Health

Why do we sweat when we're anxious? - Sciencefocus

Can anxiety cause sweating? - Psych Central

What is the link between anxiety and nausea? - Medical news today

The psychology of fear and stress - Jeffrey Alan Gray

Fight, flight, freeze: what this response means - Healthline

Fight, flight, freeze, or fawn: how we respond to threats - Simply Psychology

Fight-Flight-Freeze - Anxiety Canada

The fawn response: how trauma can lead to people-pleasing - Psych Central

Urbach-Wiethe syndrome - National Library of Medicine

What is Urbach-Wiethe disease? - Brain Stuff

Promets-moi d'avoir peur, Frédéric Lepage - Amazon

Urbach-Wiethe disease - Wikipedia

What have we learned from patient SM about fear and the amygdala - Brain Stuff

#fear #urbach-wiethe #fight #flight #freeze #fawn

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