“To conquer fear is the beginning of wisdom.” – Bertrand Russell
Fear is an unpleasant emotion experienced in response to a belief that someone or something is dangerous, painful, or threatening. In the absence of imminent, actual, realized physical harm, fear functions as a protective product of our thoughts and imagination – a way to contend with uncertainty or a reaction to our triggered memories. It is important for us to remember that fear is most often a perceived threat in that it is generated as a possibility, not necessarily a probability. The tenacity of fear thusly shows up as item four on Cozolino’s eight problematic aspects of functioning that cause an individual to consider counselling from his book The Neuroscience of Psychotherapy: Healing the Social Brain (2010):
1) The suppression of language and predictive capacity under stress
2) Divergent hemispheric processing
3) The bias towards early learning
4) The tenacity of fear
5) The damaging effects of stress hormones
6) The speed and amount of unconscious processing
7) The primacy of projection
8) Unconscious self-deception
The tenacity of fear makes behavior and thinking more rigid. Under “normal” circumstances, the amygdala (the area of the brain associated with perceiving and processing emotion) and prefrontal cortex (decision making and moderating behavior) share executive control of the brain, allowing reason to collaborate with emotion. In times of distress and fear, the amygdala hijacks the brain and suppresses input from the prefrontal cortex. In the face of physical harm, this is extremely adaptive – it makes perfect sense to act first, think later. However, as is the case with many items on this list, evolution has shaped a brain that errs on the side of caution, and as such is prone to generalize experiences and signs of danger. It is not only a propensity for reactive thinking that becomes problematic; a persistent state of fear can also result in resistance to taking risks and learning new things and a tendency to resist change. These rigid patterns of thought and behavior are reinforced by our very survival and it can be challenging to remain objective. This has the potential to impair openness and trust even in loving relationships.
Therapists contend with this by creating therapeutic safety with warmth, empathic caring, and positive regard. In counselling, therapists act as “amygdala whisperers” and work to reactivate networks of new learning in the hippocampus (the area of the brain associated with consolidating information and enabling memory) and prefrontal cortex. Individuals learn to overcome fear not by erasing or invalidating traumatic memories, but rather by building new connections that serve to inhibit triggering autonomic arousal. Mediating fear is a critical component in our ability to become attuned and once attuned we are able to invite and embrace vitality.
“There are two basic motivating forces: fear and love. When we are afraid, we pull back form life. When we are in love, we open to all that life has to offer with passion, excitement, and acceptance. We need to learn to love ourselves first, in all our glory and our imperfections. If we cannot love ourselves, we cannot fully open to our ability to love others or our potential to create. Evolution and all hopes for a better world rest in the fearlessness and open-hearted vision of people who embrace life.” – John Lennon
References
Cozolino, L. (2010). The Neuroscience of Psychotherapy: Healing the Social Brain. W.W.Norton & Company: New York, NY