The brain of the great inventor Nikola Tesla was terrified of microbes. Tesla avoided any touch and never shook hands.
And the brain of Marilyn Monroe, who, by virtue of her profession, had to constantly be among the crowd, suffered from a fear of open space and crowds.
We are adults, we are strong - why is our brain afraid of some small and harmless spiders or mice? We are not crazy - why are we afraid of the dark? We are constantly communicating - why are there so many social phobes among us?
We find it difficult to understand why our brain needs fear because we are used to the power of man.
To understand how fear works, we first need to remember, realize and accept our own original status.
We are food.
Of course, today man is stronger than any natural predator. But this, civilized, period of our development is simply not comparable in duration to the many millennia that a person spent in the status of a snack.
Physically, a person is incomparably weaker than the absolute majority of predators - panthers, lions, wolves, bears, leopards. And many, many others.
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We have no fangs, no super-strong muscles, no long sharp claws.
And therefore, for most of our development, fear has been our main and very effective defense.
The animal experiences fear at the sight, sound or smell of danger. Human fear works differently, much more efficiently. Our fear is an early warning system for danger, which made it possible to know when it was approaching even before it can be done by smell or hearing.
How does this system work? Very simple. The brain diligently remembers a set of signs of any situation that led to the emergence of danger. And, as soon as such a situation begins to arise again, it recognizes it at an early stage and warns us with a special signal - fear.
The animal will be frightened by a suspicious rustle or smell.
A person will feel fear even on the approach to a place where a predator may be located according to a number of signs.
The animal will be afraid of the snake. A person will be careful in a field with tall grass, because there may be a snake there.
Our ability to fear “in advance” has given us an evolutionary advantage for millennia. And today, although the situation has changed, the early warning system continues to operate.
Our brain is a collector. He has been collecting fears all his life since birth.
This collection is constantly updated and replenished as the brain matures.
The brain is very alert and very suspicious.
Everything that poses a threat to our safety, comfort, and even more so to life, the brain marks with a red flag and sends it for storage in long-term memory, in the folder called "active" and where information is stored, which should always be at our fingertips.
The brain treasures this information very much and never throws it into the trash can along with unnecessary or useless memories.
At the same time, the brain analyzes for dangerous situations not only our personal experience, but the entire huge amount of information that it receives every day - books, films, social networks, stories of friends.
You may not be aware of the existence of this gigantic collection, but rest assured, it exists and is in constant access. As soon as any situation arises, similar in signs to the one that previously, according to the brain, led to danger or threat, the brain will immediately send you an injection of fear, warning that this has already happened and it has not led to anything good …
Getting rid of fear is pointless. It is easier to correctly perceive its informational load. Fear is a signal by which your brain lets you know that a situation that develops can become dangerous based on previous experience. How to relate to this signal is your question.
Being afraid is one of the main functions of the brain, realizing its main task - ensuring our safety. But fear and fear are different. There are fears and there are phobias.
Phobia is basically a bug in the early warning system. The brain mistakenly associates situations with danger, which in reality are not associated with danger, and tries to warn us about this fictitious danger.
More than 300 phobias have been recorded today. This list is constantly updated according to the precedent.
The most common phobias are fear of germs, heights, open and closed spaces, medical procedures, airplane flights, darkness, thunderstorms, snakes, rats, mice, dentists and spiders.
But if the fear of snakes or dentists can still be somehow explained, then no logic will be enough to explain, for example, levophobia (fear of the left side) or omphalophobia (fear of the appearance of navels).
One of the most curious circumstances associated with phobias is that the reasons for their occurrence are unknown to science.
There are many hypotheses, but none of them have been proven. The most common version of the cause of phobias is childhood trauma. As a child, the girl was bitten by a dog - with age it became kinophobia. In childhood, the child was frightened by a clown - the boy will grow up and will suffer from coulrophobia.
But this simple version is poorly confirmed, since it is far from always possible to find a childhood trauma that explains a phobia. And in cases where it succeeds, the phobia often does not go away and continues to exist.
The founder of the school of psychoanalysis, Sigmund Freud, was very afraid of the fern. But Freud was never able to dig up the childhood trauma associated with the fern from his own memories.
In today's world, almost every brain suffers from one or another phobia. Therefore, most likely, your brain also has its own phobia and, most likely, more than one.
No matter how strange your brain phobia may be, do not be upset and do not rush to treat it if it does not interfere too much with your life. Phobia treatment is a complex and lengthy process. And it is often easier to accept its existence.
In the end, ailurophobia - the panic fear of cats - did not stop Napoleon Bonaparte from conquering half the world.
And surphobia - the fear of mice - did not stop Walt Disney from giving the world Mickey Mouse.