The concept of fear; it’s something so integral in survival for animals, yet it is still a sophisticated topic. Even in the field of biology, fear is not entirely agreed upon if it exists outside of humans. Nevertheless, when present, it has a clear purpose: to keep the organism alive and wary of any potential threat. This is commonly known as a “fight or flight” response.

Fear is a psychological experience, meaning it can override or manipulate logic. For example, an individual encounters a cellar spider (also known as “daddy long–legs”) in their home bathroom, mostly motionless and unbothered by your presence. Upon seeing the spider, they become alert or frightened by it, even with knowledge that they are generally harmless–and even beneficial–to humans.

So here, logic clashes with emotion. One’s emotions tell them to fear the spider minding its business, and their logic says that it’s not a threat. While logic should be more concrete, emotion usually prevails.

In a clinical setting, this is described as a “phobia”, which is “a twisting of the normal fear response.” Instead of warning an individual of a particular, ongoing threat, it now sounds the alarm in general instances, as a phobia poses little or no actual danger.

While not inherently an issue, this can become damaging in some cases. For example, one who is highly self-conscious and afraid might treat any minor slip-up in public can’t be reimagined as a fatal flaw, causing them immense stress in public.

When fears begin to twist one’s perception of reality without concrete evidence, it can become irrational. Instead of helping one stay wary of potential “red flags”, it only adds stress and limits one’s confidence.

Many individuals tend to fear heights, also known as acrophobia. This is usually due to survival instincts to avoid dangerous falls.

Freshman Kaylee Gonzalez said, “Whenever I am in a tall building and look down, I feel like I go into panic mode. There isn’t really an explanation as to why I get so scared, it kind of just happens”. 

This phobia can be seen as a misperception of reality, which is a common reason people may experience significant stress. The quote can also be seen as learned behavior developed by watching others react fearfully to heights, it all comes down to the disparity between the imagined threat and the actual danger.

A common issue when it comes to these sorts of fears is the catastrophic thinking that fuels the fear. For example, “If I don’t turn off the oven, the house will burn down”. It is common to have bodily responses to fear, such as a faster heartbeat, nausea, shaking, sweating, et cetera.

Yet, there are limits to what truly defines a fear as irrational or unreasonable. Jonathan Salcido, my brother, shared an insightful and reasonable fear he has.

“I’m afraid of losing someone I love…I feel like if that person dies, part of me dies,”

This fear is best understood as a fear of the unknown; Salcido described that he “Do[esn’t] know what will happen to me…like if [something] happened out of nowhere like a car accident.”

Experienced trauma and concern for one’s family and friends is completely reasonable, and it’s important to make this distinction. If to this day you still experience trauma, it’s important to seek help.

The most important thing is discerning what you can control and what’s outside of your reach. Consider the elephant on a string; although its size and strength are more than enough to break free, it psychologically believes it is bound and weak. This is true for many of our phobias and worries.