The Physiological Effects of Fear

Fear is an emotion that is extremely common among every species, but does it affect the body and not just the brain? How does one person react to the rush of chemicals in the brain all stemmed from being afraid? Fear is often linked to “stress” and “stress” is often linked to many medical conditions. Being afraid can cause large adrenaline rushes that cause strange side affects. Fear goes under many names, anxiety, panic, and horror all different branches from fear. Fear can also effect different parts of the body, and they will react differently to the emotion. Fear has a way of controlling the body and reaching far past the mind, and editing many of the daily processes the body performs. Fear is medically defined as “ an unpleasant often strong emotion caused by anticipation or awareness of danger and accompanied by increased autonomic activity”(Merriam-Webster), and is often referred to with different names all of which have their own attributes relating to it’s effects. Anxiety, for example, is“a painful or apprehensive uneasiness of mind usually over an impending or anticipated ill”(Merriam-Webster). Panic is another form of fear, meaning “a sudden overpowering fright”(Merriam-Webster). Horror is another form of fear and is “painful and intense fear, dread, or dismay”(Merriam-Webster). All have different symptoms andn symptoms but the most common is “anxiety” “Anxiety” is one of the most common types of fear, since it is often lead to stress. Stress causes many medical problems such as angina, arrhythmias, asthma, allergies, high blood pressure, irritable bowel, tension headaches, strokes, impotence, insomnia, diabetes, prostatitis, malabsorption, and eczema are some of the many illnesses and diseases linked with stress (beinhealth.com).T he effects anxiety have the nervous system manifest themselves where the bowel is located, making irritable bowel the most common of anxiety related side-effects. The rapid changes in blood pressure also cause a