Long-term Suicide: Effects And Consequences Of Fear
Your heart rate increases, your pupils dilate, the cold hugs you warmly, leaving your palms to sweat cold, your spine to shiver and your belly to freeze. Ready. You are immersed in fear; it is the beginning of long-term suicide.
Fear is that red button you see in some movies that puts the entire company on alert; the lights flash, the alarm moans, and people panic. The mind is wonderful. The big boss is so efficient and incredible that, without hesitation, it releases a strong adrenaline rush and prepares you to fight or evacuate, in other words, fight or flee.
One of the most interesting pathways of natural selection is called the reptilian brain. A primitive, irrational, and frighteningly well-influencing part of the brain. Our own evolution took the stage, in this scenario, and performed acts worthy of applause: the reptilian brain is responsible for our wildest, most primitive and instinctive attitudes, it tells us how deeply we must delve into our fears, or how easily and intensely let’s get angry. Anyway, caveman stuff, primitive reactions.
Fortunately, I’m the kind of person who hardly ever gets sick. I used to have allergy attacks. Used to (in the past). For a few years now, whenever I caught a cold or the flu, I started to analyze the days before the onset of symptoms. I did the same for the allergy. Interesting… Once the analysis was completed, I put the theory to the test, testing it on other cases and people. So, what did you find? It worked out? Briefly, the theory is as follows: when a person feels insecure, anxious, worried and/or afraid, he becomes ill; and when the person is bothered by someone or something, he goes into an allergic crisis. I still don’t have a scientific explanation for this last theory, although its results have been quite promising. As for fear, however, I found something quite interesting.
In addition to all the symptoms mentioned at the beginning of the text, the big boss does much more than just press the red button. Faced with a situation of fear and stress, he suspends all the “secondary sectors”, in a kind of energy management – as when there is an interruption in the electricity supply and hospitals activate the generator to supply only the most important sectors. The brain does something similar with our bodies – it releases cortisol (stress hormone), adrenaline, and eventually releases those “extra loads” – after all, why are you going to take waste with you on a breakout? The lighter and less worrying, the better.
Many people confuse fear, cowardice and courage. Watch out! Afraid everyone is. No exception. Point. Letting oneself be dominated by fear is cowardice; to face it, on the other hand, is to have courage. Can you understand? Nice.
There are different types of fear. There are people who are afraid of heights, people who are afraid of spiders, the dark, clowns, helicopters, fire, water… And there is, above all, an interesting difference between the fear of when your life is at risk and the fear of when you are doing something risky. Had I ever stopped to think about it?
Many say that courage is the opposite of fear. I have a different view. I believe the opposite of fear is love. Let me explain: when you are afraid of drowning, you stay away from the water (pool, sea, river, lake); but if your child or one of your parents is drowning, distressed and crying out for help, you will probably jump out of your clothes, shoes, fear and all, and without measuring efforts, do your best to save one of the people you most love in the world. Better the two of them die than watch her die, asking for help and doing nothing. Of course, there are countless variables, but the brain always works the same way. Remember that it suspends some secondary systems? Well, reasoning is one of them.
Greek is a very interesting language because, among other things, it has a much more complete menu about Love than we have in Portuguese. Eros, Agape, Philos… I found that, similarly, Hebrew has a denser list about Fear. Attention! I’m not an expert in these languages, but occasionally I end up doing some research and reading, and I come across some memorable things. I have some notes with me and would like to share:
Yare is fear in the face of a dangerous situation; where you can lose your life. It’s the fear of the soldier in war, the fear of the Israelis facing Goliath, the fear of a wild animal, fear of the fury of nature (tsunami, storms, cyclones…), etc.
Yirah is fearful fear. It’s the fear of assuming who you really are, of coming out of the closet, of taking on new responsibilities, of taking risk/guilt, of sending the message to that person, sharing or posting something on social networks that will be exposed to others.
Pachad is the feeling related to terror. An approaching translation could be “dread”. It’s the fear that comes during those terrible nightmares, fear of sentences and judgments, fear of the dark; it’s a very biological and instinctive fear, roughly, automatic.
Chârad is the most difficult word to assimilate, and I may be wrong, but I would say it is fear of law, order, or word. It is the fear of an upcoming reprimand, the fear that precedes an anticipated/foreseen situation. – Something along those lines.
The list goes on…
What I want calls attention here is: long-term suicide, the effects and consequences of fear in our daily lives. Of course, eventually you will have fearful situations (all kinds) and this will shake your structures, but… Control, prevention, preparation, protection, care, love! Earthquakes do come, and will come, it’s inevitable, it’s natural, BUT. It is possible to prepare, be careful, control most of the facts.
Sometimes the tremors come with a supernatural force and destroy everything, it happens, it’s part of life, but if with each small earthquake we gain new cracks in the structures, or worse, lose parts of our homes and neighborhoods, we will always live between rubble. It’s a long-term suicide! Earthquakes, like mistakes and fears, should serve as an example and a learning experience. Why did this happen? How can I avoid this in the future?
In addition to seismographs and studies, earthquakes are fought with better structures (materials, buffers, etc.). None of this prevents earthquakes, but it prevents further damage. Do you see the difference? Fears are like earthquakes ; the self is like the combat system. There are several ways to improve this: reading, meditation, self-knowledge, calming yourself, analyzing possibilities, thinking of solutions…
A scared person gets sick? The onset of long-term suicide!
My grandmother used to say that “ when the head does not think, the body suffers ”. Having self-control is controlling your life. It sounds kind of obvious, and maybe it is, but that’s it. When we let ourselves be overwhelmed by fear, our secondary functions are suspended, and this includes the immune system – aah, why your theory that the person with fear gets sick? Yes. – and cognitive reasoning. No immunity and no reasoning!
Evolution has been generous to our species; fortunately, we don’t just depend on the reptilian part to live, we also have the cerebral cortex, we have the faculty of cognition, reasoning, logic; we have the option to think. Think about it.
Think! The mind is wonderful.
I’m Liam de Melo and it will be a pleasure to exchange ideas with you.
Gratitude.
