Research: Fear

Fear is made up of chain reactions in our brains that begin with a stressful stimulus and ends with the liberation of chemicals. Most common consequences are a sprinting heart, rapid breathing and energised muscles. This reaction is often called the fight-or-flight response. 

Within our greatly complex brain is a knotty network of communications amongst the billions of nerve cells. Here is where any sense, thought or action begins. In some cases, the communications result to mindful thought and action. But almost all responses are entirely autonomic; we don’t happen to knowingly trigger it or understand what occurred until it has ended.

There are two responses to fear: the low road, and the high road.

The low road is the idea of 'taking no chances'. If there's something the person is triggered by to fear, they'll begin having different thoughts, with the assumption of danger being weaker if they believe in something that is a dangerous trigger, but really turns out to be anything ordinary. So, say there was a knock on the door, the person will believe in the fact that it's a burglar when really it's the wind causing the stimulus. They won't assume the other way, believing that it's the wind when really a burglar is breaking into the house.

The high road includes more thought. Where the low road initiates the fear response just in case, high road will consider all options; is it a burglar or is it a wind? With the knock on the door being the stimulus, the high road will begin asking questions like have they experienced this particular situation before? What did it mean that time? They'll begin looking for clues to prove if its the wind or if its really an intruder.

The stimulus (knocking on the door) will cause both roads to follow up at the same time, but the high road will take longer, explaining a moment of terror you experience before recovering.