Fear
I’ve been thinking a lot about fear lately because it has a very insidious way of showing up in my life.
It’s a very primal feeling, that is thought to originate in the amygdala. These are two almond shaped clusters of cells deep inside the brain on both sides. This brain region evolved very early on, and is often referred to as being part of the ‘reptilian brain.’ This is because it is useful in situations where quick reactions to danger can make the difference between life and death. These reactions are usually summed up as ‘fight, flight or freeze.’ Sometimes ‘fornicate’ is thrown in.
However, there are other brain layers that have grown around the amygdala, mainly to allow more complex and nuanced behaviors.
According to a model called the ‘Triune Brain,’ our brains can be divided into three layers: the reptilian, mammalian and primate brains. Each of them builds on the previous one.
The reptilian first layer, involves really basic urges and drives; instincts like aggression, hunger, and fear, all of which help us stay alive.
The mammalian second layer involves more complicated behavior. Things typically involving emotions. Animals that display this layer have more complex social behaviors, and have the ability to parent to their young and form emotional attachments.
And finally, the primate brain, allows for a lot more complex behaviors because of a brain region called the neocortex. This gives animals with this brain region the ability to plan, think abstractly and imagine. Without this layer, the world is reduced far more to the present moment. Life without it is more reactionary, and less thought out.
Each of these ‘brains’ serves a specific function in humans, and they are all important. If a car is on a collision course with you, the amygdala can process that signal very quickly and tell you to jump out of the way. There’s no need for abstract planning or emotional intelligence. You just have to act.
But at the same time, it’s not helpful to be fearful when trying to learn calculus, or during social interactions. It takes away all the focus from the complex problem of math or people and turns it toward keeping you “safe”. It can even go as far as hijacking control of the brain itself.
Our brains haven’t changed much in the time since we’ve evolved. And a lot of the circuitry that’s hard coded into us is better adapted for the Ice Age than city life. And there are a lot of ways this affects us, but the one I want to focus on has to do with how we manage fears.
Because at the end of the day, there really aren’t as many actual dangers to our lives in daily life. The world we’ve built is a much safer place than it was 100,000 years ago. We have plenty of food, clean water, easy access to shelter, very few wild animals near us… We live extremely comfortably compared to our ancestors.
But the problem is our amygdala doesn’t know that. It can’t think abstractly, or rationally. It just operates on feelings. And so what it ends up doing is making us a lot more scared than we should be, about things that are not very likely to harm us.
Just consider how much more money and effort we put behind programs to keep airports safer, and prevent terrorist attacks. When in fact the real dangers are things like obesity, heart problems, diabetes… Our food is far more likely to kill us than an airplane is, but because one is fast and catastrophic, and the other is slow and chronic, our amygdala biases us against the real danger.
The solution is the same as it is for all matters of life: we have to adapt.
And on the whole, I think we could be doing a much better job. I think a lot of mental health problems stem from this overly-active amygdala we all have. So many people I know have experienced this vague sense of anxiety, even though there is little to be scared about. Because most of the time the stakes in modern working life are about getting fired, or failing an exam, if that. This wouldn’t be so terrible, if it weren’t for how debilitating it can be. Being afraid just makes us worse at making difficult decisions.
Irrational fear also manifests itself in ways that are a lot harder to categorize because they are not quite pathological.
Consider the fear of a cheating boyfriend/girlfriend. Even if there is no evidence, it can still throw people into a spiral of dread. This then translates into passive-aggressive behavior, or clinginess, or distance.
Thus, it becomes a self-fulfilling prophecy, where by fearing a certain outcome, we bring it about. Everyone creates the thing they dread.
My main point is that our fears create a lot of problems for us. And bad decisions that are made very quickly by the amygdala can take a long time to correct using the neocortex. I think the key is to recognize when we are feeling fear and then to really examine if our proposed mental solution is actually a solution, or just a way to pacify that fear.
Slow the whole process down. Let the higher brain take care of things. There is a lot more computational power up there than in the amygdala.
It’s something I’m looking to master myself, and it can be very tricky at times because of my ability to rationalize my fears. Because getting rid of fear, and implementing a solution to a problem, are two very different things.
