ABOUT FEAR

Fear is motivation, survival and demise all wrapped up

in a complicated psychological package.

First we have to understand why we fear, what we fear, and what fear does physically. The panic at the highest moment of terror was built as a survival mechanism in most creatures on this planet. We have evolved to tone it down so that we behave in a society together. When those bonds of community are broken for long periods of time, luckily we still revert back to 'fight or flight'. I'm sure you've heard this term used quite often, with flight meaning 'run away quickly' and fight generally meaning 'to stand ones ground aggressively'. What types of situations do you personally have one of those reactions to? Have you committed to Cognitive Behaviour Therapy or other such treatments to get over elevators, spiders or heights? It takes some training to bottle these 'racing thoughts' and collect yourself in a moment’s notice. Finally, what are the physical effects of fear? They can manifest in our intellect in very different ways from startling, jumping, rubbing hands together, increased heart rate, instant perspiration, and sometimes even fainting. You can see how having a self-conscious control over the stages of panic could be beneficial in an apocalypse of any kind.

How does this emotion become motivation? Some people who have learned to master their fears have propelled themselves to the top of their game. The tight rope walkers between buildings or waterfalls can calm themselves, their reaction time and continue along a dangerous path seemingly with ease. Most likely they started at a young age and rewrote their brain patterns and quirks to not find this situation as horrific as some of us might. They have a head start on some of us who will need to use months or years to get that slowed-to-the-second reaction time often featured by our heroes in film. Still beyond that there are problems or nemeses which arise that can bring our favorite character to their knees in terror and sometimes send even James Bond speeding in the opposite direction.

The reason fear is so prevalent in nature and humanity is that it protected us when we didn't have guns, cars, hospitals, readily available food or even control over fire. We exist and survive today because of the fears, terrors, nightmares and panic attacks of our ancestors. Even the instinct of what we should not eat due to the reaction of others (i.e. poison) and remembering what happened to the others around us builds a mental library of threats, dangers and possibly deadly situations. For example when someone in front of you gets accosted by a very drunk and shabby looking man, will you walk in the exact same path and not expect the same result? Or do you cross the street, change your position on the sidewalk to avoid the 'perceived threat'?

Running is an all too easy answer to any confrontation and honestly it can be a big mistake. Have you ever seen someone turn in panic and run into a wall on America's Funniest Home Videos? Or how about seeing someone so worried about what they are about to do that they mess it up in the process? Even that squirrel that dashes out onto the highway to cross, gets three quarters of the way, then suddenly turns and runs back to his starting point? These types of mid-panic decisions can lead to injury or even to demise.

The first step to controlling fear is to know fear and to expose yourself to the threat and get accustomed to it without learning to fully trust it. People who've faced these spiders or heights head on can often have a better reaction time and ultimately a better outcome.

Special thanks to Mitchell Tremblay for sharing this article with us. Mitch is an experienced Z-World LARPer, and has been an amazing zombie volunteer at our camps.

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