The problem is we don’t listen to it often enough. Humans have this wonderful gift of intuition. What blend of fear does your character feel? The fear of public speaking is largely imagined, but what’s really at stake is reputation, identity, self-worth. Social context can teach fear of a particular person (avoid your uncle – don’t ever be alone with him) or various forms of racism. Past experiences can create learned fears – a young child will learn to fear bunk beds if they had a friend fall out of one and seriously injure themselves.
Falling is an instinctive fear present even in newborns. Pain causes instinctive fear – survival instinct. **Sorry if you thought this post was only for horror/thriller authors.** smile **not sorry**įear can be partly instinct, partly learned, partly taught, partly imagined. The more I learned about fear, the more I realized this is an emotion that every novelist should know more about because it’s laced in virtually every character arc ever written. Usually the fears that can leave us paralyzed are imagined (what ifs).Ĭhronic stress is in fact a low-intensity fear response to worry, daily insecurity, anxiety, etc. Our bodies and minds instinctually engage in a race for survival. What’s interesting though is that fear caused by a real immediate threat is rarely paralyzing. Think of everyone who loves tear-jerker stories, wild roller coasters, or scary movies! So, there’s a very close association.įear can range from mild to paralyzing. There’s such a thing as benign masochism – which is the intentional seeking out of pain while also maintaining an awareness that pain won’t cause serious damage. When in pain, the body flushes with endorphins and other pain-blocking pleasure-building chemicals that quickly shift the pain into pleasure.
There are studies looking at how different painkiller medications also numb the ability to have an orgasm for instance. Scientists believe that pleasure and pain share some neural pathways. The difference between how our bodies respond to fear or excitement is how we internally/mentally interpret what we’re experiencing. What I mean by that is our bodies react the same way to both emotions. Boo! What better day to write about the body language of fear than the scariest day of the year!įun Fact: Fear and excitement create the exact same physiological response.
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