Fear is a biological autonomic nervous system response, and the environment we are raised in certainly nurtures and fosters it to take a form of its own. Individuals regularly start their days with fear from the moment they wake up, which contributes to increasing rates of anxiety, depression, ADHD, addictions, blood pressure issues, autoimmune diseases and to post traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). Furthermore, we are the only species known to worry, to ruminate in fear and a direct correlation can be drawn between fear and sickness.

“Fear has shadowed human life since our species emerged. Fear is defined as our most fundamental emotional and physical response to a perceived threat, triggering the chain of physical responses commonly known as fight-or-flight” (Sacred Sick, Karr-Morse Wiley).

Every human will have a unique relationship with fear. Fear can be measured on a sliding spectrum – scared to death, catatonic, to nervousness, anxiety, to butterflies in the stomach, to sweaty palms.

Our parents had their own fears, which were passed down to them from their own parents. The level of fear which each of our caregivers oozed can be passed down to us through environment and/or epigenetics. It was palatable when we observed our mother when she saw a spider as we not only observed her fear but we felt it. What were the levels of fear or concern in her voice, her facial expressions and her behaviours? Some mothers might not even flinch when they saw the spider and got a jar to happily shift the spider from inside to outside while other mothers might have screamed, started to hyperventilate and were unable to deal with the spider due to the mere sight or even a thought of a spider. These early impressions fed our own fears, interpretations and behaviours when we encounter a spider, snake, get into a fender bender, have an argument or accidently break a glass on the floor. These past impressions formed and influenced how fearful we are as adults in our every day experiences or mishaps.

COVID-19 has created a fearful global platform where many people throughout the world due to the media portraying the severity of the virus, lack of information on exactly how infectious in nature, falsification of hospitalization numbers and it being invisible led to mental instability and demise of societies around the world. This led to an increase of fear, anxiety and nervousness, which has bestowed drastic spikes in suicide rates, xenophobia, agoraphobia, depression, loneliness, division and isolation. Furthermore, two years in to the pandemic, people are so programmed by the media to be so sacred and fearful to be outside without a mask for fear of transmission. Some individuals are now wearing two masks even outside and in their own cars when alone. These precautionary measures are a stark indication of someone’s fear levels and their psychological stability or what some might argue, instability. This level of fear will cause pre-mature death, create numerous mental illnesses, mysterious autoimmune health issues and prematurely taken lives due to suicides.

Social distancing and nationwide lockdowns have annihilated mental health and has divided society into a narrative of vaccinated vs. unvaccinated furthermore pushing a fear mongering narrative that one group is more of a threat to society. Almost all the countries around the world adopted lockdowns in order to minimize the spread of COVID-19 though at what cost to society and each citizen’s mental health or livelihood.

Billions of people are living with new level of psychological fear and anxiety due to the pandemic and the fear they might get Covid and die. Covid is just one of many global example of fear; equally we could swap in any stressors, for example financial hardships, war, abuse, natural disaster, fascist government, and acts of terrorism.

When you tolerate the intolerable you get sick. Fear or worrying does not help or changing the situation.
Your own biological physiology created by fear can kill you.

There is much we can do to reduce the cumulative toll of chronic fear and trauma on our health. The earlier we seek help at the nervous system level, somatic body-base level the quicker we can reduce the physiological demands on all our body systems (respiratory, reproductive, urinary, endocrine, cardiovascular, digestive, muscular, neurological). When the allostatic load of cumulated burdens from chronic stress, fear and life events are lessened there is more regulation and more capacity in the autonomic nervous system to be able to handle and respond to stress in new ways.