Why do we get scared?

Question

Why do some people get scared of darkness, heights, and other things??
I am scared of darkness and snakes, but i don't understand why am I scared.

Answer 1

Steve Hill talks about fear of death and darkness phobia:

Fear of the dark also known as Nyctophobia is common among young children who often fear that something catastrophic may happen to them in the night. In the darkness, we can't see very well, and for a young child, particularly one with a healthy imagination, this can be very frightening. A pervading sense can build that something sinister is just out of sight and arm's reach waiting for its moment to strike. As a young child, I used to suffer from this phobia, as a result of which my mother used to leave the landing light on for me to provide a calming relief from the darkness. My parents also used to ask me questions to make me elaborate on my fears. By doing this, they showed concern and sympathy, while at the same time making it very clear that they were not afraid. In this way, parents can be of great use to their children. The fear lessened as I grew older, then went away altogether. Most children as they grow up and the world around them becomes more logical and less fantastic, come to realise that they are quite safe in the darkness and their fears were irrational. Some adults can suffer from this fear – particularly those who suffer from nightmares or have traumatic memories. Although gradual exposure to darkness can be helpful to nyctophobics, the management of nightmares and bad memories is liable to require specialist help. Fear of death or Thantophobia is quite a natural phenomenon. None of us know what will happen to us after we die. But to be morbidly afraid of death is unhealthy and detrimental to our lives. If one fears death excessively, it can prevent them from being able to enjoy life. Often associated with hypochondria, morbid death fear can cause unnecessary worry and anxiety and can prevent the sufferer from being able to live life to the full. To a point the fear of death diminishes when we see it in its natural context – a dying person surrounded by loving friends and family. However most of our images of death in the modern world have been distorted by our culture's preoccupation with unnatural violent death: daily news stories of shootings, abductions and suicide bombings. Brutally violent movies and computer games. Also scare mongering news stories regarding types of food once perceived to be healthy, but now putting you at death's door. All this negative focus leads to unhealthy consequences. An exaggerated fear of dying and phobias of growing old leads to a reluctance to make a will or make any plans for those we love whom we know will outlive us and a general ignorance of normal end of life options.

Answer 2

You were not born scared!!! When we are little children just learning to talk and walk our parents have trained us to be scared. They and others as well put fear in us. Then we have watched scarry movies and watch the reactions of others and one real bad thing we have all done is scaring people by coming up behind them and saying "BOO" or jumping out at them in the dark . This is absolutly stupid!! Fear is a spiritual spirit and it gets imbedded your soul. There are people who are afraid of animals and they sense this so therefore a lot of times they will attack. But if you defyed it and said I am not afraid of you and would not run or move it would back down. The Holy Bible says, God has not given us a Spirit of fear, but of power, love and a sound mind.
I was afraid of water, and height and when I received Jesus into my life as my saviour and Lord and I was water baptised I lost the fear of them both. Now you can cause fear to take hold of you as adults who may of not had fear. For example some people who have had car accidents when driving have never drove again because of fear I had a small accident while driving one time and no damage or anyone hurt but I did not want to continue driving the rest of the journey but my husband would not let me stop because he Knew that unless I came against that it would of grown and grown and became totaly obsessed by it. People let fear come in and if I am startled at times then I just say out loud No! I do not have any fear. I do not like snakes either and I think that is because they are so creepy and crawly, But I do not live where there are harmful ones. You can also have a fear of man especialy with all the strange things that are happening in the world today. I better stop here and if you care to correspond with me you are welcome to email me.
I hope this is not too long.

Answer 3

I'm extremely afraid of heights, cannot step on a ladder, like on the mall, the 2nd floor, you know how it's protected by glass instead of a fence, when I'm walking through the hall and I see down the glass I get dizzy, in my case I think it was over protection when I was a child, we used to live on a hill and our backyard was protected only by a chain link fence and then there was this drop like 100 ft high or so, if my mom would see me anywhere near the fence she would scream get out of there!, so sometimes we transmit that fear unto our children, my husband and I decided not to do that to our son, so he's not afraid of the dark, he knows there is no such thing as monsters under the bed or in the closet, he has never been afraid of any characters, even since he was a baby, never cried when I took him to see Santa etc.
I guess fears are a natural instinct but phobias are an exaggeration of what is supposed to be natural.
I did however visited the grand canyon, despite my fear of heights, twice, can't wait to take my son someday!!

Answer 4

They stem from deep seeded memories from childhood. I often have to give tetanus shots to big burly men that come in for stitches and they say things like they're "terrified of needles", or "when the dr numbs me, does he have to give me a shot?" I ask them if they can ever remember being held down as a child and getting a shot. They almost always answer yes. You've either had an experience as a small child with snakes and the dark and those memories are held in your subconcsious mind and so when you encounter a similar situation, part of your brain signals fear in you, and the part of your brain responsible for memories is clueless unless you try to really think back as how these fears came about.

Answer 5

People are afraid of things because the people who fear those things believe that it poses a potential danger.

The Fear of darkness is because we dont really know what's out there when it's dark. We're afraid that something might just pop up and kill us.

The fear of height is probably just the fear of loosing your balance and dropping to your death.

Snakes.... snakes hurt when they bite >.< and can be deadly

Fear is beneficial to us; it keeps us away from harm (like pain does the same thing). So when you fear something, it's usually because YOU think it can harm you. That's why some people fear some things that others don't. It's all in how you perceive something.

Answer 6

Fear is part of the nature of living beings. We get scared about things which we do not understand.

We get scared when we don't know about something or when we think that we could physically get hurt and cannot survive because of that subject/object (darkness or snakes etc...).

If you learn about snakes and darkness then you can come out of the fear for them.
Different people have fear about different things. You may have fear about snakes, but there are people who handle snakes like how we handle other pets, because they understand the characteristics and nature of snakes and how to work with them.

Normally any living being attacks others (of course apart from looking for food), to protect itself from others, because it fears that it cannot survive if the other party is still on the scene.

Same thing holds good for humans, we tend to hit a snake or a dog or any animal, if we think that it will hurt us and let us not survive.

So simply learn about whatever you are fearing, try to understand their true nature and have fear for the things which we really need to fear about instead of fearing for anything and everything.

For example we have to have fear about the animals which attack humans for food, and fight for survival with them, but we don't have to fear for darkness.

Answer 7

Its all because of your wrong thinkings that the above mentioned things are harmful. I mean that the ghosts, evils, devils live in darkness and snakes will bite thereby causing the death. You know all snakes are not poisonous and the fact that there exists no ghosts or devils in the world!!!!!

Keep this in mind. Keep on telling this to your insight. Your fear will fade off.

Answer 8

haaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa very true dear


but i can tell u

do you know when we see any thing or hear anything it goes in our mind and we react that way only

as we see or hear that all evil thing comes in darkness that is way we react or scared of darkness

it is simple theory of life baby

ok
tell me your mother loves you a lot but if u see her in angry for some season but not on u than also u will feel little scary it happen dear

we all scared but try to over come all this why i am saying this because i did it. i use to scared of darkness to but now i don't

so it will take time as u grow u will come to know

byeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee

hooooooooooooooooooooooo haaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa scared na!!!!!!!!

Answer 9

Some people have phobias. I'm scared of spiders but I don't know why. My husband is scared of heights but incredibly he was Certified Airborne in the military. You have to parachute out of a plane to become certified. He fainted his first time. Thank God those chutes open on their own! Anyways I wouldnt worry about your fears. If it's not affecting your quality of life, then its not a phobia and is nothing to worry about.

Answer 10

We get scared because it's part of our instinct.

There's a psychological response called "fight-or-flight", where when a human is exposed to something out of the ordinary we either become agressive or we run away.

Fear is what helps humans survive and many other animals, if something seems dangerous - running away or becoming cautious about a certain situation (like when we are scared), helps us avoid certain outcomes.

Answer 11

It is due to lack of willpower or confidence. Increase it then you will find the difference yourself.
Since our childhood we are taught by our parents like that "you do this other wise devil will come from the dark. since that you are scared of darkness, cockroaches etc.
Keep in mind you are going to behave in the same way and will make your kids with lack of willpower or confidence.
Please do not do that.