The 4 Drastic Ways Fear Can Ruin Your Health
Fear is an emotion that can negatively impact your quality of life.
We have all felt it before.
That sinking feeling. The pit in your stomach; the sweaty palms..
And maybe, even the need to use the bathroom.
Fear.
It’s a common emotion that we have all felt at different points in our lives. It’s a natural feeling that is innate in us to protect us, and we thank God for that.
However, this same emotion meant to bring us safety can lead us down a path of unfulfillment and struggle, if we let it completely control our lives.
What is fear?
Fear is said to be one of the seven universal emotions experienced by everyone around the world.
Fear is an emotion felt when there is a threat of harm, whether physical, emotional, or psychological; and no matter if it is real or imagined. This is the usual, universal trigger for fear.
Fear may also arise from a confrontation or from avoiding a threat, or it may come in the form of a discovery.
And while there is usually a certain thing that can trigger fear in most of us, we can learn to become afraid of almost anything.
What things can you be afraid of?
Some common things that people are usually afraid of are listed as:
darkness or loss of visibility of your surroundings
heights and/or flying (something I’m definitely afraid of)
social interactions and/or rejection
snakes, rodents, insects, spiders, and other animals
getting very sick, death and/or dying
What does fear feel like?
Well, so what does fear feel or look like?
Let’s start with the facial expression of fear. The facial expression of fear is often mixed - it can look like a face of both confusion and surprise.
Your eyebrows may shoot straight up and your mouth may be tense and stretched in fear.
Your voice might go up into a higher pitch and will sound more strained. If it is a physical threat, you may even scream (the sound of the scream can vary).
The sensation of fear in your body can feel like multiple, different things:
you may feel cold
have shortness of breath
sweating suddenly
you have trembling or tightening of your muscles
you have digestive issues; your stomach can start to hurt or may feel the need to use the bathroom
your eyesight will actually sharpen to see the threat better
your heart rate will increase (you may experience heart palpitations or your heart beating really fast; your heart does this to pump blood to your muscles faster, just in case you have to run for your life)
you may have the instinct to immediately:
start running,
defend yourself, or
you may freeze and clam up
(These reactions are more commonly related to something known as the fight-or-flight response that your body may have to protect you.)
The emotion of fear serves to help us avoid or reduce harm.
Depending on what we have learned in the past about what can protect us in dangerous situations, we are capable of doing many things we wouldn’t typically be able, or willing, to do in order to stop the threat.
The immediate threat of harm focuses our attention, mobilizing us to cope with the danger.
In this way, fear can actually save our lives by forcing us to react without having to think about it (e.g., jumping out of the way of a car coming at us).
So God allowed us to have the emotion of fear to protect us in our day-to-day lives, and there’s nothing wrong with experience fear from time to time.
How does fear affect your mental health?
As you can see, fear is a natural and universal human response that we all experience.
While fear is traditionally considered a “negative” emotion, fear actually serves an important role in keeping us safe.
But it can, also keep us feeling trapped and prevent us from doing things we’d like to.
Whereas some people may find fear nearly intolerable and avoid the emotion at all costs, there are others who experience pleasure and thrill from feeling fear and they seek it out (for example, like from watching a horror film or zip-lining from a mountain top).
This is not really the direction we really want to go in when it comes to experiencing fear, and we also don’t want to fall in a mental space where you are being controlled by your fear.
There are some detrimental things that can happen to your mind and body, if you have issues with continually feeling or experiencing fear:
What are the 4 ways fear can affect you?
1) First, fear will absolutely take a toll on your physical health.
Fear weakens our immune system: it can cause cardiovascular damage (which means it is weakening and damaging your heart), gastrointestinal problems (which is stomach and digestive problems), such as ulcers and irritable bowel syndrome, and decreased fertility (in both men and women).
It can also lead to quicker aging (meaning you will older sooner or look much older than what you actually are).
And, more dangerously it can even bring on premature death.
2) Secondly, fear can drastically mess with your memory.
Fear can impair the forming and creation of long-term memories, and it can also cause damage to certain parts of the brain, such as the hippocampus.
This can and will make it even more difficult to control fear — this can leave a person anxious most of the time, continually leading to declining and bad mental health.
To someone in chronic fear, the world looks scary and their memories (whether real or not) will always confirm that.
3) Thirdly, fear can interrupt brain processing.
Fear can interrupt processes in our brains that allow us to regulate emotions, read nonverbal cues from others, and understand other information presented to us.
It can affect whether you reflect before acting, and whether you act ethically.
This excessive amount of fear impacts our thinking and decision-making in negative ways, leaving us open and susceptible to intense emotions and impulsive reactions.
All of these effects can leave you unable to act appropriately, which will put you in situations where there can be real danger, and increase your feelings of fear even more, which will make you react even more impulsively.
You see where I’m going here?
It is a dangerous and vicious cycle that will continue until it leads to your possible early death, so you have to be careful with feelings of extreme or chronic fear.
4) Lastly and definitely not least, excessive and chronic fear can really negatively affect and destroy your mental health.
Chronic fear can bring about consequences of fatigue, clinical depression, and PTSD.
As you can see, nothing good comes out of experiencing chronic fear and this is not the way the Lord intended for you live your life.
The reasons for you to take care of your mental health is so you can experience a better quality of life.
When you care for your emotional and mental health properly, you will begin to experience benefits that very closely resemble the list of positive effects of prayer on a Christian’s life, which are:
Strengthen your relationship with God
Provide a sense of peace and calmness
Encourage feelings of encouragement and support
Help you understand how to reduce anxiety, stress and depression
Reduce your feelings of isolation and fear by letting you know that you are not alone in your struggles
Increase your chances of experiencing happiness, and help you reduce your inclination anger and aggression
Understand the importance of self-control
Overall, help you increase your life span (help you live longer), because if you understand how to take care of your mind, you will better be able to take care of yourself overall.
What does the Bible say about fear?
This is my favorite part of researching these topics where we can take a biblical approach to look at our mental health, so that we can learn what God says about it.
So, the first scripture I want to look at is in Luke:
“Do not worry about your life, what you will eat; or about your body, what you will wear. Life is more than food, and the body more than clothes. Consider the ravens: They do not sow or reap, they have no storeroom or barn; yet God feeds them. And how much more valuable you are than birds! Who of you by worrying can add a single hour to his life? Since you cannot do this very little thing, why do you worry about the rest?”
— Luke 12:22-26
This scripture in Luke is great, because here Jesus is giving clear instruction on how to handle common worries that usually lead to feelings of anxiety and fear of the future.
He says plainly, “Do not worry”. That’s it.
God truly has you in the palm of His hands.
And though, it may be understandable to worry about things in life, but it doesn’t make sense to worry. This is the part where we need to put those “trust muscles” to use.
The second scripture we are going to look at is in Isaiah:
“For I am the Lord, your God, who takes hold of your right hand and says to you, Do not fear; I will help you. Do not be afraid, for I myself will help you,' declares the Lord, your Redeemer, the Holy One of Israel.”
— Isaiah 41:13-14
This scripture is the perfect example of what Jesus is talking about in the first scripture we read.
God is letting you know that He is your help, and because of this, you have no need to be afraid.
And what I love in this scripture is that God specifically says, “Do not fear; I will help you”.
So fear should be not an emotion we default to nor remain in when we encounter a problem. Our default emotional posture should be trust — I trust that God is with me in this situation, and it will work out for His glory.
The third scripture we will reference for encouragement is in the Book of Psalms:
“God is our refuge and strength, an ever-present help in trouble.”
— Psalm 46:1
This scripture is short and concise, but says everything we need to hear.
When you know, believe and trust that God is your refuge (which means protection), you don’t need to fear.
It wouldn’t make sense to be fearful when you know that you are protected and have protection.
Now, the fourth and last scripture we will reference is also in the Book of Psalms:
“The Lord is with me; I will not be afraid. What can man do to me? The Lord is with me; he is my helper.”
— Psalm 118:6-7
Here is where you will be making a decision and taking in action once you read this scripture.
You are choosing, just like the author David did, to not fear; to not be afraid, and to know that God is always with you.
God is your help.
And though, you may feel fear and may feel afraid at different points in your life, you don’t have to remain in fear.
So as you can see here, the Bible has multiple scriptures (and many more than listed here) where it shows that God knows and understands your fears.
Not only that, He provides both a solution for it (which is putting your trust in Him), and provides you comfort in those times of fear.
The Takeaways
(In other words, TL:DR)
1) Fear is a natural and universal human response when we are presented with danger. It is not necessarily a bad thing, because it is one of the ways of how our body protects us.
2) Chronic fear is dangerous - it can destroy both our physical and mental health over time, and cause us to live shorter and unfulfilled lives.
3) The Bible shows that fear is natural, but also the God is a refuge in times of fear. When we have fear, remember this scripture:
“For I am the Lord, your God, who takes hold of your right hand and says to you, Do not fear; I will help you. Do not be afraid, for I myself will help you,' declares the Lord, your Redeemer, the Holy One of Israel.”
— Isaiah 41:13-14