Fear

What are YOU afraid of?

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What are YOU afraid of? The Fear exhibit explores different kinds of fears and offers tips for dealing with them. Whether you run the other way from spiders and snakes, are concerned about terrorism, or like scary movies, this exhibit is for you.

    Play the FEAR game!

What is fear?

What are you afraid of? What scares you?

Fear is often unpleasant and uncomfortable, but everyone is afraid at times. It can be helpful to understand some common fears and how to overcome them.

Fear is not pain, sadness, embarrassment, or loss. Fear is the thought that those things might happen. It is a "disease of the what-ifs."

Fear is worse if:

• Something is new and unknown
• We cannot control the situation
• We think something really bad-a catastrophe-could happen
• We cannot predict what might happen
• We think people might cause the danger, not nature

 

Fear is centered in the lower parts of the brain. When the lower parts of the brain are used a lot, they take over. Then it is harder to use the higher level of the brain. It is at the higher levels of the brain that reason and careful analysis take place. Living with too much fear can lead a person to be aggressive and violent or withdrawn and unable to act. More information on phobias

Children's Fears

Some fears are common for children at certain ages. Children usually grow out of those fears.  Developmental fears happen because children know a little bit about something, but not enough to deal with it. Some fears are unique to an age range, but other fears either continue or change slightly as the child grows.

• Children's common fears
• Helping children overcome fears

Phobias-What are they?

Developed  by Janet Canino, M.S., Marriage & Family Therapy Graduate Student, Department of Child Development and Family Studies, Purdue University, 2003

Everyone experiences a certain amount of anxiety and fear as a normal part of life. But millions of Americans experience intense fear about certain objects or situations-these are called Phobias. A Phobia is a type of Anxiety Disorder characterized by overwhelming and exaggerated fear that interferes with a person's daily life.

Anxiety disorders are the most common type of mental health concern for both children and adults. Some people estimate that as many as 19 million adult Americans suffer from some type of anxiety disorder.

More Information

Looking for Fear

Adult viewers know that a scary movie or TV drama is not real. Yet many of them experience fear when watching them. Why are they afraid?

Viewers are more likely to react with fear to an event in the movies or on TV if.

.the event is presented realistically

.they are already afraid of the event

.the event is possible or even somewhat likely.

Many people say they enjoy scary movies and television programs. Because they may enjoy the sense of relief, sometimes even euphoria that can come afterward, they may remember the positive emotions rather than the terror.

Links

• For additional Extension-related resources related to "fear," use key words of interest to you to search the CYFERnet website:    search.extension.umn.edu/cyfernet/query.html
  
  
• To locate and contact your local Extension office:   www.ces.purdue.edu/anr/field/fs/countyoffices2.html
  
  
• State of Indiana's Public Safety Information Network: www.in.gov/safetynet/
  
  
• For further information regarding copyright and copyright law contact: the Library of Congress U.S.:
  www.loc.gov/copyright/
  
  

Credits

Janet Canino, M.S., Marriage & Family Therapy Graduate Student
Dee Love, M. A., Extension Specialist
Judy Myers-Walls, PhD, Extension Specialist
Dena Targ, PhD, Extension Specialist
Department of Child Development and Family Studies
Purdue University