How to be a less Horrible Human: 12 Facts about Fear

“Fear defeats more people than any other one thing in the world.”

— Ralph Waldo Emmerson

I leaned over the ambulance cart and with a confidence I did not feel, I said, “Hello, I’m Dr. Black and I’m going to take care of you.”

The situation was bad. The patient had arrived in the Emergency Room after an accident on his first day learning to snowboard. The patient was in shock: white, cold, sweaty and scared.

I was scared too. My breath short and shallow, body tingling, vision narrowed to just what was in front of me. I was experiencing the classic fight-or-flight response. This response had served my caveman ancestors well in the dangerous environment where they evolved, but the sensation running through my body was threatening to overwhelm me and make me ineffective. And this young man desperately needed me to be effective.

The problem with fear is that it is a primitive instinct. Fear was a necessary survival drive for our Paleolithic ancestors. They faced ever present threats from saber-toothed tigers, poisonous snakes, injuries in a time before hospitals, and starvation. Lack of reasonable fear in the face of these hazards did not lead to a long life.

In today’s world, we face little risk from any of these dangers, yet we still feel fear. But if we are not afraid of predation or poisoning, what is it that we fear? The answer for most people is failure. We fear failing and being a failure. However, failure — as opposed to saber-toothed tigers — is rarely fatal. Yet, our inbuilt fear mechanism kicks in to make us feel just as terrified.

This is a problem because the mechanisms of successfully dealing with a hungry predator are not the mechanisms that help us succeed in the modern world. The fight-or-flight response saved our ancestors’ lives, but that same mechanism does not serve modern humans well. Running away from problems in work and life is likely to make those problems worse. For example, running away from paying your bill will only cost you more in the end. When we feel threatened at work, striking out can have devastating consequences for our relations with our co-workers and our career. Or in my case, the inability to gain the upper hand on my fear could lead to a tragic…