When we are frightened, we will be in a state of unease and panic. What we usually say is frightening people to death. Will people really be scared to death?
Two weeks ago, I watched the movie "it" with countless Americans, contributing to the box office of more than $270 million. Like most horror films I've seen, this one doesn't give me the sense of fear I'm expecting. At least the clown doesn't make me particularly afraid. What I'm afraid of is the saying that fear itself (that is, represented by clowns) can kill people. It's not easy for me to be scared in the cinema, but it's easy to be scared almost anywhere outside. If people really die of fear, I'm definitely one of the candidates.
Photo source: movie "the return of the clown"
I asked several experts to comfort me that this extreme fear of the world around me would not really kill me. Unfortunately, I failed to do so. 'a strong emotional state can actually kill people, whether it's fear or other emotions. Suzanne Steinbaum, director of the women's heart health program at the Lenox Hill Hospital in New York, told me: 'the risk of heart attack increases even during games such as the super bowl or the world series. "Data on the exact incidence of such events is difficult to collect, but Steinbaum points out that doctors can still clearly detect an increase in mortality during such events. Although these deaths can be labeled as heart attack or stroke in written documents, they can be classified as death caused by fear (or stress, anxiety and excitement) because they are caused by extremely strong emotions.
The key is that these emotions are 'extremely strong'. The human brain has evolved to be able to cope effectively with mild to moderate fear stimuli, and only when we experience particularly strong fear (or other emotions), can our body be overwhelmed. Humaira siddiqi, director of psychiatry at Kaiser Permanente in Northern Virginia, told me that fear or other emotions originate in areas of the brain called the amygdala. When the mood is only mild or moderate, the amygdala will then transmit the information to the hippocampus directly above, which is responsible for processing the mood into the situation. For example, if you see something moving with your eyes, your amygdala may immediately generate fear or alert, making you feel that you have seen a mouse, a centipede or other terrible things. And seahorses make you realize that: (a) you don't see anything; or (b) you do see a mouse or a centipede, but they can't hurt you. Only when fear is too strong or too sudden can it do harm to people. "When a strong emotional response suddenly surges up in your brain, it sometimes crosses the hippocampus, then fear loses its situation, it becomes pure fear, and hijacks your brain. 'said siddiki.
When such a strong fear response occurs, the body releases a large number of hormones (adrenaline, noradrenaline and cortisol), causing arrhythmias, rising blood pressure, strokes, heart attacks, and eventually death (though unlikely). One of the reasons the body releases so much hormone like this, siddiki points out, is an outdated fear response: fight or flight. 'modern people generally don't need the body to react when facing fear, but we need to think about countermeasures. At this point, our evolutionary adaptations to fear stimuli are a bit outdated. '
It can be regarded as the result of the body's inability to make the right response under the extremely strong emotional impact.
Because modern people don't really run away or fight in the face of fear, these extra adrenalins lose their real function. In fact, the best response to extreme fear or anxiety is to 'cover' the body's fear response with deep breathing, siddiki points out. 'deep breathing and other actions may feel silly, but breathing can slow down the heart rate. 'she said,' when you breathe, you are also consciously reducing the sympathetic response, which will ease the control of the body, so that you can relax and dominate the body. '
Steinbaum points out that the risk of death from fear (or other strong emotions) is low, although it increases with age or heart disease. Fear is not our enemy, but our ally.
'having a fear response is a good thing, being anxious is a good thing, even depression is a good thing, because they are signals or warnings that tell us what's wrong. 'said siddiki. Fear helps life more than it threatens. 'fear is an adaptive mechanism that we have evolved. If this thing kills us all, it won't evolve at all. '
Nevertheless, it is necessary for everyone to understand and fear their own tolerance. That's why several signs should be erected outside the roller coaster project to remind heart attack patients not to ride; why some people would not go to see "the return of the clown" anyway, how can I guarantee that it is not so scary in fact; that's why I would never jump out of a plane in the middle of the air and hope that the parachute would open smoothly. Fear probably won't kill you, but why test it?
People's response to fear is not the same, and their physical condition is not the same, so people with poor heart tolerance will really have problems.