Imagine losing light toward the end of a horror movie in the middle of the night. You rub your hands around the sofa in search of light and realize you forgot your phone in the kitchen.
You wander in darkness into the kitchen for your phone. Stepping into the kitchen, you notice every object moving, just like those skeletons were moving in the movie. You manage to get closer to your phone, just as you straighten out your hands to pick it, you notice something trying to grab your hands. You scream and immediately the light is restored. You look around and nothing was moving. You realize It was just your mind messing with you.
According to Paul Ekman Group “Fear is one of the seven universal emotions experienced by everyone around the world. Fear arises with threat of harm, either physical, emotional, or psychological, real or imagined”.
In the above example, the kind of fear experienced was imagined, not physical.
Initially considered a negative emotion, the perspective of fearists and philosophers is worth considering to give us a broader view on the concept of fear. According to the exceptional fearologist Desh Subba” Fear is a beautiful consciousness and director of life. The fearist perspective is a new dimension to look at life and the world”.
Having fear is one of the ways we respond to events, which sometimes are the consequence of some ontological triggers that can present themselves in different ways such as:
- Fear of death/dying
- Fear of darkness
- Fear of snakes and rodents/insects
- Fear of flight
- Fear of interacting with people
Studies have shown that … chronic stress has a significant effect on the immune system that ultimately manifests an illness.
According to a study by Mohd. Razali published in the Malaysian Journal of Medical Sciences, “The relationship of stress with psychiatric illness is strongest in neuroses, which is followed by depression and schizophrenia.
The correlation between stressful life events (which fear is a chief causer component) and psychiatric illness is stronger than the correlation with medical or physical illness.”
This goes to show that many anxieties that patients present which run from something as mildly fearful as watching a horror movie to something as dreadful as either losing a spouse or relative could cause a fear phenomenon that would lead to some underlying psychological dispositions of anxieties that patients present when they come to meet clinicians.
More than any other sector, healthcare providers should be wary of these psychological fear triggers and the impact they could have on patient well-being and disposition when they communicate with patients in healthcare settings.
In my book Tips for Effective Communication, I explored various ways we can handle fear and other communication barriers to enable an effective and generous communication.
