Chronic fear can negatively affect an individual’s physical, emotional, environmental, and spiritual health, contributing to a variety of anxieties and disorders, according to a report from The Center for Biosimilars.
Fear is a natural response to physical or psychological danger. Most of the fear people experience arises when the brain predicts what may happen in the future in order to prepare a person for the best chance of survival.
“When fear becomes chronic, it suppresses our immune systems, making us more vulnerable to the effects of infections, but by targeting your stress levels, you can reduce the suppression of your immune system,” the report concluded.
Dr. Mary D. Moller, director of psychiatric services at Northwest Center for Integrated Health, described the three stages of fear; alarm, resistance and exhaustion. The body goes through these stages as it responds to external stressors.
The alarm stage identifies a danger and arranges for action. The resistance stage is when the body restores hormones to normal levels. Finally, the exhaustion stage occurs when stress hormones are constant for extended periods of time.
“The potential effects of chronic fear on physical health include headaches turning into migraines, muscle aches turning into fibromyalgia, body aches turning into chronic pain, and difficulty breathing turning into asthma,” said Moller.
Emotionally, chronic fear creates a space for learned helplessness, mood swings, obsessive-compulsive thinking, and decreases loving feelings, said the report.
Environmentally, the uncertainty that stems from constant fear has potential consequences like inability to find safe housing, unknown associated dangers, and paranoia.
Spiritually, the consequences of constant fear range from loss of trust in God and bitterness, to despair over perceived loss of spirituality.
Exercise alleviates these effects by decreasing the amount of adrenaline and promoting endorphins, or “feel-good hormones,” which are natural mood boosters.
A regular sleeping pattern gives the body time to fight infections, boosts the immune system, and allows thoughts to consolidate and organize.
Meditation eases the effects of stress and brings the body into a calming state by focusing more on present moments. It also eases chronic pain, cancer, asthma, depression, and sleep problems, according to the report.
“Fear serves an essential function, keeping us safe. This was particularly useful in the past when we often came into contact with predators. Nowadays, there is not the same level of risk. Yet, millions of people around the world suffer from chronic fear/anxiety,” the report said.
Testing of medical students during exam season showed how stress affects their immune systems. The results showed that students displayed higher white blood cell counts prior to the exams.
Additionally, students who had high levels of loneliness, anxiety, depression, or stressful life events displayed weaker immune systems.
These results did not account for the students who may have been ill, used substances, had dietary disorders, and other factors like sleep patterns or poor general health at the time of the study.
There are positive benefits to short-term fear. However, long-term fear weakens the body’s immune system.
