The trick to curing fear: Avoid Avoiding

Why is the old saying, "If a horse throws you, get back on it as soon as possible," great advice? Answer: it is the only way to overcome fear! Not getting back on the horse conditions your fear response-you learn to be afraid of the horse. On the other hand, when there really is something threatening or dangerous it makes sense to avoid. By avoiding danger, when it is real, your anxiety or fear responses serve useful functions. However, when you avoid something that is not truly dangerous, you fail to see the reality of the situation and there is no hope of learning that the fear is unjustified! For this reason, avoidance is associated with strengthening the fear response and can lead to the development of Anxiety Disorders.

The old saying "there is nothing to fear but fear itself" really makes sense. In actuality, repeatedly avoiding something that is either a little dangerous (and you make mountains out of mole hills) or not dangerous at all, leads to conditioning the part of your brain involved in the fear response. The Amygdala is a little structure that exists in the mid brain, which scientists have recently discovered is involved in fear conditioning. By avoiding you essentially tell this part of the brain to remind you to be afraid when anything like the situation you avoided comes up. Your anxiety is then triggered which makes you want to avoid the situation even more. The end result is a vicious cycle of fear and avoidance that leads to developing an Anxiety Disorder. The trick to overcoming fear is to face it: get back on the horse! Saddle up to face your fears or get professional help if you are stuck.