How Much Fear?

How Much Fear?

We all know that there are many things to be afraid of. Bad economic conditions, health concerns and, sometimes, other people. We also know that when we are afraid, our bodies and minds experience changes. In his extensive work as a military psychologist, Dave Grossman has written about the effects of fear. He has described five levels or "conditions" and the effects of each of them.

In condition white, we experience our normal resting heart rate and feel calm and relaxed. As we become more alarmed, our heart rate rises from a normal rate of 60 to 80 beats per minute (bpm) through condition yellow (around 100 bpm) to condition red (from 115 to 145 bpm). Dr. Grossman says that in this range, we are at our best for performing complex physical activities and have optimal reaction time for responding to danger. This is not a comfortable state.

If we become even more distressed, our heart rate increases and our bodies experience additional changes. Breathing speeds up. We become less effective. Our ability to make complicated decisions decreases we experience changes in vision and hearing and most of our bodies resources are dedicated to simple physical activities important to survival. This is the state commonly known as "fight or flight." Dr. Grossman labels this as condition gray. Above 175 bpm, we enter Dr. Grossman's condition black. Our thinking may become irrational; we may experience a temporary shut down or freeze. We may still be able to run or fight but doing anything more complicated is unlikely.

Obviously, these reactions have been essential to our survival for centuries. The problem is that although most of us don't run into situations that are so dangerous that conditions red and above are helpful, our bodies go there anyway. Stress and panic reactions can be triggered by reminders of past danger or intense worries about loss or harm. Learning to calm ourselves when no immediate physical danger is present becomes an important skill. In order to function but our best we need to use our physical and mental resources most effectively and stay below condition red most of the time. There are a number of ways to do this ranging from breathing exercises to changing the way we think about the things that happen to us. In future posts, I'll go into more depth about managing our fear reactions. For now, remember to breathe.

Bill Bonacker