CREDIT: Vista Create
How our brains react to our fears can end up in a fight, flight, or freeze scenario.
Everyone has a fear of something, whether that be snakes, bees, or perhaps the dentist.
Laura Bootsma is a psychotherapist at the First Episode and Mood Anxiety Program (FEMAP) at the London Health Science Center for patients aged 16-25.
“What we know about fear and phobias is that they live in the very inside of our brain, a very kind of primal area. When we experience strong fear, the rest of our brain kind of shuts down, and all of that energy is redirected to a fight, flight or freeze kind of reaction.”
Bootsma hints that the brain when experiencing a severe fear, reaction is as though nothing else more complex is happening, causing a dedication reaction that is stuck in fight, flight, or freeze. “We end up not being able to do anything in our frontal lobe. So judgment and reasoning doesn’t actually happen. Which is why when people are experiencing severe anxiety, or have a phobia, it’s not rational. And it’s very difficult to do reasoning in that moment because that part of the brain has completely shut down.”
A popular way of living with phobias is to avoid engagement with the situation at all costs, ultimately dictating how one can live their daily life.
CREDIT: FEMAP (First Episode Mood and Anxiety Program)
“Avoidance is kind of the primary reaction, kind of part of that flight reaction. So if you’re experiencing a phobia of bees for example, being outside in August is probably not going to be where you are. Which can very much impact your social life, and it can impact your mental health, because you’re staying inside. You’re not getting as much sunshine, you’re not going to social events like outdoor barbecues. If it’s very severe, you’re going to avoid places that have trash cans, or where bees like to congregate.”
With the heavy impact avoidance can have on impacting people’s lives, Bootsma advises help is almost always necessary.
“It’s very difficult for us to regulate on our own. Often, what I do when I’m working with people who have a phobia is I work on progressive exposure in a very safe and gentle way. I was working with someone who had a fear of spiders. The first thing that we did was we just talked about spiders, and we learned a little bit about some facts. It was a younger person, so we read a book about spiders, and there was a picture of a very friendly looking spider.”
Bootsma illustrated that the person she treated with progressive exposure experienced anxiety and significant fear, but the space of creating a conversation and safe environment allowed their body to be relaxed and able to calm their fear response.
“That gentle exposure tells our brain and our body ‘Hey, we don’t have to shut down and move into that fear’. We can actually keep moving through life because the danger is not what was perceived.”
To begin taking control over fear and phobias with FEMAP, Londoners are encouraged to reach out at FEMAP@lhsc.on.ca.
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