I never understood phobia from trauma.

[Zeze]

I understand the mechanism. Your brain develops hatred and fear from the prior negative experience, and it's past being logical and reason.

My bro rode a rollercoaster as a boy and didn't enjoy it. He's been pretty damn scared of it ever since. I mean you have the statistics and see plenty of people riding on and off before you, days and months before and after you. You are not special, you won't get hit the jackpot of it breaking down. His logical side won over and got on it finally. But he said he was pretty nervous.

I also knew a girl who was DEATHLY afraid of dogs, another bad experience as a kid probably. She was just FREAKING out and bawling her eyes when a cute pup approached her. I mean, yes I can imagine you being weary of other adult dogs. But where is all reason and logic? That little pub isn't going to rip your face off.

Why does the brain do this? This survival mechanism is actually counterproductive.

 

[Schfifty Five]

I understand the mechanism. Your brain develops hatred and fear from the prior negative experience, and it's past being logical and reason.

My bro rode a rollercoaster as a boy and didn't enjoy it. He's been pretty damn scared of it ever since. I mean you have the statistics and see plenty of people riding on and off before you, days and months before and after you. You are not special, you won't get hit the jackpot of it breaking down. His logical side won over and got on it finally. But he said he was pretty nervous.

I also knew a girl who was DEATHLY afraid of dogs, another bad experience as a kid probably. She was just FREAKING out and bawling her eyes when a cute pup approached her. I mean, yes I can imagine you being weary of other adult dogs. But where is all reason and logic? That little pub isn't going to rip your face off.

Why does the brain do this? This survival mechanism is actually counterproductive.

wtf? You say in your thread title you don't understand it, then in the first two sentences you explain exactly why it happens.

 

[Zeze]

wtf? You say in your thread title you don't understand it, then in the first two sentences you explain exactly why it happens.

Fail reading comprehension.

 

[SandEagle]

you're korean and you don't understand that?

 

[vi edit]

Emotional reactions are far more powerful and triggered faster than logical ones. And there are just some things that we get used to doing. Think of when you bang your arm or leg against something...you just instictually say "Owe!" or some random obscenity of your choice. You blurt that out before the pain even registers. Give your body a few seconds to acknowledge what happened and you realize that it really didn't even hurt and go on your merry way.

When you combine that quick snap reaction with a deep rooted fear of something (for whatever reason, valid or not) you aren't able to recover and apply logic to it. It's a flood of chemical and physical reactions in several of your bodies various systems that drive up anxiety to uncontrollable levels.

 

[dave_the_nerd]

Why does the brain do this? This survival mechanism is actually counterproductive.

No. Most of the time, it's productive. See your friend eaten by a bear? Avoid bears. Get sick from eating the green berries? Don't eat green berries.

What's weird is that we have many things today (like roller coasters or horror movies) which are intended to stimulate our fight or flight response while leaving us more or less safe. It's like spicy food for your adrenal glands.

 

[Oil]

No. Most of the time, it's productive. See your friend eaten by a bear? Avoid bears. Get sick from eating the green berries? Don't eat green berries.

What's weird is that we have many things today (like roller coasters or horror movies) which are intended to stimulate our fight or flight response while leaving us more or less safe. It's like spicy food for your adrenal glands.

This. Fight or flight. Nothing wrong with a little flight sometimes

 

[momeNt]

Thread Title: I never understood phobia from trauma

First Line: I understand the mechanism.

Last line: Why does the brain do this?


Please make up your damn mind before starting a thread.
Do you, or do you not understand?

 

[Zeze]

No. Most of the time, it's productive. See your friend eaten by a bear? Avoid bears. Get sick from eating the green berries? Don't eat green berries.

You also miss my point. I'm not questioning the phobia mechanism. It's what gets us to survive as mankind today.

I'm questioning the extreme illogical phobia that derives from trauma.

"Oh shit this dog/wildberry hurt me! Reasonable sound caution isn't enough, now I'm stricken with utter fear and terrifying phobia!!"

 

[Schfifty Five]

Fail reading comprehension.

You're the fail in this thread.

Zeze: "I don't understand phobia from trauma"

Zeze: "I understand the mechanism. Your brain develops hatred and fear from the prior negative experience"

BOOM. Zeze = fail.

 

[Schfifty Five]

You also miss my point. I'm not questioning the phobia mechanism. It's what gets us to survive as mankind today.

I'm questioning the extreme illogical phobia that derives from trauma.

"Oh shit this dog/wildberry hurt me! Reasonable sound caution isn't enough, now I'm stricken with utter fear and terrifying phobia!!"

Do you really not understand why someone would be afraid of dogs if in the past they had a traumatic experience?

 

[momeNt]

You also miss my point. I'm not questioning the phobia mechanism. It's what gets us to survive as mankind today.

I'm questioning the extreme illogical phobia that derives from trauma.

"Oh shit this dog/wildberry hurt me! Reasonable sound caution isn't enough, now I'm stricken with utter fear and terrifying phobia!!"

It's a pathway that when the trauma first occurred, got altered to such an extent that whenever anything triggers and gets sent down that pathway, your brain just can't deal with it.

It isn't a proper response, your pathways shouldn't get that fried from an experience, but it happens, not everybody handles it the same way.

If we made a brain from a computer, we'd chalk it up to faulty wiring.

 

[MotionMan]

A phobia is an irrational fear. It is pretty hard to reason about something that is irrational.

Chalk it up to a faulty aspect of the brain and move on.

(Gradual desensitization is the best treatment for most phobias, BTW.)

MotionMan

 

[davmat787]

You also miss my point. I'm not questioning the phobia mechanism. It's what gets us to survive as mankind today.

I'm questioning the extreme illogical phobia that derives from trauma.

"Oh shit this dog/wildberry hurt me! Reasonable sound caution isn't enough, now I'm stricken with utter fear and terrifying phobia!!

Extremely illogical phobia? Would not phobias by definition be considered illogical? A phobia is an irrational fear or aversion.

When I was 5, I almost drowned. To this day, I do not like being in the water and never go swimming for enjoyment. I love fishing in boats, .etc, but hate being in the water, I have to admit it really freaks me out, the thought of it will make me extremely-can-I-have-another-xanax-anxious.

Other childhood incidents did not have the same effect however, only the water related. I can still remember to this day the water filling my nostrils and mouth. D:

So, would you consider this to be an illogical phobia? Honestly curious.

edit: I was just thinking that these also probably correlate to the young age when the initial incident happens. When you are very young and almost drown, attacked by a dog, whatever, the last thing on your mind is your mortality. Emotionally at that age one is of course very innocent and immature, and not capable of processing the incident rationally afterwards. Ergo, the onset of the irrational fear, or phobia.

 

[Puppies04]

I understand the mechanism. Your brain develops hatred and fear from the prior negative experience, and it's past being logical and reason.

My bro rode a rollercoaster as a boy and didn't enjoy it. He's been pretty damn scared of it ever since. I mean you have the statistics and see plenty of people riding on and off before you, days and months before and after you. You are not special, you won't get hit the jackpot of it breaking down. His logical side won over and got on it finally. But he said he was pretty nervous.

I also knew a girl who was DEATHLY afraid of dogs, another bad experience as a kid probably. She was just FREAKING out and bawling her eyes when a cute pup approached her. I mean, yes I can imagine you being weary of other adult dogs. But where is all reason and logic? That little pub isn't going to rip your face off.

Why does the brain do this? This survival mechanism is actually counterproductive.

You are talking about thousands of years of evolution.

You experience something that puts you in harms way and your mind is pre-programmed to try its hardest to prevent it from happening again. We would all be walking around constantly trapping our fingers in door hinges otherwise.

What is so hard to understand?

Also why is "the survival mechanism counter productive"? If you ate something that made you ill then developed a phobia of all food and starved to death then that would be counter productive. I would love to know how you classify not beiong around dogs or riding rollercoasters as counter productive.