is there such a thing as "maintenance fear"?

[AccuTron]

Not talking about people dealing with abusive people, family, gummint, or churches.  

(Bonus question:  excluding those groups, what remains of the planet's population count?)

 

 

A few years ago, my area had natural variation probably involving food supply and/or predators, and all of a sudden rabbits became part of the local scene, where before they'd been rare.  

 

Others have garden problems perhaps, but they just nibble a bit of grass here, feel safe, don't run from me.  ("Hellooo, bun-bun!")  Some rabbit sized holes under fences make for perfect escape or hiding routes.  It feels like a Catholic holy card view outside, with widdle all-safey bunny rabbits.  (Usually 1-2, up to 4 at a time.)

 

 

Except last winter, with the big hawk-feather prints in the snow, and half a rabbit left behind.  I notice how as prey animals, their skulls are rather flat, the eyes hemispherical, and they see as all around as possible.

 

Which is life for prey animals, of which there are very many species.  We know our bodies are better served by certain types of stress, assuming good health, such as wise exertion or heat stress.

 

Their/our brains, by decree of Nature, must always be on alert against death.  I know that in a close encounter, an animal may go high stress and escape, and the stress hormones return to normal.  But what is normal?

 

Shouldn't we always be on alert?  This seems so obvious in human society at large, and the problems thereof, but we are so complex that we sometimes miss the foundations.  Rabbit, deer, or us, we should always be eyes-open for the grim reaper.  While trying to enjoy dinner.

 

 

What triggered the title question, is I changed some bicycling routes lately.  A pleasant thing, yet a short part of it is thru connecting and irregular parking areas behind a few buildings.  They have zilch moving traffic, clear views, and are actually fun, but I have to constantly look around at what is essentially a maze, including for a parked car that suddenly isn't.

 

 

I noticed the feeling of high alert, and how it seemed to tune me up more than just the bike alone.

 

 

So, for that small percentage of untrammeled humanity not bothered by active threats (like is it okay to be Finnish these days? -- I gather that the Swedes are somewhat doomed), is a small amount of fear actually healthy at some hormonal/molecular level? 

[Ed888]

My take is that some fear is healthy, since fear as described by itself yeah it's an unpleasant thing but serves like an alarm. You wouldn't want it blaring 24/7 but it needs to work when its needed. Fear also is a key ingredient in excitement too in that it's woven with curiosity but usually with fear the smaller portion.

 

 

People while there is plenty to be worried or fearful about in day to day living have to set a baseline and normalize some things in order to keep that alarm from going off, so fear and anxiety in usual cases would drop down the more we're around it and our alarm having already rang for it, since if we were to do something about it we would have when the alarm went off, and if we do or do not either way, the alarm does its job and it winds down until something else comes up.

 

 

To answer your question of "what is normal?" I'd say it's familiarity with the feeling that most of the environment we're familiar with will not change drastically in much way and that we can feel control or have confidence in our ability to maintain control via knowledge and information on how things consistently work that keep us at our baseline "calm".

[dsayers]

Fear is an emotion, but there's still such a thing as rational and irrational fear. If you can find it, the Penn & Teller's Bullshit! episode on fear is both informative and entertaining. The main idea is that whether or not something is harmful is less of an important question than "am I exposed to it?" One example offered was "mad cow" disease. Once a media scare, the reality was that it was anomalous as humans mostly can't even catch it. It was very real for a small number of people, but there was no reason to fear it.

 

Probably the best example is driving automobiles. How much better would people drive on average if they were mindful of how much of a danger they're engaging in and that it CAN "happen to them"? Does this mean don't get behind the wheel of a car? Not really; a car could protect you more than being on foot or on a bicycle. It just means exercise caution and be aware. "Not too careful; But just careful enough."

 

The real problem is when you involve State power. So many things have been engaged in and/or theorized about making use of that could literally lead to the extinction of human beings. It is unreal how much some people take our presence on this planet as a given. 

[SamuelS]

This reminds me of something I've heard both Joe Rogan and Rhonda Patrick talking about -- the benefits of stress. Rather than do a poor job of explaining it, here's a video where Dr. Patrick goes into this stuff.

 

 

 

This covers heat stress, but it seems reasonable to me to assume that it may have wider implications.

 

Regarding mental stress, I do think it can become unhealthy, taking the form of hypervigilance, but that may just be a matter of degree...you'll build muscle curling 20lb weights, you'll tear it curling 200lb weights...

[dsayers]

you'll build muscle curling 20lb weights, you'll tear it curling 200lb weights...

As well as do damage by holding the 20lb weight up for prolonged periods of time.