Learning to control our greatest fears
Almost everyone is afraid of something, whether that's snakes, heights, or public speaking.
Fearing something is natural and common, and can even be helpful to frighten ourselves sometimes. In fact, fear can keep our bodies alert (警觉的) so we can act quickly to protect ourselves in the event of danger.
But for some people, fear develops into a "phobia", which is a strong and unreasonable fear of something. For example, most of us feel a little scared when looking down from a tall building . But people with terrible acrophobia — a fear of heights — may not only feel dizzy (头晕的) when faced with a great height, they may also even turn down a great job just because the company's office is on a high floor of a building.
Indeed, phobias can prevent some of us from living a normal life. According to Katherina Hauner, a researcher at Northwestern University in the US, people who are terribly scared of spiders might stay away from their home for days if they knew a spider was there.
However, since it's thought that fear comes from personal experiences or memories, some scientists believe it's possible to "rewrite" these unpleasant memories, helping people get through their phobias.
In a study by Hauner and other scientists, people with arachnophobia — a fear of spiders — were asked to first touch a spider with a paintbrush. Once they saw it wasn't really dangerous, they then tried touching it while wearing a glove. Finally, they were able to hold it with their hands directly.
Certain medicine has also been found to be helpful. Back in 2015, researchers at the University of Hiroshima in Japan injected (注射) a special medicine into a fish — which was afraid of light — to turn off the fear centre in its brain. From then on, the fish no longer feared light.
While the search for ways to deal with phobias is making great progress, there's still the question of whether getting rid of ( 去 除 ) fear is a good idea or not. In fact, Dave Smithson of the charity Anxiety UK thinks it's a bad idea. "It's fear that prevents us from doing crazy things," he said. "There's a name for people who don't have fear of consequences: psychopaths (精神变态者)."
