Fear of a fight is a phenomenon that is much wider than it might seem at first glance. Women and men, and children, and adolescents, and pensioners can be afraid of a brawl. This fear is beyond age, culture, social status and wealth. It is natural, natural and far from always pathological. However, the question often arises of how to get rid of it. This article will tell about this.
Why does fear appear?
Fighting for a person is a stressful situation anyway. It is not a natural need, such as eating, sleeping. In addition, a fight is a direct threat to human health, and sometimes human life, so fearing it is quite normal. The nature of fear lies in its protective function. So the brain, or rather its central region, deep and ancient, called the limbic system, is trying to protect a person from what could be a danger to his survival.
But fears are justified when there is a real threat, and they are irrational when a person is afraid that in reality at the moment he is not threatened in any way. And then natural fear turns into an obsessive, painful phobia, which a person cannot control. Fear of a fight is no exception. It can be natural, arising directly in a situation when a person has to fight, but can be constant and intrusivearising at the mere thought that participation in a fight may be required. Phobic fear is considered a mental disorder. In fact, the fear of a brawl is a hypertrophied manifestation of the instinct of self-preservation. There are no people in the world who are not afraid of a fight.
The exception is only rare individuals with Urbach-Vite disease who are deprived of a sense of fear in principle. But they have no connection with reality, their chances of survival are minimal, and the rare recessive genetic pathology itself is extremely rare.
To understand the mechanism of development of fear of a brawl, you need to know some features of the limbic system of the brain. They are very interesting. In humans, as in most mammals, two types of reactions arise in response to fright - either one needs to run or one needs to fight. First of all, there is a desire to run as fast as possible, to hide, to seek a safe space. And only if a person does not see the opportunity to escape, he goes to the fray. This is a normal, healthy mental response of a healthy person. In other words, to leave participating in hand-to-hand combat is a genetically determined, correct reaction and to remove it, you do not need to get rid of it. To deprive a person of fear - this means depriving him of a chance of survival in case of danger.
Fear of a fight is closely related to the natural unwillingness to receive pain and injury. It is also common for a mentally normal person not to wish for the death of an adversary, therefore the fear of striking is partially connected with anxiety regarding the prospects of hurting another, killing him. This is not even a matter of upbringing, but a normal manifestation of empathy. If a person is a psychopath, a sociopath and suffers from a manic desire to inflict pain, then empathy is completely unusual for him. But the vast majority of normal people do not understand this.
Another reason for the fear of a fight is social justification. People, as creatures living in society, tend to pay attention to what others think about their actions. To be known as an unrestrained, quick-tempered brawler is not the best idea for building a worthy reputation.
There is another type of fear of conflict, collision - this is the fear of being dishonored, defeated, defeated. Self-doubt, fear of getting hit in the face and being disoriented, being disgraced on the street, in front of other people - this is sometimes what prevents a person from fighting if a fight was not avoided. And this is the only kind of fear in the situation with fights, which can and should be eliminated. Almost everyone is affected by this kind of fear in one way or another, but this is not tragic for everyone. - Not often we enter into fights to complain of excruciating fear. However, there is a category of people for whom the fear of being defeated in a fight is a chance to lose their well-being, familiar life, goals, achievements, and reputation. These are professional athletes, wrestlers, boxers, MMA fighters.
Of course, it is difficult to call a fight a fight, which is held according to sports rules, a person prepares for it in advance. But no matter how you call the fight in the ring, for the human brain it remains the same fight. And the fear of defeat in such a fight can do the athlete a bad job - excitement will not allow you to give all your best, will not allow you to reveal your skills and the risk of losing the fight really increases. The fight against such fear is usually included in the training program for professional athletes. Coaches pay attention to the psychological reactions of their wards from the first training, and sports psychologists work with them if necessary.
And also the majority of contact martial arts, in addition to the list of techniques (where to put your hand, where your foot), has a whole philosophy of overcoming fear (kung fu, karate and others).
Symptoms
Symptoms of fear of a brawl (or sports fight) are classic, characteristic of this emotion. They are based on two components: emotional and vegetative. Confusion occurs in the soul of man. If it is known in advance that you will have to join the battle, there is excitement, anxiety, in which all of the above aspects are clearly traced.If it’s not about sports, then a person is afraid of harming another, and getting injured himself, and social condemnation. His brain goes through options to avoid a scuffle, to dodge it, but does not find it, which increases anxiety. As a result, a person experiences problems with appetite and sleep - there is no appetite, but you can’t fall asleep or you have nightmares. Fear of defeat is more inherent in athletes, but it is manifested by the same anxiety.
If fear is acute, sudden, for example, the situation arose unexpectedly on the street and develops rapidly, then the symptoms are dictated by the action of adrenaline on the nervous system. In case of danger, the limbic system gives the command to the adrenal cortex, and it begins to actively produce and throw adrenaline into the blood. The pupils expand, the distribution of blood changes - most of it goes to the muscles, because you have to run or fight, the blood temporarily leaves the skin and internal organs. As a result, a person turns pale, sweats, notes unpleasant sensations in the abdominal organs (stomach tightness, nausea). Heartbeat under the action of adrenaline increases, blood pressure jumps occur, the world around it ceases to exist, all external stimuli become less important, which is why people describe that they heard their own heart.
How to get rid of a phobia?
As you already understood, you need to get rid of only the fear of defeat, and not the fear of fighting itself. That's exactly what you need to do if you want to defeat the excitement before the inevitable brawl. In search of an answer to the question of how to overcome this fear, a person may encounter a mass of information that temptingly promises quick results. Numerous coach-trainers are ready for your money to conduct training on the topics “how to become a real man”, “how to overcome fears”, “how to cope with anxiety before the fight” and so on. Most of these trainings and articles do not have any practical benefit; they will not help to overcome, in principle, such a natural instinct for self-preservation. Such advice is not supported either from a medical or scientific point of view, and sometimes the trainers themselves have little understanding of what people say for money.
Please note that at such trainings, consulting techniques are usually used, when the coach literally “noses” the listener what he needs to do to control his fear (where to go, how to stand, how to breathe), and the coach-coach or self-taught psychologist , and whether the person himself is ready to get rid of this fear, in which there is more natural than unnatural. Tips to enroll in a boxing section, carry a weapon with you, or at worst the stun gun also does not work. A person has a weapon, but fear grows, because it is possible that this weapon will have to be used against someone, and this is much worse than a regular nose blow.
A more correct method is the psychotherapeutic approach. To do this, on your own or with the help of a specialist (psychologist, psychotherapist), you need to analyze your fear and understand where it grows from. Perhaps it is a matter of negative experience (one had to be beaten), perhaps a person is afraid only because he saw the consequences of the brawls among others, maybe he is afraid of losing his reputation. In any case, it is necessary to begin with the formulation of an individual problem and its elimination. Psychotherapy methods, gestalt therapy help to cope with fears from childhood, and for fear of being hit, a course of cognitive-behavioral therapy is conducted, which helps a person to formulate the correct attitudes and attitude towards victories and defeats in general.
Only when the defeat ceases to be perceived as a tragedy and loss of reputation becomes the most ordinary stage of life, its ordinary event, the excitement associated with a possible fight decreases. Very often, the reason for fear of a fight lies in inferiority, insecurity complexes, they can be associated initially with any areas of life - study, work, personal life. Therefore, to overcome the fear of a fight, it is worthwhile to increase your own self-esteem at various levels. It should be a rich and versatile life, in which there is a place for hobbies, sports, sex, communication with friends.
Only when a person is confident in himself and that he is capable of something good and necessary (in any field), in principle, he is less afraid of the probability of being “laid on the shovels” in life or in a fight.
There is no need to fight fear, trying to eradicate symptoms in order to control, for example, breathing, heartbeat in a dangerous situation. Yes, there are such techniques, and they are very useful for professional athletes, if desired, they can be mastered as part of the martial arts course. You just need to exclude the reason why the excitement arises. To many who are waiting for ready-made “recipes” and step-by-step tips, this at first glance seems strange and not even advice at all. But the truth is that it is almost impossible to independently find and eliminate the roots of your fear. You can’t do without outside help, so you should turn to a psychologist or psychotherapist, in case of emergency, try to formulate your fears to someone close to whom you trust. The answer to the question of how to remove fear will be covered in how you answer the question of why you are afraid of the upcoming fight.
