Instinct

Like the entire animal kingdom, we have certain inbuilt survival instincts – a newly born baby will turn to its mother’s breast and suck in order to feed; a six month old baby will show fear of heights; a mother hearing any baby cry will usually want to pick up the baby and nurse it; we pull our hands away from fire.   These instincts protect us and the next generation and thus keep humankind going.

Fear and phobias are also an instinct, and if we did not have it built into us, we would not have survived for the very long time humans have been on earth.

Fight/Flight

The basic role of stress is to protect us from danger.  It does this by:

• Warning us about possible threats.
• Putting our bodies and minds on “alert” to tackle these threats.   It makes us focus on the threat and fills us with power and energy to fight the threat or run from it.
• Keeping us on alert until the threat has passed.

We call this response ‘FIGHT/FLIGHT’ because it puts us in our best shape to either run away from danger – flight – or tackle the danger head on – fight.  This response was very useful for early man due to the dangers which were all around.

Could fears and phobias be a problem for you?

This short questionnaire will help assess whether this is causing a problem for you at this time. This will only provide part of the picture and does not replace the assessment by a healthcare professional.

If you are registered with a Newcastle GP, then you can refer yourself to our online course, designed to help you to overcome your fears. You will need to fill out the short questionnaire before you can refer yourself.