Question: what exactly does fear do to you? why do people have different fears?

Rebecca Jones answered on 16 Jun 2015:

Fear is a human emotion in response to a potential threat and is a basic survival mechanism which prepares our body for flight (to run away) or fight (stand up to the situation). Fear causes hormones to be released into our bloodstream and sharpens functions that help us survive, such as eyesight. However, although this sounds like a good thing, having chronic fear (or fearing something for a longtime) can have a bad effect on you. Fear can impact our thinking and decision making in negative ways and can also slow down formation of long term memories.

People can have fears for a number of reasons, either due to something that they have experienced in the past and scares them or it can be an irrational fear. This is when you can be afraid of something but there appears to be no logic behind it.

Hope that helps and it was a great question!