Fear

Fear is an unpleasant subjective emotional state arising in response to perceived dangers or threats and which, when experienced, is typically associated with physiological and psychological changes. These changes frequently lead to behavioral reactions such as fight-or-flight responses, the feeling of dread, and in extreme cases immobilization (freeze response). Unlike most (perhaps all) other animals, humans can experience fear in response to a present or anticipated stimulus and to imagined events. Most internalizing psychopathologies (depression, anxiety, suicidal thoughts and behaviors, and so forth) are associated with and maintained by dysfunctional, anxious, or fearful feelings and thoughts.