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“Come on, get in quickly!” your friend shouts from inside the lift that should take you up to the top floor of the department store. “Errm… I’ll take the stairs and meet you up there!” you yell back. As the doors close, you feel very relieved. It’s a long way up to the eighth floor, but you don’t care anything to get out of going in a lift! If this sounds like you, or perhaps heights turn your legs to jelly, you scream loudly if you see even the tiniest spider in the bath or you shake like a leaf if you have to answer a question in class, you’re not alone! The truth is, most of us are at least a little afraid of something – bees and wasps, for example, the dark, or taking exams. So fear is a basic human emotion. In fact, we actually need it to survive. Whenever we meet danger or feel unsafe, the brain reacts, instantly sending signals to activate the body’s nervous system. As a result, we might shake or sweat and our heart starts beating faster in order to pump more blood to our muscles to get us ready for action, such as running away or fighting. This response is called “fight or flight” and is only turned off when the brain gets enough information to be sure that there is no more danger. What is incredible is that all this can happen in just a few seconds! Needless to say, fear is not always a good thing! People who have a phobia such as agoraphobia (fear of being in crowded public spaces such as a busy market or a bus), claustrophobia (fear of enclosed spaces like lifts or tunnels), arachnophobia (fear of spiders) or even something unusual like ablutophobia (fear of washing) are extremely afraid of something. This may have developed after a very scary experience. A teenager who was bitten by a dog as a young child, for example, may now be too afraid to walk to school with his friends in case he sees a dog. This is because his brain has remembered the fear that he felt when the dog bit him, so now even just thinking about seeing a dog triggers the same fear reaction. This may embarrass him, cause him to miss out on spending time with his friends or even to be teased by them. Between 5 and 10% of the population have phobias but there are ways to fight our fears. First of all, it’s important to stop avoiding the scary situation. It may help to make a list of fears from the least to the most scary and then face them one by one. This will not be easy, but when we see that our worst fears didn’t come true, we will realise that they are irrational and there is no real reason to be afraid. Then, we will change how we respond to them and eventually our fears will melt away!