Fear is a choice

[LettingsBe]

Last night on I'm A Celebrity James Haskell said, "fear is a choice", which I believe might come from a quote by someone else.

However, aibu to say fear ISN'T a choice? I have an abusive ex partner who I have a fear of seeing, I also have a fear of various other things due to things that happened in my childhood.

So do we really think fear is a choice?

its a ridiculous statement

fear is a rational response to identify and protect from threats

I think it’s all wrapped up in we can’t control what others do (or situations) but we can control how they make us feel? Or something?

I think people who say this kind of thing actually mean "feel the fear and do it anyway."

I think staying fearful is a choice

There are many ways to overcome fear, yes most cost money, but many people choose to remain scared

There is a choice = I’m a big blustering hard man

I think what he said sort of makes sense in the context of what they are doing, but of course in reality, many people hold very valid fears which aren’t a choice, your example for instance OP.

Im scared of frogs, I could get passed that if I needed tokens for food.

It's a nonsensical statement designed to make the speaker seem tough, that's it. Fear is very much not a choice. You can do things long-term to reduce the fear you feel in certain situations if the fear is unhelpful or inappropriate but fear is a natural, healthy, helpful emotion that keeps us safe and alive. You don't choose to feel fear, who would choose that? Try to go pick up a ball of cotton wool and feel fear towards it, you won't be able to. Pick up a spider as an arachnophobe or see a car hurtling towards you on the roads at speed or a pitbull racing towards you growling at the park and you'll feel it instinctively. Ignore it, ridiculous.

It's similar to that 'pain is just weakness leaving the body' trite statement designed to make the person look like they're well hard and indestructible/tough. When actually pain is often a sign you're doing something damaging and should stop...

Fear is definitely not a choice.

I think it fits in the jungle show. Get through the tasks, PMA and all that.
But I’m not sure he meant in every single situation in life.

FFS, dictation on my phone is playing up. Fear is a choice = I’m a big blustering hard man.

It does kind of make sense. It is a choice if you have the tools to overcome it. I have PTSD from rape and witnessing a murder, if I smell a certain aftershave or see someone who looks like the perpetrator I can freeze and have a panic attack. Other times hpervigilence will make me leave a train before my stop, stay home for weeks not wash etc and other times say fuck it and do the scary thing. So it is kind of a choice

"Fear is a choice", aka "Tell me you're a comfortably-off white man without telling me you're a comfortably-off white man."

100% this:

It is a choice in that you have the power to do something about your fear. If you choose to not do anything and stay afraid that’s up to you, but it’s possible to overcome them.

Feelings of fear are not a choice, they are a natural response to interpreted danger and threat, the cause which varies depending on personal experiences and personality...just as it does with animals.

I do however beleive that whether to challenge and push yourself to overcome such fears, or not to, is a choice.

So are you saying that it would be completely outside your power to have a different reaction?

If fear was a choice we as a human race wouldn’t be here now. We would have become extinct a long time ago.
Fear is necessary and vital to our survival.
Unfortunately some fears are irrational because the human brain is complicated and wires get crossed. Those fears can sometimes be fixed but the base emotion of fear is no more a choice than any other animal instinct.
Why as humans do we think we are so superior and above ourselves? Would you be asking a dog / cat / any other mammal if their fear was a choice? No of course not.

At the risk of being a nob, it's Mike Tindall not James Haskell (although if they were stood next to each other i might be hard pushed to tell them apart).

I'm so sorry you went through all of this.

The fear you feel isn't a choice, but the way you respond to it is, from what you're saying? At times you're able to say 'fuck it' and overcome the fear. But feeling the fear is not a choice.

It depends on the circumstances. In certain circumstances (admittedly not the kind of thing they're likely to encounter in I'm a Celebrity) fear is both involuntary and necessary.

I think you can distinguish between helpful fear and unhelpful fear.

Fear of being run over crossing a busy road is useful if it makes you take care and avoid being hit. It’s an instinct that could save my life.

Fear of causing an accident when I am driving in wet and dangerous conditions can be useful in making me drive carefully.

Fear of snakes is not helpful to me as I am unlikely to be harmed by one in the UK and don’t need to react so violently when I see one on TV. I can choose to adapt my reaction.

Fear of failing in a new work project isn’t helping me and I can choose to think of the emotion as excitement and necessary desire to do it well.

In a non-dangerous context you

I mean, I think in the context of a celeb on a reality TV show it makes more sense. I don’t think it’s to do with ‘straight white man’ as much as ‘this isn’t real.’ Like he knows it isn’t real so he has a choice.

In the context he said it in - Im a celeb jungle challenges - I think he's right.

And those that signed up to do Im a Celeb knew what they were letting themselves in for and that they would have to do things that may scare them so I think what he said at the time was to try and bring a 'can do' and positive attitude to those he was speaking to. Which seemed to work too.

Outside of this context I don't agree with the statement but then again he probably doesnt either.

Fear is a choice - just not necessarily a negative choice.

I don’t think fear is a choice. It is a biological response to a perceived threat (even if the threat isn’t credible). What IS a choice is how we deal with fear. We can choose to be rational about the actual threat vs perceived threat and then face into it on those grounds.