With Halloween coming up, many are considering how to gently frighten their family or neighbors. However, how far can one go in creating a frightening experience? Can an extremely dangerous situation traumatize us to the point of causing death?
On a moonless night, figures wrapped in loose sheets slip between houses… In the distance, a wolf howls at the moon, while inside your warm home, you spy a skeleton shuffling toward your door through the slats of your shutters. The doorbell sends a chill down your spine… Because you’ve run out of candy to give to the neighborhood kids! You might get off with a kindly spell, an overturned flower pot, or an ugly drawing in your mailbox. Yes, October 31 is Halloween! Lanterns, pumpkins, and ghosts tell the story of a holiday that is commercial for some, fun for others, but which in any case plays with the codes of death, fear, and the stories we tell each other to give ourselves goosebumps. But just how far can we go to scare ourselves? Is the expression “being scared to death” sometimes to be taken literally?
Potentially fatal disruptions
In most cases, the answer is no, thankfully. But to understand why there are exceptions, we first need to know what triggers the feeling—justified or not—of being in danger. When we become aware of this, a survival mechanism, inherited from evolution, kicks in, which in theory prepares the body to flee, defend itself, or react in order to survive. The brain releases adrenaline, the heart rate accelerates, blood vessels constrict, and blood rushes to the muscles. But this system can malfunction. If the adrenaline rush is too strong, arrhythmia can occur, putting the person experiencing it at risk. There is also a form of dilated cardiomyopathy that occurs after particularly acute physical or psychological stress and mainly affects women over the age of 50: Taktsubo syndrome, also known as “broken heart syndrome,” which was first identified in Japan in the 1990s.
The heart and nerves may be affected
More generally, people with cardiovascular diseases are at greater risk of experiencing this type of dysfunction. This includes those with long QT syndrome, a condition characterized by an abnormally long heartbeat interval on an electrocardiogram. It is because of these risks that certain extreme activities, such as bungee jumping, are prohibited for people with heart disease. And to avoid being confronted with fears that may arise in everyday life, these patients usually take beta blockers.
But we shouldn’t imagine that the heart is the only part of the body that can be potentially affected by fear. The nervous system can also be affected. The amygdala, which regulates our actions in response to fear, sends signals to the entire body. Breathing quickens, muscles tense, and alertness skyrockets. But again, too strong a signal can paralyze and even kill, in some animals as well as in humans. The body freezes, breathing stops. This is known as death by inhibition: certain bodily functions shut down, not because of physical injury but because of fear.
A precious ally
So, is fear our best enemy? One might think so, since it can kill us by affecting either the heart or the nervous system. But that would be forgetting that in the vast majority of cases, fear does not kill; on the contrary, it protects us. It gives us wings, to quote the popular saying, meaning that it allows us to react in a fraction of a second or to draw on physical qualities we never knew we had in order to get ourselves out of a dangerous situation. Fear also prevents us from crossing a road without looking, approaching a precipice, or handling an aggressive animal. It is an essential defense mechanism, as old as humanity itself. There are rare medical cases of patients who are incapable of feeling fear. These people expose themselves to dangerous situations without perceiving the risk. In short, fear is not a flaw to be fought. It is part of our biological and emotional balance. It signals danger, sharpens our attention, and triggers action. In most cases, it is therefore a valuable ally, much more than an enemy. It does not threaten us with death, but rather helps us stay alive.
