The Fear of Life

From the Shadows of Fear to the Light of a New Life

"It is not because things are difficult that we do not dare; it is because we do not dare that they are difficult." - Seneca.

These days, I often think of the Roman philosopher when I read the news. One report particularly struck me, detailing how a company offers free MRI scans to its employees as a service, allowing them to check their bodies for anomalies regularly. One might think it’s a good thing to routinely check to see if diseases are spreading in the body. Isn't this just a logical and modern advancement of general medical examinations? Is it such a big step from a blood test to an MRI? The answer is quite simple: Yes!

"I examine people, not pictures." This was the reaction of my orthopedist a few years ago when I came to him with an MRI report that ruled out a possible anomaly but showed a small irregularity elsewhere. "Is that okay?" I had asked him. He then asked me if I had any pain. When I said no, he replied with the above sentence. What he meant was: The only thing that truly matters is how you feel! If you have no pain, everything is okay. If you have pain, you can look for the cause. But looking for a cause when there is no pain seems rightly illogical.

But what about during a preventive examination? Isn’t it better to discover an anomaly early so it can be treated more effectively? Generally, yes. The question is: How would certain irregularities develop if they were never discovered? Our body is fundamentally quite simple. If something happens that shouldn't, we feel pain. This can be triggered by an accident, overexertion, or illness. Pain doesn’t scream "Get the doctor" but rather informs the body that a particular area needs more nutrients and/or rest. Of course, the body's self-healing powers have their limits. But these limits are significantly shifted when the patient does not believe in their body.

The nocebo effect

Every doctor knows about the nocebo effect. This is the counterpart to the placebo effect. While the placebo effect has a positive impact on a person's health or well-being based on their positive expectations towards a treatment or medication, despite it having no therapeutic value, the nocebo effect describes negative outcomes that also arise from expectation, in this case, due to negative expectations. If a person believes that a treatment or medication will harm them or have side effects, this can actually lead to negative physical or psychological reactions, even though the medication or treatment itself should not have such an effect.

The crucial point is: Nocebo effects, just like placebo effects, are real. Literature describes events where patients who had improved with the intake of a medication lost all treatment success upon being told it was merely a placebo, in the worst cases even leading to death. The nocebo effect is also blamed for the negative physical effects in indigenous tribes where a person experiences how the medicine man curses them and then immediately develops a physical reaction.

Therefore, doctors always avoid giving patients too negative an image of their current health situation because it undermines the real yet inadequately researched self-healing powers. Instead, they try to convey hope.

But let’s return to the example mentioned at the beginning with the free scans for employees. An MRI scan (Magnetic Resonance Imaging) is an advanced imaging technique that uses strong magnetic fields and radio waves to create detailed images of the inside of the body. Unlike X-rays or CT scans that use ionizing radiation, MRI works without harmful radiation and is particularly useful for depicting soft tissue. The scan provides precise images of organs, bones, and other structures. Sometimes, too precise. No body is perfect, and it’s easy to find an anomaly even though the patient might be feeling fine.

So what happens next? The person becomes "aware" after the MRI that something in their body does not conform to medical norms. Although they have not developed any symptoms until that point, they will likely start to do so. The nocebo effect kicks in with full force.

The question that arises then: Why do we do this? Why do we look for potential weaknesses in our bodies?

Because we are afraid of life.

Because we - to quote Seneca - do not dare to live.

Expecting the worst

Our minds are occupied throughout our lives with imagining the worst. We could get sick. We could be attacked. We could lose our possessions. We could this and that.

Mark Twain once said, "I've had a lot of worries in my life, most of which never happened." And yet, we tend to spend most of our time contemplating potential dangers instead of expecting good and beautiful things.

We are afraid. Afraid of life.

How much wasted energy and life do we invest in preparing for negative events that will probably never happen? How much good could we experience if we mainly expected positive things in our lives?

Naturally, this attitude has its evolutionary justification. The saber-toothed tiger could have been lurking behind every rock. Those who assumed so probably lived longer than their colleagues who imagined a colorful meadow instead. But those times are long gone. Today's threats are mostly not fatal in most cases.

Are we unconsciously searching for the deadly dangers of the past, which we hardly find in our current civilization? We look at the river of life and expect a deadly whirlpool behind every bend instead of a new horizon full of possibilities and unexpected beauty.

Is this our definition of happiness? Being prepared for the worst so it doesn't overwhelm us too much if it happens, knowing full well that the expectation has the same stressful impact on our brain as if it had already occurred?

And then we wonder why we see so many unhappy people?

But what does this actually mean for our bacteria, for our microbiome? Much more than we can imagine.

Our “brain-gut-axis”

The "brain-gut axis" works bi-directionally. Just as our bacteria can influence our mood, our mood can influence the composition of our microbiome. When we experience fear and stress, we specifically and negatively influence our bacteria. Bacterial populations shift and can, in the worst case, decrease in diversity. If we have fewer different bacteria, pathogenic bacteria can proliferate more easily. Moreover, the altered composition of the microbiome can weaken the intestinal barrier, leading to increased permeability - the "leaky gut" syndrome.

But the changes can also have direct effects on our immune system, leading to a dysregulated immune response or strengthening inflammatory reactions in the body.

Therefore, it makes little sense to take loving care of our microbiome if we destabilize it with our fears.

We should be aware that our thoughts have real effects - on our microbiome, our immune system, and our entire body.

But doesn't this lead to fear of fear?

Absolutely - as long as we don't recognize that fear is almost always a construct of our minds. And our mind is capable of producing fear in any variant. We do not dare to live, so we occupy our minds with the umpteenth iteration of our mostly unfounded fears, only to thereby manifest the diseases we fear.

So how can we break this vicious cycle?

A new life

By recognizing that our mind dominates us if we allow it. This self-awareness is the "foot in the door" that can change everything. Let's ask ourselves how many of our worries have actually come true in the past few years? A good tool for this is an "anxiety journal". We can write down all our worries and fears in it. Upon reading it later, we'll notice that most of them never happened. We thus learn that our mind tends to overreact. Once we realize this, we can consciously let go. This, in turn, has a direct effect on our microbiome.

The mind will try to convince us that we're not assessing everything correctly, but that's why it's so important to write down our fears, so we can recognize their triviality and insignificance. We should not repress them but simply dissolve them. And thus clear the way for a new, free life.

"It is not because things are difficult that we do not dare; it is because we do not dare that they are difficult." Once we truly understand and internalize this sentence, we free ourselves from the shackles of the mind and take the first step into a new and happy life.

We embrace it, despite its uncertainties and potential dangers. We open ourselves to a richer, healthier, and more satisfying existence and bravely accept all its challenges.

Our bacteria, our body, and our mind will thank us.