Fright

FRIGHT, physiologically represents a syndrome of immediate reflexes of the nervous system to impressions signaling one or another danger. This syndrome is most clearly manifested in reactions to events directly threatening the life of the individual. In terms of voluntary movement mechanisms, the reaction of fright is most often expressed as an urge to flee; a rarer form is the "emotional stupor" - freezing in place, sometimes accompanied by the development of prolonged "hysterical" paralyses. Fright gives a very rich symptomatology in the area of autonomic nervous system reflexes, causing cardiac arrest, tachy- and bradycardia, vasoconstriction (pallor of the face, fainting, cooling of the extremities), rapid and irregular breathing, dryness in the mouth (or salivation), nausea and vomiting, increased intestinal peristalsis accompanied by the need for defecation, urges to urinate (or retention of urine), excessive sweating and so on. A characteristic feature is that all these phenomena, along with the experience of fear itself, often develop not at the first moment of threatening danger, but with some delay, sometimes already after the danger has passed. With excessive shock force or in psychopathic individuals, fright can also cause brief clouding of consciousness, accompanied by aimless automatic movements or various impulsive acts, and sometimes can also lead to the development of more or less prolonged "reactive" psychoses.