#you know for a fact light hates having basic human bodily functions

[yutamayo]

[vaetherborn-blog]

Entry #3

The Day that Bastard Stole my Fucking Rings

Our next step toward our goal was a man with a mine infested with creatures that were terrorizing the miners. He didn’t have money to offer us (his name was Grrg, what do you expect?), but he had a friend who could do us a favor if we helped him. So we went down into the mines, stumbling upon a family of goblins and their bugbear caretaker. We took them out with little issue, picking up a few useful new skills along the way, and went back to let Grrg know we’d completed his task. The following day we met with Grrg’s friend (lover) Leo, who was a pirate with no ship and no crew. Despite his shortcomings (and being chronically late to every meeting we schedule), Leo seemed to know his way around, and was willing to get us going in the right direction. So we left that town and headed north, hopefully in the direction of the man who could help us get off this godforsaken plane. Leo told us we were going to meet his first mate in the next town, and when we all decided to set out, he offered me a high-five. Seeing this as the first sign of comradery since I wound up in this plane, I gladly accepted. He laughed a bit and promptly left.

The following day we met with Leo and left town. Along the path, we stumbled upon a house that had been dropped in from another plane, and only made it halfway through. The more I observed the landscape the more I realized everything was this way: seemingly plucked from a different world and placed here, in a place that had no original landmarks to call its own. The grass was different colors in patches, with different plant life found every few yards. The ground was like a patchwork quilt of different wildlife, constantly changing and ripping apart to accommodate the intrusions from other dimensions. It was oddly appealing to me, someone with no set place in this world and no certainty that tomorrow would come, that this world was so different and constantly changing; the uncertainty was as familiar to me as the dust that formed my “skin.”

We approached the house with caution, but once we were certain that there was no one inside we entered. The house was on a hill, and it seemed to be cut neatly in half. After some investigation, we discovered the food to be rotten or stale, and nothing of use was left behind. The house was certainly from a world unlike any that our group had been to. The flooring was soft and clean like a rug but more evenly sewn, the walls were filled with tiny pictures that were far too detailed to be painted, and the rooms were scattered with books and small gadgets that none of us could decipher. On the second floor was the decaying body of a teenage human, cut in half when the house was teleported. We rooted around for a while and found nothing of use, aside from some interesting looking clothes (some of which I took) and a book entitled “Monster Manual.” I took this, as its pages were full of information on the monsters that exist in different universes. If I was going to save my own life, I was going to need to make sure my comrades survived. And if I was going to keep fumbling in combat, the least I could do was understand the monsters we were fighting.

As we investigated the house, a centipede-like monster plummeted through the ceiling into the hallway. This time I managed to deal a healthy amount of damage to it, and together we defeated it without too much trouble. It fell to the floor and crumbled to pieces, leaving a mess on the wood and forcing several of us to step through it to get to the stairs. When we made it downstairs we found Leo in the kitchen eating stale food, casually asking us what had happened.

It was then that I got a strange feeling of emptiness. I looked down at my right hand and noticed that three of my rings were missing. I never take them off for any reason, so the only solution was that they’d been stolen. I had no way of knowing when they’d been stolen or who could’ve done it, but a knot formed in my stomach – or the area that would have been my stomach – at the thought of having lost them. There were three missing. One was gold with three sapphires in a triangle on the top. One was silver, and had a snake’s head on it. And the last was a simple steel ring. I’d gotten all of them from people I had known on Kaladesh. Hell, I’d even liked one of the people the rings had come from. The rings were marks of unity, signs that people I’d met would have my back in times of need. This was how I’d shown the first four people I’d ever known that I would be there for them, and this was how I’d come to communicate my comradery to people since then. Losing a ring was like losing a friend, especially in a place so far from where the few people I might be able to call my friends were. Those three rings symbolized three connections that may have been severed forever.

I looked at Leo. “Did you take my rings?”

“What?” Leo took a bite of his stale food. “No.”

As far as I could tell, he wasn’t lying. But I couldn’t shake the feeling that he was the one who’d taken them from me. None of my companions seemed like the type to take anything from me, except for maybe Xunjra, but she hadn’t touched me a single time. She also didn’t seem like she needed money enough to steal something from me to sell it. After all, she was the only one of us with any kind of stable source of income in this world.

Then again, she almost certainly hated me, so I wouldn’t put it past her.

We decided to settle down in the house for the night. I took a seat by the edge of the house where it was severed in half, looking down over the sheer drop to the ground thirty feet below. The others worked out where they were going to sleep while I pulled the “Monster Manual” out of my bag and cracked it open, leaning back against the wall to look it over. The opening chapters of the book covered basic creatures like goblins, orcs, skeletons, and zombies; creatures any mediocre adventurer could point out their first day on the road. Most of the information wasn’t foreign to me, but there was enough to learn to keep me occupied the full eight hours the others would be asleep.

Aetherborn don’t sleep, eat, drink, breathe, or experience any other bodily functions that other more humanoid creatures do. We can hardly even experience real emotion. The only thing powerful enough to permeate the ashy limitations of our existence is anger, and guilt, and sadness, and occasionally the giddy bliss of a high. I’ve known happy aetherborn, but they are few and far between, considering most of us are vengeful and hedonistic and spend our days causing chaos or making trouble for those around us. What else can we do? They tell us to be happy we get a chance to live, but most of the time I wish I’d never been forced to exist. I didn’t ask to be created, and I never got the choice to live a different life. I’d felt true, unadulterated happiness only once, and it was ripped away from me almost as quickly as I found it; so I gave up on the sensation and have lived my life since then in bitter chaos, refusing to allow myself to experience anything even remotely similar since then. Maybe I didn’t want to get my hopes up, or perhaps I didn’t want to betray the experience I’d had when I was happy, at this point I honestly don’t remember.

I sprang into existence within minutes of four other aetherborn, whom I clung to like they were my family. That is to say, I clung to them as long as I could before they all faded into nothingness. The first to go died only a month after we were all created. The next was six months, and the other two died a few weeks ago. Now it’s just me. I was never the kindest member of our group; in fact you might say I was always the angriest and most selfish member. I hated everyone who wasn’t aetherborn because they got a chance to live that we would never know. In Kaladesh, those who aren’t aetherborn are predisposed to hating the aetherborn. They hate us because we’re destructive street rats, but with our short lives and no real opportunities to better ourselves, what choice do we have? If I could become something better than the dusty husk of hopelessness that I am, I would. If I knew that I could find a way to sustain myself that didn’t involve the draining of others’ life force, I would. But I don’t have any other choice, unless I resign myself to death – and I refuse to do that. I don’t deserve to die because I have no reasonable way to live. I’ve done my best to turn my ability on the kinds of people who deserve to feel pain, but sometimes I don’t have a choice and I wind up picking someone who has a family or wasn’t all that bad or was only stealing because they had no more choice than I did.

It’s amazing what lengths the system will go to exploit the disadvantaged. The higher-ups don’t even care if we wander the streets murdering each other, as long as we do it quietly and stay out of their way. I’ve been caught red-handed draining the life out of a civilian by an official before, and though she watched as the light faded from my victim’s eyes, she decided to do nothing about it. She just rolled her eyes and moved along. That was the only time I’ve ever felt guilty about stealing the life from someone; knowing that even taking the life of an unsuspecting petty thief wasn’t important enough for the people of Kaladesh to give me a second look was emptying. I let the thief’s body drop to the ground and walked away, spending the rest of my day – and most of the following day – standing on the side of the busiest road in the city, watching the cars fly past me, feet away from the oblivion I so badly craved but so deeply feared.

Well, I think we know where I went from there.

Ring count: 9.

[akasugaro]

that one through fifty thing bc i write books and this seems like a cool thing to do

Delilah Fae/Violette Monroe -  my self insert bc im a narcissist 

1. A little-known talent of your OC?

She can sing pretty well.

2. What trait does your OC like best about themself? (Eyes, guitar skills, random bird facts, etc)

Her 87% survival rate.  There were a few times where she died, but she always came back.

3. How many pillows does your OC sleep with?

Two.  Always two.  Unless they’re especially flat, then it’s three.

4. Is your OC good at keeping secrets?

Well, no one knows she’s basically a God.

5. Your OC’s worst habit?

She flirts with everyone.  Literally everyone.  It gets her into trouble more often than she’d like to admit.

6. Does your OC prefer tennis shoes/sneakers or flip flops?

Flip flops.  She feels trapped in sneakers.  She likes to be able to take them off and put them back on without any special effort.

7. What is your OC’s opinion on body modifications?

She loves them.  She’s gotten many, taken them out, gotten them again, so on.  She’s just very indecisive.

8. Your OC is given a full-ride scholarship to any college they could want to go to. Where do they go and what do they major in?

Anywhere she can get an arts degree.

9. What chore does your OC hate the most?

Dishes.  She tends to gag any time she has to load the dishwasher.  Emptying it isn’t as bad though.

10. Would your OC prefer to live in the city, the suburbs, or the country?

She literally couldn’t care less where she lives as long as there’s cute girls or guys.

11. Is your OC a blanket hog?

Yes.  She will take the blankets from every section of the house and wrap herself up in them.  She tends to get really cold at night.

12. Would your OC play by the rules in a fight or take cheap shots?

She doesn’t believe in rules for fighting.

13. Does your OC have a widow ’s peak?

Yes.  It’s usually hidden though.

14. Happy birthday! What kind of present would your OC want?

Video games, a cat, any form of positive attention, stuffed animals.

15. Something that grosses your OC out?

She thinks most bodily functions are absolutely disgusting and is grateful that she doesn’t need to do any of those things.

16. Your OC is suddenly on an adventure! Where do they go and what do they do?

Depends on what dimension she’s in.  Usually she just tags along with the people who belong in the dimension.

17. Is there a real person that looks like your OC?

Me.  She’s basically an OP self insert because I was lonely and had no friends and decided to write myself some.

18. Something that makes your OC laugh without fail?

Vines.  She loves vines.  Also memes.  And stupid jokes.  She’s very easy to make laugh, actually.

19. Something that makes your OC cry without fail?

Movies.  She always cries at movies.  The ending to a series, any series, also gets her a lot.  Same with characters dying.

20. A obscure/ridiculous fear your OC has?

She’s scared of moths and lady bugs.  Spiders?  She thinks they’re cool.  Snakes?  She has one as a pet.  A ladybug lands on her shoulder?  She will start crying and screaming and somebody will have to get rid of it for her.

21. Does your OC have any type of disability, whether it be mental, physical, etc?

She has severe depression and anxiety, as well as ADHD and Dyslexia.

22. Does your OC get frustrated when people forget to close the door behind themselves?

Sometimes.  Depends on her mood. 

23. What is your OC’s first memory?

Her mother telling her she loved her before sacrificing herself.

24. Something you like that your OC would hate?

We like the same things lol

25. Your OC is going into battle/on a mission! What song is their anthem?

Victims or Do your Worst, both by New Years Day.

26. Does your OC have good or bad posture?

She has pretty good posture.  But it also really depends on her mood.

27. Most despicable thing your OC has ever done?

She kills people and fucks with people’s lives if she doesn’t like how the story ends.

28. Is your OC a conspiracy theorist?

Not really.  

29. Someone does something awful in front of your OC. How do they handle it?

Depends on what it is.  Someone steals something?  Eh, not her problem.  Some murders a person?  She’ll do her best to stop them.  Someone rapes a person?  They will be going down to the deepest depths of hell.

30. What is your OC’s favorite drink?

Apple cider.  Sparkling, warm, cold.  Doesn’t matter.  She’s a slut for apple cider.

31. Does your OC prefer to sleep in a warm or cool area?

She doesn’t care as long as she has a blanket (or a hundred).

32. Would your OC like you if they met you?

I don’t know.  I hope she would, as she’s just inter-dimensional me.

33. A song that reminds you of your OC?

Hey There Delilah by the Plain Whit Ts, Primadonna by Marina, Teen Idle also by Marina, Human by Christina Perri, Girls Like Girls by Hayley Kiyoko, I’m No Good by New Years Day.

34. Is your OC a nail biter?

Definitely.  It’s a nasty habit she can’t seem to kick.

35. What is your OC’s favorite quote?

“You’re just jealous ‘cause my tits are better than yours.”  “I’m sorry; I’m a terrible person.”  “I am LITERALLY going to KILL MYSELF if _______ HAPPENS/DOESN’T HAPPEN.”  “Badass!”

36. Your OC’s favorite fashion era? (20’s, 70’s, etc)

She’s interested in the Victorian and 1920 eras, but she wouldn’t be able to live without her leggings.

37. Does your OC get excited when they get mail?

Yes.  She always hopes for a confession of love, but then is disappointed by only getting the thing she forgot she ordered.

38. Random thunderstorm! How does your OC react?

She will literally drag her S/O out into the rain so they can have that romantic RomCom moment.

39. A strange talent of your OC?

She always comes back.

40. Assuming your OC doesn’t have them already, what superpower would they want? If they do already, would they change it, keep it, or get rid of it?

Depending on what dimension she’s in, she has certain abilities, most commoly: telekineses, the inability to feel pain, the ability to fly, and not needing to eat sleep etc.  She’s able to remember the lives of all the parallel universe Delilahs.

41. Does your OC like/make puns?

Yes.  Most of her humour is shitty puns.  All of her friends hate her.

42. What kind of shampoo does your OC use?

She usually uses Suave professionals in anything rose scented.

43. Your OC wakes up with a coin super glued to their forehead. How do they react?

She probably wouldn’t care at all.  She’s beyond the point of caring.

44. Can your OC sleep if there’s any kind of light?

No.  She uses a sleep mask because even the smallest amount of light that comes through the curtains at night annoys her.

45. What kind of self-esteem does your OC have?

It depends.  She either has really high self esteem, or she’ll feel like she’s an awful, horrible person who doesn’t deserve anything.

46. A word that your OC can’t stand?

The N-word.  She hates it more than anything.  Words like that disgust her so much.

47. Does your OC fold their clothes, hang them up, or just leave them in the basket/dryer?

She has a basket for clean clothes that she just throws them all in.  Unless they’re Victorian era clothing, then she hangs them up.

48. Would society call your OC a good guy or a bad guy? What would they say they are?

Again, depends on the dimension, but soceity usually says she’s a good guy.  She, however, thinks she’s the worst of the worst, undeserving of love and affection and anything nice.

49. Your OC’s most prized possession?

A necklace with a bear paw opal pendant.  She’s had it since before she became an all-knowing, inter-dimensional God.

50. What is your OC’s happy place?

Anywhere that has all of her friends.

[tortuga-aak]

Here's why people love to feel scared, according to science

Thomas Lohnes / Stringer

Studies suggest that a major factor in how we experience fear has to do with the context. 

Being scared triggers a "fight-or-flight" response, but the hippocampus can alert us when the threat isn't real, allowing us to enjoy the excitement.

People who don't like being scared may process the fright as too real.

  Fear may be as old as life on Earth. It is a fundamental, deeply wired reaction, evolved over the history of biology, to protect organisms against perceived threat to their integrity or existence. Fear may be as simple as a cringe of an antenna in a snail that is touched, or as complex as existential anxiety in a human.

Whether we love or hate to experience fear, it’s hard to deny that we certainly revere it — devoting an entire holiday to the celebration of fear.

Thinking about the circuitry of the brain and human psychology, some of the main chemicals that contribute to the “fight or flight” response are also involved in other positive emotional states, such as happiness and excitement. So, it makes sense that the high arousal state we experience during a scare may also be experienced in a more positive light. But what makes the difference between getting a “rush” and feeling completely terrorized?

We are psychiatrists who treat fear and study its neurobiology. Our studies and clinical interactions, as well as those of others, suggest that a major factor in how we experience fear has to do with the context. When our “thinking” brain gives feedback to our “emotional” brain and we perceive ourselves as being in a safe space, we can then quickly shift the way we experience that high arousal state, going from one of fear to one of enjoyment or excitement.

When you enter a haunted house during Halloween season, for example, anticipating a ghoul jumping out at you and knowing it isn’t really a threat, you are able to quickly relabel the experience. In contrast, if you were walking in a dark alley at night and a stranger began chasing you, both your emotional and thinking areas of the brain would be in agreement that the situation is dangerous, and it’s time to flee!

But how does your brain do this?

How do we experience fear?

Fear reaction starts in the brain and spreads through the body to make adjustments for the best defense, or flight reaction. The fear response starts in a region of the brain called the amygdala. This almond-shaped set of nuclei in the temporal lobe of the brain is dedicated to detecting the emotional salience of the stimuli – how much something stands out to us.

Darren McCollester / Getty ImagesFor example, the amygdala activates whenever we see a human face with an emotion. This reaction is more pronounced with anger and fear. A threat stimulus, such as the sight of a predator, triggers a fear response in the amygdala, which activates areas involved in preparation for motor functions involved in fight or flight. It also triggers release of stress hormones and sympathetic nervous system.

This leads to bodily changes that prepare us to be more efficient in a danger: The brain becomes hyperalert, pupils dilate, the bronchi dilate and breathing accelerates. Heart rate and blood pressure rise. Blood flow and stream of glucose to the skeletal muscles increase. Organs not vital in survival such as the gastrointestinal system slow down.

A part of the brain called the hippocampus is closely connected with the amygdala. The hippocampus and prefrontal cortex help the brain interpret the perceived threat. They are involved in a higher-level processing of context, which helps a person know whether a perceived threat is real.

For instance, seeing a lion in the wild can trigger a strong fear reaction, but the response to a view of the same lion at a zoo is more of curiosity and thinking that the lion is cute. This is because the hippocampus and the frontal cortex process contextual information, and inhibitory pathways dampen the amygdala fear response and its downstream results. Basically, our “thinking” circuitry of brain reassures our “emotional” areas that we are, in fact, OK.

How do we learn the difference?

Similar to other animals, we very often learn fear through personal experiences, such as being attacked by an aggressive dog, or observing other humans being attacked by an aggressive dog.

However, an evolutionarily unique and fascinating way of learning in humans is through instruction – we learn from the spoken words or written notes! If a sign says the dog is dangerous, proximity to the dog will trigger a fear response.

We learn safety in a similar fashion: experiencing a domesticated dog, observing other people safely interact with that dog or reading a sign that the dog is friendly.

Why do some people enjoy being scared?

Fear creates distraction, which can be a positive experience. When something scary happens, in that moment, we are on high alert and not preoccupied with other things that might be on our mind (getting in trouble at work, worrying about a big test the next day), which brings us to the here and now.

Furthermore, when we experience these frightening things with the people in our lives, we often find that emotions can be contagious in a positive way. We are social creatures, able to learn from one another. So, when you look over to your friend at the haunted house and she’s quickly gone from screaming to laughing, socially you’re able to pick up on her emotional state, which can positively influence your own.

While each of these factors - context, distraction, social learning - have potential to influence the way we experience fear, a common theme that connects all of them is our sense of control. When we are able to recognize what is and isn’t a real threat, relabel an experience and enjoy the thrill of that moment, we are ultimately at a place where we feel in control. That perception of control is vital to how we experience and respond to fear. When we overcome the initial “fight or flight” rush, we are often left feeling satisfied, reassured of our safety and more confident in our ability to confront the things that initially scared us.

It is important to keep in mind that everyone is different, with a unique sense of what we find scary or enjoyable. This raises yet another question: While many can enjoy a good fright, why might others downright hate it?

Why do some people not enjoy being scared?

Darren McCollester / Getty ImagesAny imbalance between excitement caused by fear in the animal brain and the sense of control in the contextual human brain may cause too much, or not enough, excitement. If the individual perceives the experience as “too real,” an extreme fear response can overcome the sense of control over the situation.

This may happen even in those who do love scary experiences: They may enjoy Freddy Krueger movies but be too terrified by “The Exorcist,” as it feels too real, and fear response is not modulated by the cortical brain.

On the other hand, if the experience is not triggering enough to the emotional brain, or if is too unreal to the thinking cognitive brain, the experience can end up feeling boring. A biologist who cannot tune down her cognitive brain from analyzing all the bodily things that are realistically impossible in a zombie movie may not be able to enjoy “The Walking Dead” as much as another person.

So if the emotional brain is too terrified and the cognitive brain helpless, or if the emotional brain is bored and the cognitive brain is too suppressing, scary movies and experiences may not be as fun.

What are disorders of fear?

All fun aside, abnormal levels of fear and anxiety can lead to significant distress and dysfunction and limit a person’s ability for success and joy of life. Nearly one in four people experiences a form of anxiety disorder during their lives, and nearly 8 percent experience post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD).

Disorders of anxiety and fear include phobias, social phobia, generalized anxiety disorder, separation anxiety, PTSD and obsessive compulsive disorder. These conditions usually begin at a young age, and without appropriate treatment can become chronic and debilitating and affect a person’s life trajectory. The good news is that we have effective treatments that work in a relatively short time period, in the form of psychotherapy and medications.

NOW WATCH: Here's what candy corn is actually made of — it may surprise you

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[djgblogger-blog]

The science of fright: Why we love to be scared

http://bit.ly/2ySrDnT

Scary pumpkins are the least of what frightens us at Halloween, a day devoted to being frightened. asife/Shutterstock.com

Fear may be as old as life on Earth. It is a fundamental, deeply wired reaction, evolved over the history of biology, to protect organisms against perceived threat to their integrity or existence. Fear may be as simple as a cringe of an antenna in a snail that is touched, or as complex as existential anxiety in a human.

Whether we love or hate to experience fear, it’s hard to deny that we certainly revere it – devoting an entire holiday to the celebration of fear.

Thinking about the circuitry of the brain and human psychology, some of the main chemicals that contribute to the “fight or flight” response are also involved in other positive emotional states, such as happiness and excitement. So, it makes sense that the high arousal state we experience during a scare may also be experienced in a more positive light. But what makes the difference between getting a “rush” and feeling completely terrorized?

We are psychiatrists who treat fear and study its neurobiology. Our studies and clinical interactions, as well as those of others, suggest that a major factor in how we experience fear has to do with the context. When our “thinking” brain gives feedback to our “emotional” brain and we perceive ourselves as being in a safe space, we can then quickly shift the way we experience that high arousal state, going from one of fear to one of enjoyment or excitement.

When you enter a haunted house during Halloween season, for example, anticipating a ghoul jumping out at you and knowing it isn’t really a threat, you are able to quickly relabel the experience. In contrast, if you were walking in a dark alley at night and a stranger began chasing you, both your emotional and thinking areas of the brain would be in agreement that the situation is dangerous, and it’s time to flee!

But how does your brain do this?

How do we experience fear?

Fear reaction starts in the brain and spreads through the body to make adjustments for the best defense, or flight reaction. The fear response starts in a region of the brain called the amygdala. This almond-shaped set of nuclei in the temporal lobe of the brain is dedicated to detecting the emotional salience of the stimuli – how much something stands out to us.

For example, the amygdala activates whenever we see a human face with an emotion. This reaction is more pronounced with anger and fear. A threat stimulus, such as the sight of a predator, triggers a fear response in the amygdala, which activates areas involved in preparation for motor functions involved in fight or flight. It also triggers release of stress hormones and sympathetic nervous system.

This leads to bodily changes that prepare us to be more efficient in a danger: The brain becomes hyperalert, pupils dilate, the bronchi dilate and breathing accelerates. Heart rate and blood pressure rise. Blood flow and stream of glucose to the skeletal muscles increase. Organs not vital in survival such as the gastrointestinal system slow down.

A part of the brain called the hippocampus is closely connected with the amygdala. The hippocampus and prefrontal cortex help the brain interpret the perceived threat. They are involved in a higher-level processing of context, which helps a person know whether a perceived threat is real.

A lion in the wild can make us fearful. Chadofski/Shutterstock.com

For instance, seeing a lion in the wild can trigger a strong fear reaction, but the response to a view of the same lion at a zoo is more of curiosity and thinking that the lion is cute. This is because the hippocampus and the frontal cortex process contextual information, and inhibitory pathways dampen the amygdala fear response and its downstream results. Basically, our “thinking” circuitry of brain reassures our “emotional” areas that we are, in fact, OK.

How do we learn the difference?

Being attacked by a dog or seeing someone else attacked by a dog triggers fear. Jaromir Chalabala/Shutterstock.com

Similar to other animals, we very often learn fear through personal experiences, such as being attacked by an aggressive dog, or observing other humans being attacked by an aggressive dog.

However, an evolutionarily unique and fascinating way of learning in humans is through instruction – we learn from the spoken words or written notes! If a sign says the dog is dangerous, proximity to the dog will trigger a fear response.

The author and his Great Pyreness, Jasper. Arash, CC BY

We learn safety in a similar fashion: experiencing a domesticated dog, observing other people safely interact with that dog or reading a sign that the dog is friendly.

Why do some people enjoy being scared?

Fear creates distraction, which can be a positive experience. When something scary happens, in that moment, we are on high alert and not preoccupied with other things that might be on our mind (getting in trouble at work, worrying about a big test the next day), which brings us to the here and now.

Furthermore, when we experience these frightening things with the people in our lives, we often find that emotions can be contagious in a positive way. We are social creatures, able to learn from one another. So, when you look over to your friend at the haunted house and she’s quickly gone from screaming to laughing, socially you’re able to pick up on her emotional state, which can positively influence your own.

While each of these factors - context, distraction, social learning - have potential to influence the way we experience fear, a common theme that connects all of them is our sense of control. When we are able to recognize what is and isn’t a real threat, relabel an experience and enjoy the thrill of that moment, we are ultimately at a place where we feel in control. That perception of control is vital to how we experience and respond to fear. When we overcome the initial “fight or flight” rush, we are often left feeling satisfied, reassured of our safety and more confident in our ability to confront the things that initially scared us.

It is important to keep in mind that everyone is different, with a unique sense of what we find scary or enjoyable. This raises yet another question: While many can enjoy a good fright, why might others downright hate it?

Why do some people not enjoy being scared?

Any imbalance between excitement caused by fear in the animal brain and the sense of control in the contextual human brain may cause too much, or not enough, excitement. If the individual perceives the experience as “too real,” an extreme fear response can overcome the sense of control over the situation.

This may happen even in those who do love scary experiences: They may enjoy Freddy Krueger movies but be too terrified by “The Exorcist,” as it feels too real, and fear response is not modulated by the cortical brain.

On the other hand, if the experience is not triggering enough to the emotional brain, or if is too unreal to the thinking cognitive brain, the experience can end up feeling boring. A biologist who cannot tune down her cognitive brain from analyzing all the bodily things that are realistically impossible in a zombie movie may not be able to enjoy “The Walking Dead” as much as another person.

So if the emotional brain is too terrified and the cognitive brain helpless, or if the emotional brain is bored and the cognitive brain is too suppressing, scary movies and experiences may not be as fun.

What are disorders of fear?

All fun aside, abnormal levels of fear and anxiety can lead to significant distress and dysfunction and limit a person’s ability for success and joy of life. Nearly one in four people experiences a form of anxiety disorder during their lives, and nearly 8 percent experience post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD).

Disorders of anxiety and fear include phobias, social phobia, generalized anxiety disorder, separation anxiety, PTSD and obsessive compulsive disorder. These conditions usually begin at a young age, and without appropriate treatment can become chronic and debilitating and affect a person’s life trajectory. The good news is that we have effective treatments that work in a relatively short time period, in the form of psychotherapy and medications.

The authors do not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and have disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.