Why is it that along with candies and costumes, we’re able to enjoy fear as well?

For some, the spooky season begins once the leaves start to lose their vibrant shades of green in favor of the warm tones of reds, browns and oranges. For others, it begins once  the tricks, the treats and the scares come to grace our streets on October 31st. 

Though many of our current Halloween practices, such as knocking on each door in the neighborhood and yelling, “Trick or treat!” would be foreign to the first celebrators; the theme of fear has always been prevalent. Whether it was the 12th century criers dressed in black, parading the streets ringing mourning bells to aid purgatory trapped souls into the afterlife, or ancient Christians creating jack-o-lanterns out of turnips to ward off evil spirits, fear – and the human proclivity to engage with it – have always been a staple of the holiday.

Ever prevalent in our modern culture is the tendency to seek out fear-inducing experiences. Ranging from exploring haunted houses to watching horror movies, listening to true crime podcasts and even sharing scary stories in the dark – we all love something that will make our spine shiver.

But fear is bad… right? In many instances it holds us back. It stops us from taking the first step, asking for a date or giving that presentation in class for extra credit. It makes one wonder about the intricacies of the relationship between the human race and fear.

Despite the common-knowledge that dopamine is associated with good feelings and happiness, learning that fear also results in dopamine being released into the brain may come as a shock to you. After all, if you were to think back to the last time you were truly afraid, you would probably be able to recall your heart pumping adrenaline through your veins, shallow breaths and sweaty palms. These aren’t symptoms that you would normally associate with happiness.

Okay now flash forward and think about how you felt after a scary experience. If it was after an exam, was it relief? After bungee jumping, was it a sense of accomplishment for pushing past your comfort zone? After making it through a performance, was it a sense of giddy happiness? 

It would seem that when we seek out scary experiences, we do so on our own terms – keep ourselves in control. But what if we also seek out such experiences to avoid some of our real fears? Take for example watching a horror film. 

While you sit stuck, holding your breath and clutching on to whatever’s closest to you as you watch the main character enter a room with ominous music playing in the background, you logically know that you’re safe. Emotionally however, you’re sucked into the story, you experience everything right  alongside the protagonist as they try to escape the murder house they’ve been trapped in, with doors that lead to walls and staircases to inky black voids.

Within the fictional hellscape of the film you’re removed from the comparative hells of the real world. You’re not worrying about what the response could be to that risky text you sent, or about how your family would react to any bad news you might share. After all, how could you think about such things when you’ve given yourself the escape of a fear-induced dopamine hit? Your emotional fears are still real, you’ve just replaced them with fictional fears as you followed your protagonist friend to the last room in their house of horrors.

The room is empty, lit by natural sunlight filtered through a single window you or the protagonist wouldn’t be able to fit through anyways – even if it weren’t for the thick, iron bars. Anger and frustration well up inside you as the only thing you hear aside from yours – and the characters – shaky breathing are slow, heavy footfalls. There’s nowhere else to run… that is until the end credits roll.

While the same can’t be said for your protagonist friend, your safety from any myriad of horrors can remain stuck between the beginning of the film and its end –  your safety is secured.

During such a self-induced trauma experience, you can go through the motions of fear and come out unscathed unlike most instances in real life. 

Now, I’m not at all saying this is a bad thing, in fact, it’s innately human. To try to take control of our fear, run from it –even possibly hide from it– we’re just like the characters in the horror films we watch. But like them, our proverbial monsters will catch up with us eventually.

That said, don’t work yourself into a stress-induced coma by worrying over whether or not you’re running from your true fears by dressing up in scary costumes, playing fiendish pranks against friends, or watching horror movies this Halloween. Fear is part of the holiday, and it’s part of how we stimulate ourselves and keep us feeling alive. So the next time you feel weird for indulging in tales of terror or heart racing experiences by choice – just know it’s only human. 

Happy Halloween everyone!