During periods of extreme stress, anxiety attacks or fear, often your pupils will dilate in response to the rush of adrenalin in your body.
Stimulation of the autonomic nervous system's sympathetic branch, known for triggering "fight or flight" responses when the body is under stress, induces pupil dilation.
When you're in dim light, it gets bigger to let more light in. When you're in bright light, it shrinks to protect your eye and keep light out. When your pupil shrinks (constricts), it's called miosis.
The processing of emotional signals usually causes an increase in pupil size, and this effect has been largely attributed to autonomic arousal prompted by the stimuli. Additionally, changes in pupil size were associated with decision making during non-emotional perceptual tasks.
An increase in eye white area suggests a fearful expression. However, an increase in eye white area can also occur when the eyes quickly dart their direction of gaze to the side, like when we have suddenly picked up on a danger nearby and want to localize it and see exactly what kind of trouble we are dealing with.
Pupil-Mimicry
This finding was replicated in a second study by the same group (Harrison et al., 2007), who extended their previous findings by the provocative observation that participants responded with significantly smaller pupils of their own when viewing sad faces (see also Trimble, 2012).
Additionally, the pupils will dilate if a person is frightened or excited due to the natural adrenalin response of the body. When someone is focused on something, particularly a near object, the pupils will constrict. Alternatively, they will dilate when someone is looking at a far distance.
According to a new study in the journal Science, published by AAAS, the nonprofit science society, seeing the enlarged whites of fear-widened eyes is enough to activate a fear-related structure in the brain called the amygdala.
According to the study, Daniel Lee and Anam Anderson published, when we are frightened, our eyes open wider than normal, which widens our field of view. It's a defense mechanism to better detect the things surrounding us, see potential dangers and protect ourselves.
Ommetaphobia describes an extreme fear of eyes. Like other phobias, this type of fear can be strong enough to interfere with your daily routine and social activities, while also being considered irrational because of the lack of any “real” danger.
The sympathetic branch of the ANS responds to a person being under stress, triggering the “fight or flight” response, which will cause the pupil to dilate. On the other hand, the parasympathetic branch known for “rest and digest” will cause pupil constriction.
Dilated pupils can occur with any type of anxiety, but are most common during periods of intense anxiety that occur in the following conditions: Panic Disorder/Panic Attacks. PTSD. Phobias.
Someone with computer phobia has an intense fear of using a computer or being around computers. They may avoid going places (like an office or school) where computers might be. Providers also call this phobia logizomechanophobia.
What is cacophobia? Cacophobia is an intense fear of ugliness. The condition is a specific phobia (fear), which is a type of anxiety disorder. People with cacophobia might be afraid of looking ugly themselves, or they might worry about seeing something they consider to be ugly.
Glossophobia, or a fear of public speaking, is a very common phobia and one that is believed to affect up to 75% of the population.
In some situations, the words terror and fear are roughly equivalent. However, terror implies the most extreme degree of fear.
Generalized anxiety disorder, or GAD, is a mental illness. It belongs to a group of illnesses called anxiety disorders. People living with GAD worry much more than other people, and they worry more often than other people.
Hippopotomonstrosesquippedaliophobia is one of the longest words in the dictionary — and, in an ironic twist, is the name for a fear of long words. Sesquipedalophobia is another term for the phobia. The American Psychiatric Association doesn't officially recognize this phobia.
The longest English word
The longest word in English has 189,819 letters and takes 3 hours to pronounce. This is a technical term for the chemical composition of titin. Titin is the largest known protein responsible for maintaining the passive elasticity of the muscles.
Aequeosalinocalcalinoceraceoaluminosocupreovitriolic. This is the longest word in English which is composed of seven words. This 52-letter word was coined by Dr. Edward Strother to describe the spa waters in Bath, England.
1. methionylthreonylthreonylglutaminylalanyl… isoleucine. You'll notice there's an ellipsis here, and that's because this word, in total, is 189,819 letters long, and it's the chemical name for the largest known protein, titin.
In recent years, one of the most famous people with agoraphobia is Barbara Streisand. After forgetting the words to a song during a performance in 1967 at Central Park in New York, Streisand's stage fright became so severe that it manifested into agoraphobia.
Don't say “get over it” or “toughen up.” This can be frustrating for a person with agoraphobia and it can prevent them from reaching out for help in the future.
Common anxiety signs and symptoms include: Feeling nervous, restless or tense. Having a sense of impending danger, panic or doom. Having an increased heart rate.