The physiological effects of fear can be better understood from the perspective of the sympathetic nervous responses (fight-or-flight),

as compared to the parasympathetic response, which is a more relaxed state. Muscles used for physical movement are tightened and primed with oxygen, in preparation for a physical fight-or-flight response. Perspiration occurs due to blood being shunted from body's viscera to the peripheral parts of the body.

Fear can be described with different terms in relation to the degree of fear that is experienced. It varies from mild caution to extreme phobia and paranoia. Fear is related to a number of additional cognitive and emotional states including worry, anxiety, terror, horror, panic, and dread.

Some fears manifest themselves as superstitions. A superstition is a credulous belief or notion, not based on reason or knowledge. It is commonly applied to beliefs and practices surrounding luck, prophecy and spiritual beings, particularly the irrational belief that future events can be foretold by specific unrelated prior events.

Fearfulness in waking life is correlated with the incidence of nightmares.

Some pathologies related to fear can include different types of anxiety disorder which are very common, and also other more severe illnesses like the extreme phase of bipolar disorder and some kinds of schizophrenia.

Terror is an acute and pronounced form of fear. It is an overwhelming sense of immediate personal danger. It can also be caused by perceiving the object of a phobia. Terror may overwhelm a person to the point of making irrational choices and atypical behavior.

Emotional trauma, such as abuse or fear, can cause sudden short-term memory loss. This is seen as the minds way of protecting the psyche from unpleasant events it is otherwise unable to cope with.

Though nearly everyone experiences a fear of death to some degree, people who suffer from thanatophobia are preoccupied with death or dying to an extent that it adversely affects their ability to function in their daily lives. People suffering from thanatophobia may develop other disorders as they try to cope with their phobia, such as obsessivecompulsive disorder or hypochondriasis.[5] Thanatophobia is derived from Thanatos (: "death"), the Greek personification of death.