A few years ago, I worked with a military client who was highly trained, battle-hardened, and accustomed to life-threatening situations. Given his experience, you’d think fear wasn’t a factor for him; however, as we spoke, he shared something that surprised me.
“I wasn’t scared of being shot,” he said, “I’m trained to deal with that. It was the idea of getting into the helicopter that terrified me.”
Here was a man who had faced enemy fire without flinching—yet the thought of stepping into a helicopter caused pure fear.
This example illustrates something profound and that I repeat frequently: fear isn’t logical. It doesn’t operate on statistics or reason, and it’s not necessarily about being in actual danger—it’s about what your brain perceives as a threat. And once that fear is hot-wired into your system, it can feel impossible to override.
That said, it’s not all doom and gloom. Many studies by neuroscientists highlight exactly how the brain can unlearn fear, and their findings align with the techniques I’ve been using to help people overcome phobias and anxiety since I started working in this field.
The Science of Overcoming Fear
While fear may feel like an automatic reaction outside of your control, neuroscience shows the brain can be rewired. A 2023 study from University College London (Wang et al.) discovered a key brain region involved in fear suppression—the ventrolateral geniculate nucleus (vLGN).[1]
In the same way the amygdala triggers fear, the vLGN acts as a brake, helping the brain unlearn irrational fear responses. What this discovery shows us is fear isn’t just something we’re stuck with—it can be overridden with the right techniques.
In my experience, methods like pattern interruption, reframing, and reconditioning align perfectly with these findings, and by working with the brain’s natural processes, we can retrain fear responses and break free from whatever is holding us back.
Why Fear Sticks – The Brain’s Role
Your brain constantly scans your environment for threats. When it detects something it believes is dangerous, it kicks your survival system into gear—your heart starts pounding, your muscles tense, and your mind begins to race. This is the classic fight, flight or freeze response that is controlled by a part of your brain called the amygdala.
However, fear doesn’t happen in isolation. Different parts of your brain play specific roles in how a fear is formed and reinforced, and, ultimately, how it can be overcome.
- The Amygdala – The mastermind of fear. It detects danger and instantly triggers the fear response. However, it often reacts before logic has a chance to weigh in. It plays a big part in conditioning fear responses based on past experiences.
- The Hippocampus – Your memory bank. It stores past experiences and helps determine if a situation is genuinely dangerous or if it’s a learned fear. If the hippocampus links a particular event to fear, the brain automatically reacts with anxiety when faced with a similar situation.
- The Prefrontal Cortex (PFC) – Our rational thinker that analyses fear triggers. This region is essential for overriding emotional responses by providing context and rewiring how we process them.
- The Ventrolateral Geniculate Nucleus (vLGN) – This is the new player in fear suppression. The vLGN helps store learned safety responses, allowing you to override instinctive fear reactions. By engaging this area, the brain can learn to reprocess non-threatening stimuli correctly.
Rewiring Your Fear Response: The Breakthrough Method
To override fear, we need to work with these parts of the brain systematically. Here’s how you can do it using the Integrated Change System (ICS).
Interrupt the Amygdala’s Automatic Response
The amygdala reacts instinctively, triggering fear before your rational mind catches up. To override this response:
- Pattern Interrupt – Change the sequence of fear. If you feel fear building, do something unexpected—clap your hands, change your posture, or speak out loud. This forces your brain to shift gears.
- Change Submodalities – If you’re visualising something scary, shrink the image in your mind, make it black and white, or add a silly soundtrack. This will confuse the amygdala and reduce its impact.
- The Freeze and Reverse Technique – Imagine the fearful event playing backwards at high speed, turning it into something ridiculous. Your brain starts processing it differently, weakening the fear response at a neurological level.
Rewire the Hippocampus – Change the Memory Associations
Your hippocampus links past experiences to present fears. So, if it once recorded fear in a situation, it will keep triggering that fear. To change that:
- Reframe the Memory – Go back to the moment when the fear was created and see it from a different perspective. What else was happening, and could you re-interpret it differently?
- Float Above the Event – Imagine looking at the past event from above, like watching it on a movie screen. This distances you emotionally and gives you control over the memory, reducing the emotional weight the hippocampus assigns to it.
- Bring in a Resourceful State – If your past self was afraid, imagine your current, wiser self stepping in and guiding them through it with confidence. This technique helps to integrate new, empowering emotions into old memories.
Engage the Prefrontal Cortex – The Rational Brain Takes Over
This is where logic and reasoning can override emotional responses, but only if engaged correctly. To do this:
- Ask the Right Questions – Instead of ‘Why am I afraid?’ ask ‘What else could this mean? What is the actual risk?’ This engages your PFC to create alternative, rational interpretations.
- The Switch Perspective Technique – Imagine someone you admire handling the situation. What would they do? How would they think? This mental shift engages the PFC to take control of the fear-based reaction.
- Use Anchoring: Recall a time when you felt completely in control and anchor that feeling to a physical gesture (such as squeezing your thumb and finger together). Repeating this action when facing fear can strengthen the neural pathways responsible for confidence.
Strengthen the vLGN – The Brain’s Fear Override System
Recent research shows that repeated safe exposure to a fear trigger helps the vLGN store a new response, reducing fear over time. Here’s how to use this:
- Incremental Exposure – Face the fear gradually, starting small and increasing the challenge. The key is controlled exposure with relaxation techniques. This allows the vLGN to recognize safety over time.
- Stacking Positive Associations – Before facing your fear, engage in something enjoyable (e.g. listening to music, laughing, or movement). This will change the brain’s learned response by tying positive emotions to a formerly feared stimulus.
- Neural Reconditioning with Visualisation – Regularly visualise yourself handling the fearful situation calmly. The brain will start accepting this as the default reaction, training the vLGN to suppress unnecessary fear responses.
Train Your Brain to Beat Fear
Being afraid doesn’t have to be permanent. Your brain is built to learn, adapt, and change, and just like the research found, you can override your fear response by systematically engaging different brain regions and retraining them.
By identifying your fear, you can disrupt the cycle, engage your logical brain, and create new positive associations. After all, fear is just a learned habit of the brain—and with the right tools, you can unlearn it.
Sources:
- Reference: Wang, X., et al. (2023). “Neural mechanisms of fear suppression in the vLGN.” Sainsbury Wellcome Centre, University College London.