Fear fundas

Psychiatrist Ashit Sheth decodes the fright factor

Psychiatrist Ashit Sheth decodes the fright factor

In a no-frills clinic on the first floor of Maker Bhavan 3, off-white walls overlook nearly-brown-nearly-black chairs and side tables strewn with several health magazines which the patients in waiting ignore.

Dr Ashit Seth, MD, DPM, is waiting to talk fear, darkness and spirits (the last word makes him smile). According to the psychiatrist who also practices at the next door Bombay Hospital, there are two kinds of fear: temporary or calculative and unexplained. The first, he says, is when you put yourself knowingly into a particular situation.

Dr.Ashit Sheth at his clinic at Marine Lines PIC / BIPIN KOKATE

These include sitting on a roller-coaster ride, reading a supernatural novel or watching a horror movie... late at night. "Most people even tend to enjoy the fear," smiles Devanshi Jalan, a clinical psychologist who works with Sheth.

"Mild fear is enjoyable. It's intentional and it's under your control," elaborates Dr Sheth.u00a0 But later at night, when some of us are trying to woo sleep, the darkness begins to cast shadows, which, bolstered by our imagination, take forms of what we fear most. "A piece of rope looks like a snake, a fluttering curtain turns into a swaying ghost," begins Dr Sheth when Alina Phillip, another clinical psychologist interrupts, "The wind whooshing past the window suddenly seems to echo the tinkling of bangles or anklets."

But while most fears come from memory (reliving a scene from a book or a movie, remembering a scary story), some of them are pointers to mental illnesses. "Depending on the symptoms, it's possible that a person suffers from bipolar disorder, chronic grief reaction and paranoid schizophrenia."

How about times when it's hard to shake off a nightmare or an illusion because one is unable to speak or even open the eyes? Dr Sheth explains, "The mind wakes up first; the body takes a little longer. So it's not a ghost or spirit that isn't allowing you to call for help or move, it's your own body."

How about those of us who seem to get rattled by the slightest provocation? Dr Sheth doesn't see it as anything to worry about. It only means your amygdala works overtime. The amygdala, he explains, is a gland situated close to the temporal lobe the seat of fear. When the eye processes what it sees and interprets a particular image (fluttering white dupatta = ghost), the amygdala swells and warns the brain. Which in turn sets off reactions like increased heart-beat, clammy hands, goosebumps and a need to relieve yourself. "Your body is telling you to either run for cover, scream for help, fight back or simply freeze on the spot," explains Dr Sheth. He formulates a key letter code for it too:

P psychological fear
A alimentary (stomach symptoms)
N neurological (numbness)
I inspiratory (breathing fast)
C cardiovascular (rapid heartbeat)

Panic, he explains, is the mind's way of warning and protecting the body.

Sheth claims to have never had a supernatural experience. All the same, he is anything but dismissive of the unknown: "We don't have solid proof to whether ghosts exist or not." The doctor also sighs about how horror films fail to hold his interest, except for The Sixth Sense and Psycho both of which were "very enjoyable".

Phillip says that whenever she watches a horror flick, she mentally tests the symptoms shown by the victim (the possessed character) rather than concentrating on the actual 'bhoot' element.

Speaking of fear trends, Dr Sheth reveals that quite a high ratio of women do suffer from fear and fear-related disturbances but hardly venture out of home to get themselves treated. Children too, are severely affected by whatever they see and create for themselves. "Children live in their own worlds of fantasy and after a point, find it difficult to return to the real world," he explains. Phillip recalls a case in which a girl studying in the sixth standard had to undergo psychiatric treatment. She had watched Bhool Bhulaiyya after being forced by friends, and was so traumatised by it, she hadn't stepped out of home for two weeks.

"She had stopped attending school and would spend every waking minute with her grandmother who she was extremely close to. She had even stopped speaking out loud, she was so scared." The child's treatment took quite a few months. Dr Sheth explains how they took it up in phases: sending her back to school, helping her sleep alone at night, and encouraging her to get back to extra-curricular activities. "She had a great gift for acting but after this movie, she was too scared to speak up. We made her audition for a class play. Then on, it was smooth sailing," smiles Phillip.

Finally, Dr Sheth asks if I've ever walked through Sonapur at night. "It's a cemetery but the only road connecting to the station. It's crowded even at midnight. And not by spirits," he grins. Brr! I already know what movie will play in my head tonight.