This is hidden brain.
Im Shankar Vedantam.
The singer Kali Simon has suffered for most of her life from stage fright.
Although she enjoys performing in front of an audience, she never knows when a surge of panic will bring her to her knees.
In 1981, she set out to conquer her fear by arranging a string of concert dates at big concert halls.
Midway through the tour, during the first of two shows in Pittsburgh, she felt her heart begin to race.
Carly Simon told the audience what was happening.
Go with it.
They called to her, we'll be with you.
She invited some fans to join her on the stage for support.
They huddled around her, rubbing her arms and legs and telling her that they loved her.
She was able to finish that show, but right before the next show, with 10,000 people waiting to see her perform, she collapsed.
She cancelled the rest of the tour and stopped performing in public.
This week on hidden brain, how our fears get the better of us and how we can learn to get the better of them.
Fear is a normal and healthy response to things that threaten to do us harm.
But fear can also hold us back from doing the things we want to do.
At Wayne State University, psychiatrist and neuroscientist Arash Jawan Bhagt studies the psychology of fear, how it helps us, how it hurts us, and what we can do to harness it.
Aurash Javan Bhakt, welcome to hidden brain.
Thanks for having me on.
Shankar Arash, I understand that you yourself have long suffered from a particular fear involving heights.