fight-or-flight

i wonder if, perhaps,
some fury, (as opposed to anger,)
and some sadness, (as opposed to depression,)
could be secondary emotional responses
to the primary emotional response of fear.
if the physio-psychological fight-or-flight response
in humans is activated by a perceived threat,
(which, definitionally, involves the feeling of fear,)
then maybe the fury or the sadness
which often follows is an emotional result
of whichever of the two parts
of the overal response mechanism was taken up;
fight or flight, respectively.

for example: you're driving down the freeway,
someone suddenly whips around
and cuts you off, going very fast.
you might not take note of it,
but it scares the hell out of you for a split second.
(i realize i'm making an assumption,
but i think it's a fair assumption;
a situation like the one described is,
indeed, quite dangerous and, therefore,
has vast potential to produce fear.)
what you might instead note is that you feel furious
and that you become agressive,
trying to "get back" at the driver.

i wonder, too, if some kinds of depression
are psychological states produced and maintained by a sense,
(typically unrealized by the sufferer,) of failing, or having failed,
to fully engage, emotionally/mentally/physically,
with every challenge and problem of life.
a protraction of the aforementioned sadness
that results from having failed to fully engage,
(whatever that means for an individual,)
with the threatening/fear-producing situation.

i'm sorry. i'm probably not making a lot of sense.
and there are far too many
commas, parentheses, semicolons and wisps of ideas
trailing behind the asses of other ideas like snail slime.
there's a lot i want to express,
but i seem to be unable to put into words
precisely what i am thinking.
quite aside from the fact that these are all mere musings...