The following excerpt is from the self help psychology book, Be Your Own Therapist.
Fear plays an essential role in nearly all our psychological problems.
Whenever trauma knots get triggered by our thoughts or by life events, fear arises. For it was fear of fully experiencing the original traumas that caused them originally to be tied in knots. Stress is fear. Fear shows itself in a multiplicity of ways. Those who were not loved will often sabotage their close relationships because of fear of being loved.