The Difference Between Healthy and Unhealthy Fear

It is all about how we react

You cannot conquer fear; in spite of what many self-help articles or gurus might suggest. Fear is an autonomic response to a stimulus. You cannot override or disregard fear in the moment.

Fear is the body’s way of responding to a perceived threat. As we gain experiences in life, we alter our perspective in many ways and are able to re-define how we perceive some actions and occurrences; recategorizing them as something other than threats.

That said, when your body does perceive a threat, it responds. When our autonomous nervous system detects a threat, it causes our endocrine system to release the hormones cortisol, epinephrine and norepinephrine which, in turn, causes our breathing and heart rates to increase, our peripheral circulation to constrict, shunting blood to central organs, and briefly increases the metabolism of free-circulating fatty acids into energy for immediate use by our muscles.

You have likely heard this described as the body’s “fight or flight” response. We have no control over this cascade of events.

What we can control, however, is how we react after the threat is mitigated. That is where we get to make an active choice about how to manage situations that may place us in harm’s way.

Our action after a fight or flight event is what defines whether fear is healthy or unhealthy.

But first, let’s clear up some subtle differences between fear, anxiety, and phobias.

Fear, as we previously established, is the body’s realistic and autonomic response to a perceived danger. Fear is acute, the response is uncontrollable and short-lived.

Anxiety is concern over a potential threat. Concern about losing one’s job, for instance, is an example of anxiety. While we often conflate the term fear to mean concern or anxiety, there is a tangible difference.

Phobias are our perceptions around certain potential threats. Often these have a real threat at the core but are more generalized. For instance, standing on the edge of a drop-off and stumbling can elicit a true autonomic fear response with all the effects described before. These heightened preparations for…

Related posts:

The year 2020 took a toll on all of us. Especially for the economy, many Americans and many around the globe are going losing their jobs and becoming unemployed. Because of this, the government…

Are you considering orthodontic treatment for yourself or your child? Metal braces may be the perfect solution! While they have been around for decades, metal braces continue to be a popular choice…

What happened to us. “Fade” is published by H..