Both anxiety and fear can be experienced in a healthy and adaptive way. Both anxiety and fear serve the purpose of keeping you and everyone else out of trouble and alive.
Fear is adaptive when you are faced with a very real danger.
Fear motivates and mobilizes you to take defensive action—this is that classic fight or flight response. Everything happening inside of our body and mind during this state is happening to enable us to get away from danger or fight for our lives.
Some of our fearful responses are automatic and do not need to be learned. For example, if something fast is flying near your face you likely will automatically close your eyes and turn your head. We can also learn to respond with fear. For example, it is not universal to react with fear to dogs, but if you are grew up without dogs or know others who are fearful of dogs then you may learn that dogs are scary. Or, you may see someone running and yelling out of fear in a crowded place and it creates a feared response inside of you.
Fear: The present-oriented basic emotion
Fear is an intensely felt alarm response that we all need to have in order to survive. When we need to take action to protect our physical or health or safety our body will do a number of things to help you get moving.
Rapid heartbeat; smothering sensations; increased blood pressure; feel hot, sick to your stomach, or dizzy; or break out into a sweat.
Anxiety and worry can be adaptive when taking appropriate steps to plan for the future.
Anxiety and worry can be very adaptive and it would, in fact, be maladaptive not to worry about future events that could truly threaten your health and welfare.
In the time that I write this we are in the middle of the COVID-19 virus. Likely there is some adaptive, and not so adaptive, anxiety as people have to think about their employment, safety and the welfare of their families. The difference here between what would be adaptive in this case would be anything that helps you take effective action when faced with a threat. For example, one can take appropriate steps to keep themselves well via staying at home as much as possible, engaging in social distancing, and taking the lead from your employer about how to navigate the varying impacts (filing for unemployment, being on furlough, working from home, etc.).
Outside of COIVD-19, an example of useful anxiety/worry would look like a family having a plan of action in case of a fire, or someone in early recovery having a relapse prevention plan.
Anxiety: The future-oriented emotion
People know anxiety by having anxious apprehension or a sense of foreboding, worry, and muscle tension.
The bodily changes associated with anxiety are much less pronounced and dramatic than those associated with fear. At the same time, anxiety and worry can last much longer than acute fear, often ebbing and flowing for days, weeks, months, or even years.
Why?? Anxiety tends to be fueled by what your mind says than by real sources of danger or threat.
Has responding with fear and worry been useful to me?
Take a moment to think about a recent threatening or dangerous event, your response, and how your response worked out. Doing this can help you start to get a clear idea of when acting on fear and anxiety is helpful and when it isn’t. Ask yourself these questions:
- What was the event?
- What were your thoughts, feelings, actions?
- How useful was your response?
Now think of a time when being anxious and worrying about a possible negative event helped you make a plan and where having a plan and acting on it was somehow useful. Ask yourself the following questions:
- What was the potential problem?
- What were your thoughts, feelings, actions?
- How was your response useful?
Hopefully you can dig deep and see that fear and worrying have a place and can serve you well in life. Part of your recovery from anxiety means seeing our emotional responses, including fear and worry as friends and allies and not something to fight off.
If you are looking for more support with your anxiety reach out today to schedule an appointment.
