When you are overwhelmed by anxiety, worry, and fear it’s easy to not care about the subtle differences that distinguish them. However, part of being able to take control of issues that cause them is to first gain a good understanding of anxiety, worry, and fear and how they operate, both in their similarities and differences.
Anxiety
Anxiety is the anticipation of danger that might happen in the future. That future could be 5 seconds from now or 50 years from now. The important part is that the danger has not happened yet. The danger may be real, for example, someone is tailgating you. The danger could be imagined like you believe someone is going to criticize you as you stand up and give a short speech.
Anxiety has a very strong physical component i.e. you feel it in your body. These physical feelings can occur in your stomach or heart and you might sweat, feel dizzy or have tense muscles, etc. The more intense the anxiety, the more intense the physical sensations. There is a thinking component to anxiety: what you think either fuels it or calms it down. It also has a behavioral component i.e. when we’re anxious we often take action, to either deal with the situation, leave the situation, or just freeze in the moment of it. Anxiety is an emotion that leads to lots of other emotions, like overwhelm, exhaustion, and being afraid.
Worry
While anxiety is strongly experienced in our bodies, worry is fueled by our thoughts. Sometimes, though, we can be so overwhelmed by what’s going on in our bodies that it’s hard to identify our thoughts and worries. The thoughts and worries can move through our mind at lightning speed. A simple trick to identify your worrisome thoughts is to just pay attention to your thoughts that start with the phrase: “What if ______?” Almost all “what if” thoughts are worries.
Fear
Fear is an emotion that results from anxiety. We are threatened by something and one reaction is fear. Here’s a great way to envision the distinction between fear and anxiety: “Anxiety occurs when you are in a room and you know there’s a tiger on the other side of the door. Fear occurs when the tiger comes into the room with you.” According to that description, fear occurs while we are actually dealing with a threat, or are in the imminent threat of danger. Fear would occur while we actually are face to face with a vicious dog, or our car really did break down on the side of the freeway.
Conclusion
Anxiety, worry, and fear overlap quite a bit. Thinking about the differences could help you figure out where you are suffering the most. Is it the experiences in your body that scare you? Is it the endless litany of thoughts when you go to bed that keep you awake for hours? Or, are you in a life situation that is marked by the fear of real danger, such as an abusive relationship? Answering these questions might show you where you need to focus on addressing the current difficulty in your life.
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