Imagine an instance where you encounter a bear in a forest where you’re walking. What are the immediate thoughts that occur in your head? What’s the name of the feeling you experience? Is it fear or anxiety? Is it solely fear or solely anxiety? Or is it both? Let’s answer this question in the end.
Fear and Anxiety seem very similar but are different at the same time. When asked about the distinct features between the two, you wouldn’t be able to answer immediately. To assess the differences between them we need to know what they exactly are. Fear is a response to stimuli, both real and perceived, where it activates the flight, fight or freeze response of the body. Anxiety is general apprehensions or preoccupations with situations that are subjective in nature. It may occur at any point with no immediate danger and is related to previous experiences and events.
Physiological Response To Fear & Anxiety
The physiological responses of anxiety and fear are similar but they do not overlap when they occur. The physiological response of fear is characterised by increased heart rate, increased blood pressure, fight, flight or freeze, sweating, muscle tension, pupil dilation, dry mouth and many more. The physiological responses to anxiety include fatigue, sleep disturbances, shallow breathing, headaches, gastrointestinal difficulties and many more. The differences in the physiological responses include the intensity of the responses where the reaction to fear is higher than to anxiety, while the highest rate of anxiety can also lead to a panic attack, we are talking about general anxiety in this context. Another difference in the response is the duration. The physiological response may be short-lived while the anxiousness is prolonged.
A few instances where Fear and Anxiety can be differentiated are — You end up performing a major role at your school’s annual day. The fear can be explained as the feelings experienced when the actual situation of being on stage happens commonly known as “stage fright”. In contrast, anxiety is the days of sleeplessness leading up to the day when you perform on the stage. Another example can be when you think a robber has broken into your house. The reaction of fear is when you take action by holding a weapon in your hand and the reaction of anxiety is you double-checking the locks and being vigilant to noises around you at night. While thinking about these situations, fear and anxiety can be managed and controlled effectively.
Managing Fear
To manage Fear we need to understand the triggers and take steps to avoid the intensity that may be harmful
- Identify triggers effectively: If you understand that going to a heightened building might cause breathlessness because of your fear of heights, it might be best to acknowledge the trigger and avoid the situation entirely. This can help in understanding the triggers, and identifying them is the most productive way to avoid a large amount of emotional distress
- Slowly work around these triggers: Systematic Desensitization is the most efficient method to deal with fear. It’s a process involving exposure to different degrees of fear starting from small to big. For example, if you have an extreme fear of Spiders, in Systematic desensitization you will be exposed to the smallest spider and once you’re over the fear of the smallest one, you will be exposed to a slightly bigger one and so forth until you are completely desensitized to the existence of spiders of any size around you. This hence proves to be an effective technique for fears and phobias and is mostly used by mental health professionals when people with phobias approach them.
- Breathing techniques: These techniques are characterised by controlling the flow of your breathing and relaxing your body which eventually leads to relaxing your mind as well. A few breathing techniques include deep breathing, breathing on rhythm and slow and steady inhalation and exhalation. While encountering a trigger that invokes fear, we might feel helpless and overwhelmed. When practising these techniques, the reaction can be optimised and controlled further leading to a lessening of the distress.
Anxiety Management
Anxiety can be prolonged in nature but it’s important to understand the emotional difficulties that can occur over time. Here are some of the ways anxiety can be managed:
- Cognitive Behavioural Therapy: CBT is the go-to method many mental health professionals use to help people with anxiety. Its main goal is to change the negative thinking patterns and sets to achieve how you think. It believes that if you change the way you think, it can change the way you feel. Anxiety is rooted in negative thoughts and feelings and to tackle these, a viable change is required which CBT provides. For example, when a person with extreme social anxiety is helped with CBT as prescribed by the therapist, the person is required to understand the negative thoughts that are attributed to the social anxiety, and probe themselves with questions that are evidence-based like what’s the evidence that everyone hates me? and with several other methods, it changes their negative thinking patterns eventually. Here is a small video to help you understand Cognitive Behavioural Therapy better:
- Mindfulness: Mindfulness refers to the method that emphasises the importance of being in the present moment rather than being preoccupied by thoughts of the past or future. It’s composed of several techniques like meditation, yoga, walking, being in sync with all the senses, and many more. This is an extremely useful technique to deal with anxiety as the core of anxiety is being preoccupied with the past or the future. By being in the present moment through these techniques, you can cope with the ruminations which leads to healthy anxiety management.
- Journaling: The importance of Journaling leads you to understand and process your thoughts, and emotions. It also helps you gain clarity on your anxious thoughts. Sometimes, a simple thing like writing down what you’re feeling can be the most effective method to deal with your anxiety. Journaling needs to also be consistent in nature as it also provides insights into the previous ways you’ve dealt with anxiety and shows your progress in dealing with it. Further, this method also leads you to calm yourself down and give perspectives from a rational point of view.
Conclusion
Therefore, we understand that the above problem of the bear is when you experience a fight, flight or freeze reaction which are the characteristics of fear and anxiety experienced when you are preoccupied with the thoughts of encountering a bear while you have your stroll in the forest. Since we understand the distinct differences between the two, we may be able to effectively label them for further experiences and use techniques accordingly to manage them. Fear and Anxiety correlate with each other and are normal feelings to occur. However, they are to be taken seriously if they somehow disrupt your daily functioning. There are several methods to overcome both Fear and Anxiety but it is enhanced when taken the help of a mental health professional.
