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 fight or flight might be what allows us to grab a railing and keep from falling. However, phobia of heights is a more generalized heightened perception of threat based on location.

Rational Versus Irrational Fears

When people talk about rational or irrational fears, they are actually talking either about phobias or anxiety. The physiological fear response is neither rational nor irrational, it is simply our body’s response to a threat stimulus.

By defining a response to fear as either rational or irrational we do ourselves a disservice. Rationality is largely a perspective based on personal frameworks and filters. What is rational to one might legitimately not be so to others.

When we describe a fear response as irrational, it paints a person’s reactions along a highly subjective and meaningless spectrum. The term irrational fear is an unfair personal judgement of another person’s action.

Rather, it is much more helpful to describe fear reactions as healthy or unhealthy. Healthy fear reactions are those that help us avoid similar dangerous situations or help us refine our concerns to more appropriately reflect actual situations.

The reverse of this, continuing actions that place us in danger and failure to use fearful experiences to adapt our thinking and responses are unhealthy reactions to fear.

The Fear Cycle

While most might consider fear to be a negative emotion, it is, in fact, a very powerful positive tool for learning and reinforcement. A tool that can literally save and prolong our lives.

The continuum of fear experience should look like this:

Stimulus -> fear response -> fight or flight activated -> danger averted/avoided -> learning reinforcement to avoid similar dangers in future -> cycle complete

As long as the cycle plays out along this timeline, then fear is most definitely our friend and we have a healthy fear response.

Unfortunately, some people experience a cycle that only involves the first three steps in the cycle:

Stimulus -> fear response -> fight or flight -> then the cycle repeats.

This repetitive succession does not allow the body to physiological come down from the hormone dump and recover naturally, rather the process continues in a cycle.

Sometimes, although rarely, our phobias can place us in this type of cycle. If that is the case for you, then professional counseling and medical examination/treatment are the best course. Seek out your physician right away.

But other times, we place ourselves into this unhealthy repetitive fear cycle. Often it is our anxieties to blame here, and certainly, there is plenty to be anxious about in modern life today.

The fear cycle is designed to remove us from negative stimulus but allowing our concerns to take front and center does not allow the useful and productive version of the fear cycle, but rather this unhealthy carnival ride.

Breaking the Cycle

Fortunately, there is a lot you can do to break the unhealthy fear cycle. The most obvious is to follow the healthy fear cycle and remove yourself from the stimulus.

But, sometimes, it may not be evident how exactly to do that. The answer is to control the things that you can control. Your routines, especially as they relate to healthy eating and getting good sleep are the best way to take control and break an unhealthy fear cycle.

There are numerous practical ways to do this:

• Eliminate sugar and caffeine and other stimulants that can over-heighten fear stimulus
• Exercise (it doesn’t have to be intense; a walk will do wonders)
• Practice good sleep hygiene (regular bedtime, no screens, allow enough sleep time, etc.)
• Talk to others about your feelings
• Disconnect from the 24-hour news feed
• Take a social media break
• Go outside
• Do volunteer work with others
• Accept the fact that you might experience some anxiety

Conclusion

Fear is a normal and autonomic response to a danger. Fear is good for us because it can allow us to change our habits and perspective. However, constant fear is extremely unhealthy.

You can break the constant fear cycle by concentrating on things you can control, rather than on those you cannot.

For example, you cannot control the national economy; however, you can control how much or your money you save and spend. You can’t control the state of healthcare in the United States, but you can control how much you exercise and the foods you eat.

The more we concentrate on the things in our life that we can control, the less room there is for non-controllable issues to infiltrate our thoughts and perpetuate an unhealthy fear cycle.

Learn to recognize the occurrence of unhealthy fear and when it manifests, double down on things that you can control and break that unhealthy cycle.

Timothy Key spent over 26 years in the fire service as a firefighter/paramedic and various fire chief management roles. He firmly believes that bad managers destroy more than companies, and good managers create a passion that is contagious. Compassion, grace and gratitude drive the world; or at least they should. Follow me on Instagram, Facebook, and Twitter, and join the mail list.