Do you have Anxiety or Fear?

[Synner]

Anxiety and fear are two different levels of the same emotion. Anxiety tends to be irrational concerns, unease, or nervousness. Whereas fear is basically the next level up.

Personally I have always classified anxiety disorder and panic disorder as "irrational fear" because that's the easiest way to explain it to someone that doesn't suffer from either. But if you really want to dig down deep, there is a difference, imho. I can only speak directly to panic disorder, and my experience with it is best described as a constant "fight or flight" response. I'm not sure that's properly defined as a fear, but rather an instinct devoid of an actual emotion and a distinct feeling unto itself. I've often thought that (at least in my case) an instinct is being mistakenly triggered by a chemical imbalance and the reason you can't break free from it is that you can't resolve the fight or flight question. This ultimately leads you into a downwards spiral of repetition as the fight or flight instinct (correctly) triggers increased heartbeat, Adrenalin production, narrowing vision, and any of the other symptoms of anxiety / panic. These other symptoms, in turn, create another instinctual response, creating worse or more symptoms. This carries on until your body finally reaches a point of fatigue in which the fight or flight response can no longer be triggered.

[magicmarcus]

willheal, I have PTSD from a childhood incidence that is buried in my left side of my chest and head. I fully retriggered it whilst using Somatic Experiencing on my own (there are no therapist near me).

I would call trauma related anxiety, terror! That's how it felt and sometimes feels to me.

Like you say, I feel that the trauma is at a physiological/biological level even deeper than the mind.

There is an excellent book on this subject... The Body Keeps The Score... which you might find helpful.

I have started playing around with Brainspotting which has shown good results with trauma.

thats funny you brought up that book lol i just did a review of it on my youtube

[The Intolerable Kid]

And do you think anxiety is related in any way to fear?

I suppose in general it is. I am wary of people, but I haven't been afraid of them since I outgrew my father and the beatings stopped. These days I mainly find people boring and untrustworthy, but they don't frighten me.

[Kirk]

I believe both are inter-related.

[salvator here]

I do fear people to some degree, but not because I always care what they think of me, or of any physical harm they might cause (I do avoid physical conflict at all cost though), more because I'm afraid of myself around people as I come across as gentle, meek, timid and easy prey. When I am feeling vulnerable, people (like the sharks they are) can smell the blood and go in for the kill. This game of [survival of the fittest] brings me anxiety and is exhausting/draining, so for me they are related. Being a loner makes me feel safe and really decreases my anxiety. However in the effort to avoid socializing to decrease the anxiety only increases isolation / loneliness. Sometimes I don't know which is worse!

I feel people need to earn trust now and until people have proven themselves to be trustworthy, my guard will not come down and people get very little of myself anymore. Its that fear that (mostly) that helps me to avoid situations that I preconceive to be a determinant to my well-being.

I don't think fear is always a bad thing, unless its that same fear that is the root cause of the anxiety and depression.

[JonB]

I was exactly the same salvator. I suffered badly from social anxiety and not being able to trust people and being afraid of what might happen. This made me very hyper-senstive to how people were with me.

I have been using a technique that has made massive changes in my life. If you're interested in taking a look at it I can send it over to you?

[JonB]

Are you on facebook?

You can find part of the description on here: https://www.facebook.com/fear2fearless/

You'd need to message me on FB for me to send you the rest.

[martin05]

I would say, "Fear is Fear. Learning to accept fear wherever & whenever it exists, is more important than the labels we ascribe in our head." We can try to analyse our way out of a chaotic and mundane experiences, but generally speaking the mechanism that drives the mind - aka- thought; generates emotion without the need for roaring lions and ball busting monkeys. Although life threatening situations make for a good analogy when drawing a distinction between "in the moment/present experience Vs those we ourselves ( + Influential/manipulated/controlled ) constantly project in our head.

The chaotic world in which we live - our wonderfully advanced fast paced competitive world to which influences a lot of the threats and fears that dwell within our head is as real as any hungry roaring lion yet to be box and shipped to one of our beautiful zoos.

Fear is Fear - it's all the same to me. No matter how much we try to box and label our anxiety; it's still going to roar and consume us if we can't just accept it as part of life, leave it where it is - aka live and let live - Leave things the way they be. Humans are have gone insane because they can't stop trying to control and consume everything. It is our way - Whatever you want to call fear ... rather than trying to conquer it ... take it for a walk. Instead of trying to control and endlessly defining everything, try taking what we don't understand for a walk instead. Just be sure to take a dog rather than a roaring lion.

So it is that I still say - "Anxiety & Fear - Pfft ... What's the difference!" To which I already answered. For me ... that's how it is.

Why do you never follow your own advice?

You advise against labelling things, yet your post (and all yours posts, really) is chock full of labels. You label our current world using your own value judgement, then you do the same thing a paragraph later with human beings.

You also condemn others for trying to control things while clearly displaying bitterness that you can't get the world to conform to your view of "right."

For somebody that raves about mindfulness, you don't seem to be very self-aware. Maybe instead of criticising people and the world at every chance you get, you should take your emotions for a walk instead. Practice what you preach.

[robp]

I would say it is more anxiety than fear. I've noticed that a good part of my anxiety is "triggered" from unfounded events. When I first realized that I was having anxiety attacks, I was convinced that it was something physical...heart attack, stroke and etc. And I became obsessed with them and then anything that "just didn't feel right" would bring me back to the obsessing. Even though I saw the doctor repeatedly and they found nothing physically wrong. But my mind was "running away with it" so to speak. Even now where I cope with the anxiety better than I did in the past. I find that I could easily go back to the obsessing if I let it happen. For example, the other night I couldnt sleep and everything and anything was bothering me. I was hot, it was too quiet, the noise from my fan was annoying me. And then when I did try to settle down and sleep, I felt like I was having difficulty breathing and I started to "freak out" a little bit until logic kicked in and it occurred me my nose a little congested. Of course now i'm a little sensitive to the breathing thing and I think some of it has to do with my dad has severe COPD.

[JonB]

I probably use the term fear more extensively. I use it as a term to explain these things knowing that beneath anxieties are fears.

Anxiety about 'unfounded events' are what I can false fears. There are real fears (sush as falling from the edge of a building) and false fears such as 'afraid of what people say about me'... even social fears are false fears... no one is really going to kill us, but that is how it can feel in our bodies.

The Fear Release Process reprogrammes the mind to realise that it is really a false fear and it is no longer needed so it is dispensed with