Types of Fear, Anxiety & Phobia – Difference Between Fear & Anxiety

• Tweet

• Tweet

What is the difference between fear and anxiety? Fear is something tangible, and commonly accepted: a fear of spiders, of failing an exam, forgetting your speech or becoming tongue-tied when asking someone for a date. The source of anxiety, on the other hand, is internal and hard to put your finger on—”free floating” as Freud described it.

The danger does not represent an objective source of bodily danger, such as a predator or a fire, but appears vague and distant. You may feel anxious about losing control, not measuring up to your boss’s expectations, or of something bad happening to you.

Types of Fear & Anxiety Disorders:

In people with anxiety disorders, the subjective feeling of fear and anxiety get easily blurred. In situations that few would consider realistically dangerous, you react with the flight-fight response so that both fear and anxiety cause the same physical reaction—a pumping heart, sweaty palms, tense muscles and so on.

You tend to feel both fear and anxiety regarding any given event. For instance, days before going to the dreaded dentist, taking an exam or giving a speech, you may experience unfocused apprehension that you don’t directly associate with the event.

Let’s look closely at the difference between normal and abnormal fear responses:

Normal Fear: A state of alarm or dread to prepare you to flee, fight, or freeze. Necessary for survival, it mobilizes you to take action to protect yourself from threats. If you can flee the snarling dog, you do so. If the dog has you by your pants and is dragging you down the street, you may try to kick the dog somehow.

If someone is around, you scream for help and hope this person can either fight off the dog or get help from someone who can. If the dog has you pinned as it growls in your face and you feel either running or attacking him would incite him more, you freeze in your tracks to calm him into submission—a tactic taken by battered wives and abused children to dispel the spouse or parent’s anger.

Freezing gives you time to assess the danger of the situation and prevent impulsive actions that might provoke an attack.

Irrational Fear: A powerful feeling of peril when little or no real danger threatens. For example, the dog is safely across the street chained and you’re trembling in your boots.

Anxiety: A vague feeling of fear and apprehension that creates unease. Though feeling agitated, you may be unable to put into words what actually threatens you. On the way to your best friend’s birthday party, you feel unexplained disquiet.

Phobia: A disrupting and persistent fear of an object or an idea that is out of proportion to any proposed danger. You know it’s ridiculous to fear bees but feel helpless to control the fear.

Panic: A sudden surge of acute terror, as John Madden feels while flying in an airplane.

Our Imagination Creates Our Greatest Fear:

Sometimes our imagination can run wild with all of the possible things that could happen to us: cancer, a cheating spouse, failing an exam, or getting hit by lightning. Getting in a tizzy over “coulds” is called anticipatory anxiety or, when mild, worry.

But in some people, even just worrying about going to the dentist creates anticipatory panic. These coulds, or imagined fears, are a cover for the archaic threats to our existence that lie deep within our psyche: abandonment, helplessness, dependency, failing, losing control.

We all share in this existential angst. And it can be useful. As Freud first noted, it serves as mental rehearsal to prepare us should we fail that exam or should our spouse ask for a divorce. What makes for an anxiety disorder is when your felt experience is intense, persistent, or leads to a phobic reaction like avoidance.

For example, quitting a class rather than take an exam, or passing up a free trip to Paris for fear of flying. If it interferes with function, it is an anxiety disorder.