Fear or Anxiety?

If you never knew there was a difference between fear and anxiety, it may seem like an insignificant detail only understood by the most anal of people. However, what sets the two lays outside of the typical English class, (disregard the fact that I the difference came to my attention while psychoanalyzing Lord of the Flies characters during English class). Fear and anxiety produce a lot of the same bodily responses: increased heart rate, higher blood sugar, intensified perspiration. The contrast can best be described in part by the when.

When does fear occur as opposed to anxiety? Fear actually takes place in the presence of an immediate threat. Anxiety happens after the fear is experienced, commonly in a similar setting or situation. In his The New York Times article Searching the Brain for the Roots of Fear, neuroscientist Joseph E. LeDoux lays out a solid hypothetical situation using a snake. If you walk down a path and spot a snake, the chill that runs down your spine and instinct to get the heck out of there is fear. The next time you take that path and find yourself hesitating at the thought of that legless little monster, you are experiencing anxiety. Fear is an immediate response, and anxiety is the reoccurring thoughts that fester at the remembrance of that fear.

By why does a moment of terror initiate hours of nervous worrying? Because the human mind is, in short, self-destructive. A region of the brain called the amygdala processes fear and strong emotions (Edwards). When a natural stimulus, such as the path, appears, the amygdala initiates that previously experiences bone-chilling feeling in the form of worry and stress (LeDoux). Daniel R. Weinberger of the National Institute of Mental Healths Clinical Brain Disorders Branch analyzed a subjects response to stressful situations while watching brain activity under a functional imaging paradigm and analyzed that, the behavioral level of the persons anxiety was related to the biological level of his amygdala activity, (Edwards). These emotions, though considered negative, keep people from pulling ridiculously dangerous stunts. The fear of falling to your death may make you anxious about heights, but at least you wont attempt to walk between skyscrapers on a tightrope, (unless youre Phillipe Petit). It is the brilliance that is imagination that manifests the stress until there is enough weight to create social anxiety, panic disorders, and nightmares. Of course, anxiety disorders are the result of environment, condition, genetics, and other yet-to-be-explained sources, but understanding the initial fear as the catalyst of anxiety is one step closer to overcoming worry and stress (Edwards).

Edwards, Scott P. (May 2005). The Amygdala: The Bodys Alarm Circuit The Bodys Alarm Circuit. Brainwork. Retrieved in July 2015 from The DANA Foundation.

LeDoux, Joseph E. (January 22, 2012). Searching the Brain for the Roots of Fear. The New York Times. Retrieved July 2015.

Hager, Emily B. (July 6, 2010). If Your Feet Are on the Ground, Dont Apply. The New York Times. Retrieved July 2015 from City Room.

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