Anxiety vs. fear are two distinct concepts, though the line between the two can often be unclear; fear is an emotional response to a known or definite threat, and anxiety can stem from fear. But by understanding the difference between anxiety vs. fear, you can work toward resolving the symptoms of anxiety that you experience and start living a better life in recovery.

Key Takeaways

  • Understanding Fear vs. Anxiety: Fear is an immediate reaction to a known threat, activating the body’s fight-or-flight response. Anxiety involves excessive worry about potential future threats and can occur without an immediate danger present.
  • Connection Between Trauma and Psychological Responses: Intense fear during distressing events can lead to trauma and conditions like PTSD, characterized by symptoms such as flashbacks, avoidance behaviors, and heightened arousal.
  • Innovative Treatment Options at Plus by APN: Beyond traditional therapies, Plus by APN offers cutting-edge treatments like ketamine-assisted therapy, stellate ganglion blocks, and deep transcranial magnetic stimulation to provide relief from anxiety and trauma symptoms.
  • Importance of Professional Help: Consulting a mental health professional is crucial for accurate diagnosis and effective treatment, helping individuals embark on a path toward lasting recovery and improved quality of life.

What Is the Difference Between Anxiety vs. Fear?

Fear is a natural and adaptive response to danger rooted in the sympathetic nervous system, the portion of the central nervous system primarily responsible for the fight or flight response.

Fear serves a purpose. The feeling of fear is meant to spur you into action, push you to protect yourself from danger, and provide a burst of energy in hazardous situations. The instantaneous fear response helps you to respond to danger rapidly and take the action necessary to protect yourself or your loved ones.

Anxiety has similar roots but with a few critical differences. Anxiety is excessive worry or concern about potential dangers in the future rather than a response to an immediate threat. Some degree of anxiety may even be adaptive if it prevents you from entering into situations that could pose a danger.

But anxiety can often run out of control and be triggered even when there is no real danger in sight. When anxiety starts to interfere with your life or becomes excessive and constant, it could lead to the diagnosis of an anxiety disorder.

Sometimes, anxiety develops from living through dangerous or frightening situations. If you were the victim of a robbery, for instance, you may begin to feel anxious anytime you walk down an alleyway at night or begin to avoid such situations entirely.

Stress also overlaps with anxiety – you can read more to learn about the difference between stress and anxiety in this article.

Understanding the distinctions and similarities between fear and anxiety is crucial, as they manifest unique expressions and physiological responses. Fear often triggers immediate reactions to present dangers, involving specific brain areas and leading to observable behavioral responses. In contrast, anxiety involves a more sustained response to the ambiguity of potential threats and affects different brain regions.

How Does Fear Relate to Trauma?

Similarly, living through a frightening situation can lead to the experience of trauma. In general, trauma is an emotional response to living through incredibly distressing or fear-inducing events, often characterized by intense fear or extreme fear. These overwhelming emotions are pivotal in the development of trauma, especially when linked to traumatic events that induce a state of extreme or intense fear. When the symptoms of trauma continue for months or years, it may result in a diagnosis of post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD).

Events that may lead to trauma include:

  • Military combat
  • Being the victim of violent crime
  • Sexual assault or rape
  • Living through a natural disaster
  • Death of a close relative or loved one

People who experience trauma can relive their traumatic events over and over again, which can often lead to a physiological fear response.

What Are the Symptoms of Anxiety Disorders?

The symptoms of anxiety can often present differently for different people, but common symptoms include:

  • Excessive worry
  • Hyperventilation
  • Panic attacks
  • Thoughts racing out of control
  • Trouble calming down or relaxing
  • Sleep difficulties

Physical symptoms of anxiety can also manifest, including restlessness, muscle tension, and problems sleeping, further complicating the experience of those suffering.

Anxiety disorders often fall into different categories, including various anxiety conditions such as generalized anxiety disorder (GAD), social anxiety disorder (SAD), panic disorder, specific phobias, post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), and obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD). Some people may have social anxiety disorder, where the primary source of anxiety is being embarrassed or ostracized in front of others. Other people may deal with panic disorder, where panic attacks are the most common and pervasive symptom.

Thankfully, there are several evidence-based anxiety treatment and anxiety therapy options that can help people learn to manage and relieve their symptoms, and many people will achieve complete remission with appropriate care.

What Are the Symptoms of Trauma?

The symptoms of trauma can depend largely on what stage people are at in the trauma process. If you have just experienced a traumatic event, common reactions may be:

  • A feeling of shock
  • Dissociation
  • Numbness
  • Denial

These feelings are a completely normal reaction to unprecedented circumstances and aren’t necessarily signs of a mental health disorder. But when people still struggle with traumatic events after months or years, it often leads to the development of PTSD, which may include symptoms such as:

  • Nightmares or flashbacks of the traumatic event
  • Exaggerated fear response
  • Avoiding people, places, or things that remind you of the traumatic event
  • Sleeping difficulties
  • Feeling constantly on edge
  • Guilt or shame
  • Irritability or sudden outbursts of aggressive behavior

PTSD is an incredibly debilitating disorder that can lead to severe disruption in your everyday life. Seeking evidence-based trauma therapy can help you find relief for your symptoms, learn healthier ways of coping with them, and start you on the path to recovery.

How Do I Know If I Have Trauma? Consult a Mental Health Professional

Trauma is a widespread struggle. Data from the National Institute of Mental Health estimates that roughly half of all adults in the United States experience at least one traumatic event in their lifetimes, though most don’t go on to develop post-traumatic stress disorder.

Knowing whether you’ve experienced trauma or are currently experiencing post-traumatic stress is a determination made by you and a trained mental health professional. People respond to extreme situations differently, and while one person may experience chronic symptoms of trauma after a traumatic event, others may not notice any change at all.

When your trauma interferes with your ability to live life as you see fit or causes you undue stress or hardship, trauma therapy is an excellent way to learn to move forward in your life.

Traditional Treatment Methods for Generalized Anxiety Disorder and Trauma

As troubling as the symptoms of anxiety and trauma may be, including panic attacks, which are a common symptom leading individuals to seek treatment, several evidence-based treatment methods can help you deal with those symptoms. Traditional treatment models generally fall along one of two lines:

Psychiatry and Medication Management

For some clients, targeted medications can help reduce the symptoms of anxiety or trauma and can often lead to complete remission of the disorder. A trained psychiatrist typically manages medications; they’ll work with you to find the right medication, target the appropriate dose, and minimize unwanted side effects.

Both anxiety and post-traumatic stress disorder stem from an overactive sympathetic nervous system. As such, the medications used to treat these disorders typically provide some level of relaxation for this system.

But while this initial step can provide substantial relief, many people won’t find the recovery they seek from medication alone.

Psychotherapy

Psychotherapy is the most common front-line approach for treating trauma and anxiety. While psychotherapy has many different styles and techniques, they all involve sitting down to talk with a therapist about your challenges and learning new ways of thinking about your problems, new ways to behave, and how you can make positive changes for the future. The Diagnostic and Statistical Manual is a critical resource for therapists in diagnosing and treating anxiety and trauma, providing a comprehensive overview of psychological disorders.

The exact style of therapy depends largely on which disorder you’re dealing with. Some common approaches include:

Cognitive-Behavioral Therapy (CBT)

CBT is used both as anxiety therapy and in the treatment of trauma disorders and focuses on helping people identify problematic thoughts and behaviors, challenging them, and ultimately ingraining more healthy and productive ways of thinking and behaving.

Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing (EMDR)

EMDR was developed specifically to treat post-traumatic stress disorder and can be effective at treating many other mental health conditions. EMDR uses a technique known as bilateral stimulation, which can aid in processing traumatic memories and helping people find recovery.

Group Therapy

Group therapy brings people with a shared challenge together to collaborate on effective solutions for recovery. Group therapy can be incredibly powerful for people dealing with either anxiety or trauma and can provide lasting social support for your recovery as well.

While psychotherapy is a highly effective approach, it can often take months for people to start seeing the benefits of treatment. Thankfully, new and innovative approaches to treating both anxiety and trauma are being offered in person and online at Plus by APN.

Cutting-Edge Anxiety and Trauma Treatments at Plus by APN

Despite the success of traditional treatments for treating trauma and anxiety disorders, many people aren’t able to find the relief they are looking for with conventional treatment alone. At Plus by APN, we specialize in offering cutting-edge and innovative treatments that can provide fast and lasting relief, using treatment options such as:

Ketamine-Assisted Therapy

Ketamine-assisted therapy uses the psychedelic medicine ketamine to help people break through barriers in therapy, which can rapidly help resolve anxiety and PTSD symptoms.

Stellate Ganglion Blocks

A stellate ganglion block provides a small dose of local anesthetic to a bundle of nerves known as the stellate ganglion. This treatment can help reduce sympathetic nervous system overactivation, providing relief from many of the most troubling anxiety and PTSD symptoms.

Deep Transcranial Magnetic Stimulation

Deep TMS uses specialized equipment to provide brief magnetic impulses deep within the brain to targeted regions associated with anxiety and PTSD. In just a few treatments, people can begin to experience significant relief from their symptoms.

All of these treatments take a different approach to aiding healing from anxiety and PTSD. Rather than treating symptoms alone, they target the source of these mental health disorders. Your provider may pair the options above with traditional talk therapy or medication management for even greater results.

Start Treatment Today

To get started with treatment, reach out to the team at Plus by APN by calling or filling out our confidential online contact form. Our team of mental health experts can help you determine which treatment is best for you and start you on the path to recovery that can last a lifetime.

  • Liriano, Felix et al. “Ketamine as treatment for post-traumatic stress disorder: a review.” Drugs in context vol. 8 212305. 8 Apr. 2019, doi:10.7573/dic.212305
  • “Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD).” National Institute of Mental Health, U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, www.nimh.nih.gov/health/statistics/post-traumatic-stress-disorder-ptsd. Accessed 15 Dec. 2023.