Dr. Arash Javanbakt

Fear is a reaction to an obvious threat.

So if there is a lion attacking me, if a rock is falling over my head, I'm using these examples because these are examples related to the context and environment fear evolved in and the system evolved in.

So in these situations, I have an object or situation right in front of me that is perceived as a threat by myself.

But then we have anxiety.

Anxiety is more wider sense of apprehension and worry about something that might happen to us.

The example I use usually is that if someone is pointing a gun at you, the experience you have is fear.

But if somebody tells you there is a gunman on the loose in your neighborhood, the feeling you have is anxiety.

You don't know exactly what you're afraid of.

The object of fear is not right there.

but there is constant alertness and being on watch and looking for what might happen.

A lot of people who have anxiety or anxiety disorders are dealing with this.

You're not necessarily worried about one specific thing.

Here you worry about a lot of things that may go wrong.

Absolutely.

Excellent point.

If we were not capable of experiencing fear, we would not exist as a species.

We would all have been killed by the nature or by other species or by our own competitors.

So we do need fear.

But the challenge is that this system evolved.

over a very long time to deal with the situations of its environment.