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Fear often involves both physical and emotional symptoms. Each person may experience fear differently, but some of the common signs and symptoms include: 1. Chest pain 2. Chills 3. Dry mouth 4. Nausea 5. Rapid heartbeat 6. Shortness of breath 7. Sweating 8. Trembling 9. Upset stomach In addition to the physical symptoms of fear, people may experience psychological symptoms of being overwhelmed, upset, feeling out of control, or a sense of impending death.

Talk to your doctor if you are experiencing persistent and excessive feelings of fear. Your doctor may conduct a physical exam and perform lab tests to ensure that your fear and anxiety are not linked to an underlying medical condition. Your doctor will also ask questions about your symptoms including how long you've been having them, their intensity, and situations that tend to trigger them. Depending on your symptoms, your doctor may diagnose you with a type of anxiety disorder, such as a phobia.

Fear is incredibly complex.4 Some fears may be a result of experiences or trauma, while others may represent a fear of something else entirely, such as a loss of control. Still, other fears may occur because they cause physical symptoms, such as being afraid of heights because they make you feel dizzy and sick to your stomach. Some common fear triggers include: 1. Certain specific objects or situations (spiders, snakes, heights, flying, etc) 2. Future events 3. Imagined events 4. Real environmental dangers 5. The unknown

Some of the different types of anxiety disorders that are characterized by fear include: 1. Agoraphobia 2. Generalized anxiety disorder 3. Panic disorder 4. Post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) 5. Separation anxiety disorder 6. Social anxiety disorder 7. Specific phobia 8. Social anxiety disorder

Repeated exposure to similar situations leads to familiarity, which can dramatically reduce both the fear response. This approach forms the basis of some phobia treatments, which depend on slowly minimizing the fear response by making it feel familiar.5 Phobia treatments that are based on the psychology of fear tend to focus on techniques like systematic desensitizationand flooding. Both techniques work with your body’s physiological and psychological responses to reduce fear.

There are also steps that you can take to help cope with fear in day to day life. Such strategies focus on managing the physical, emotional, and behavioral effects of fear. Some things you can do include: 1. Get social support.Having supportive people in your life can help you manage your feelings of fear. 2. Practice mindfulness.While you cannot always prevent certain emotions, being mindful can help you manage them and replace negative thoughts with more helpful ones. 3. Use stress management techniques such as deep breathing, progressive muscle relaxation, and visualization. 4. Take care of your health.Eat well, get regular exercise, and get adequate sleep each night.

Fear is an important human emotion that can help protect you from danger and prepare you to take action, but it can also lead to longer-lasting feelings of anxiety. Findings ways to control your fear can help you better cope with these feelings and prevent anxiety from taking hold.