Understanding Fear: How Fear Affects the Brain, Nervous System, Trauma & Anxiety | Let's Get Emotional

In this episode of Let's Get Emotional, hosts Tatiana Rojas and Dr. Jennifer Martin Schantz explore one of the most fundamental human emotions: fear. While fear is often uncomfortable, it serves an important biological purpose—helping us recognize danger, protect ourselves, and survive threatening situations.

Fear is more than simply feeling scared. It affects the brain, nervous system, thoughts, behaviors, and physical body in powerful ways. Whether you're experiencing fear related to trauma, anxiety, uncertainty, relationships, health concerns, parenting, or major life changes, understanding how fear works can help you respond with greater awareness and self-compassion.

Tatiana and Jennifer break down the psychology, neuroscience, and evolutionary function of fear, explaining why fear is a normal emotional response and how it differs from anxiety. They discuss how fear presents across the lifespan—from young children to teens to adults—and explore the physical signs that fear is showing up in the body, including racing heart, tight chest, nausea, hypervigilance, sleep disruption, and nervous system activation.

The conversation also dives into the connection between fear, stress, trauma, and survival responses. You'll learn how the brain processes threats, why fear can become chronic after traumatic experiences, and how patterns such as fight, flight, freeze, and fawn develop as protective responses.

Drawing from clinical experience and evidence-based research, the hosts discuss when fear becomes problematic, how it can interfere with daily functioning, and when seeking professional support may be helpful. They also introduce practical emotional regulation tools rooted in self-compassion to help you work with fear instead of against it.

Whether you're struggling with anxiety, panic, trauma recovery, chronic stress, hypervigilance, people-pleasing, emotional overwhelm, or persistent worry, this episode offers valuable insights and actionable strategies to help you understand fear, regulate your nervous system, and build emotional resilience.

In This Episode:

• What fear is and why it is essential for survival
• The difference between fear and anxiety
• How fear affects the brain and nervous system
• The evolutionary purpose of fear
• Understanding acute fear, chronic fear, and existential fear
• Common physical symptoms of fear in the body
• How fear shows up differently in children, teens, and adults
• The connection between fear, stress, and trauma
• How the amygdala and nervous system respond to perceived threats
• Understanding fight, flight, freeze, and fawn responses
• The difference between stress responses and trauma responses
• Why fear can become stored in the body after trauma
• Hypervigilance, panic, dissociation, and survival mode patterns
• When fear becomes unhealthy or interferes with daily life
• Mental health conditions commonly associated with fear
• How EMDR therapy can help process trauma and fear responses
• Self-compassion practices for emotional regulation
• Practical tools for calming fear and identifying unmet needs
• How to work with fear rather than avoid it
• Building resilience, safety, and emotional awareness

Key Takeaways:

Fear is not weakness. It is information.

Fear serves as the brain and body's built-in alarm system, alerting us to potential threats and helping us stay safe. However, when fear becomes chronic, overwhelming, or connected to unresolved trauma, it can significantly impact emotional wellbeing, relationships, physical health, and daily functioning.

By understanding how fear operates in the mind and body, developing self-compassion, and learning effective regulation strategies, it becomes possible to respond to fear with greater confidence, flexibility, and resilience.

Links & Resources:

Tatiana Rojas: https://getherapyservices.com/

Disclaimer:

Let's Get Emotional is for educational and informational purposes only. This podcast is not therapy and does not replace professional mental health care. If you are experiencing a mental health crisis or need immediate support, contact your local emergency services or crisis hotline. In the United States, call or text 988 for immediate assistance.

Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:00

Fear is something everyone experiences. Avoidance maintains fear. You can feel fear and still move forward.

SPEAKER_01 0:11

A lot of us move through life going through the motions, and we don't always pause long enough to notice what we're feeling. When someone asks how we are, it can feel easier to give the polished answer because we're not always sure anyone really wants the honest one. So here we slow it down and name what's real. Welcome to Let's Get Emotional. Let's get Emotional is an educational podcast hosted by myself, Tatiana Rojas, and Dr. Jennifer Martin Schatz.

SPEAKER_00 0:36

Each episode focuses on one emotion, and today's emotion is fear. We break it down in a way that's clear, human, and practical so you can understand what's happening inside you and what to do with it. Our mission is simple. Help you understand what you're feeling, name it with more clarity, and respond in ways that support your life and your relationships.

SPEAKER_01 1:01

So this podcast is for education and general information only. It isn't therapy and it doesn't replace mental health care. If you're in crisis or need immediate support, please contact local emergency services or a crisis hotline in your area. You can also reach out to 988 as well via phone or text. So now let's just kind of run through a few reminders.

SPEAKER_00 1:23

Let's remind you of some definitions we've covered in previous episodes. The first definition is emotions. Emotions are quick automatic reactions that occur in both the body and brain. They act as signals, often appearing before we can even describe them in words. These responses provide information. Your internal system's way of letting you know that something important is happening, such as concerns about safety, connection, fairness, loss, threat, desire, and meaning. Next is feelings. Feelings are your conscious experience of emotions. They are the words you use to name what's happening, plus the meaning you attach to it based on your history, culture, beliefs, and relationships. If an emotion is a body-based signal, a feeling is a label you put on it. Finally, we have moods. Moods are longer-lasting emotional states, more like emotional weather. You can be in an irritable mood, a low mood, or a tender mood for hours or days, sometimes without one clear trigger. Emotions are the spark, feelings are the label, moods are the climate. So now let's get into the definition of our emotion today. Fear. Yes.

SPEAKER_01 2:49

So fear is an unpleasant, often strong emotion caused by anticipation or awareness of danger. It's a particular instance or a category of this emotion, which could be fear of heights or fear of the dark. It's a state marked by this emotion, living in fear. It may even be profound reverence and awe, especially toward God, fear of God. May also be known as reason for alarm, such as danger, and to be afraid of, such as to be expectant with alarm, or to be filled with concern or regret over an unwanted situation. Maybe experiences to be afraid or apprehensive of a situation. So it may be described also as afraid, dread, fright, alarm, panic, terror, or trepidation. Fear is can be an unpleasant emotion or thought that you have when you are frightened or worried by something dangerous, painful, or bad that is happening or might happen. It can also be described as an intense emotion, such as an adaptive response to danger or threat vital to life. It can also be real or imagined. So let's talk about how we might describe and experience fear in our bodies throughout the lifespan. So a kiddo might describe fear as saying, I'm scared, or they may say no no no and resist going into a space I don't want to. They may say something like I want mommy or daddy. Don't leave. It's too loud. It's scary. I need you. Or I want to come home. Or I want to go home. Fear can feel like they're clinging or hiding behind you or wanting to be held by a parent or caregiver. You might notice some observable behavior such as crying, freezing, or going quiet. There may be some fast breathing. They may indicate my tummy feels yucky. They might have a shaky body or wide eyes. Definitely pay attention to their expression. And if they're afraid of something like the dark and might have trouble falling asleep. Or if they've been bothered by something and they've been really fearful of something, they may be waking up more than usual or normal. My kiddos, older kiddos, 5 to 12, how would they describe feel? They might say, I don't feel safe. They might question if something bad may happen. What if something bad happens? They might say I'm nervous. They might indicate they feel something might happen. I think something's going to happen. They might have some somatic responses. My stomach hurts. So they may be experiencing some butterflies or knots in their stomach. A racing heart or sweaty hands. Shaky legs. Feeling like they need to run to the bathroom. Maybe even trouble concentrating or restless energy. And avoiding it altogether. So I'll pause here for just a moment because I know I've shared a lot of different phrases and words. Anything coming up for you, Jennifer, with respect to anything that's been shared thus far?

SPEAKER_00 6:29

I think just recognizing that, you know, words and what we're feeling in our body, definitely when it comes to fear and not ignoring that. It means something. So looking into that further or asking, you know, follow-up questions, right? Are you okay? What do you need right now? I think it's super important, you know, with kids or being able to give them the space to breathe for a moment and then asking, okay, what are you feeling? Kind of doing that check-in. So that's just kind of what comes up for me with kids.

SPEAKER_01 7:08

As you were sharing, and I am realizing how much of this one in particular can really be observed in behavior, potentially. Yeah. This one and like anxiousness and anger, of course, but this one you can kind of pick up on and put out there. Are you feeling nervous or fearful or scared? What's that about? So, yeah, let's talk about teens. How might they describe fear? Some different words and what's coming up for them in their bodies. Um, they might experience this more and say, I'm anxious, I'm panicking, I'm stressed, uh, I feel on edge. I don't know why, but I feel weird. Uh feel like something bad is coming where I can't calm down. Might kind of describe it in those ways. Um, and they may experience fear in their body, such as their heart pounding, uh nausea or stomach dropping, dizziness, or feeling uh unreal, chest tightness, or maybe even some shallow breathing, uh tense straw and shoulders, uh maybe even fidgety or restless, they can't sit still. Or they might experience numbness or shutting down. And it's really interesting to note that some of these really do feel in align with things like anxiousness and nervousness, which is helpful for us to distinguish some of those differences and also phrases. Um, so adults, how might they describe fear? Um, I feel unsafe, I'm on high alert, I feel threatened, I feel overwhelmed. I can't relax, I keep thinking worst case scenario. I feel vulnerable, I feel out of control, embracing myself or something. They might even say they feel hyper-vigilant. Um, that high alert piece. So, once again, how does this feel in in the body? This feels like a tight chest, maybe short breath, a racing heart, or an adrenaline rush. Also tense shoulders and a clenched jaw. Might have some stomach issues popping in, the gut tightening, nausea, diarrhea, loss of appetite just kind of within whatever may be coming up. Might experience some sweaty palms or trembling. Notice the hypervigilance, the observable kind of shift of the eyes, and the looking around and the checking for everything. Uh, people that live maybe in a fearful state also experience some like insomnia. So some sleep issues or difficulties may kind of pop in. Um, or you might also experience, which I'm sure we'll get into some of these trauma responses, like a freeze response, a blank mind, feeling stuck, can't move or speak, or like nothing's kind of working or operating, almost like there's a pause in your brain. So that is the definition of fear and how it might be kind of experienced or maybe even expressed. I'm sure there's definitely many, many more ways that people will describe fear in their world. So let's talk a little bit though about what the research says because I know there's a lot to run through today in particular. Um, so yeah, let's jump into that. What have you what do you have for us?

SPEAKER_00 10:20

All right. So let's start off with fear is something everyone experiences, and it is biologically necessary that we experience fear in order to survive. So, core definition fear is an immediate adaptive emotional response to a perceived threat, and fear is distinguished from anxiety. Fear presents, and there is an actual identifiable threat, and it is present, that is fear. Anxiety is more future-oriented, and the threat is uncertain. Fear is also something that is universal. So, fear equals information, and it is not who we are, it is not part of our identity. So, cognitively, we experience fear with catastrophic thinking, hypervigilance, that narrow detention. Emotionally, there's this urgency, loss of control, and anticipation of harm happening. Now let's look at types of fear. So we have acute fear, and that is like immediate danger. There is a response we have to provide, whether that's fight or flight. We'll get into more of that in a second. Chronic fear, which we can also connect with anxiety, sort of this ongoing anticipatory, conditioned fear, something we learned through experience, existential fear. So fear of death or illness, loss of control, and avoidance maintains fear. So let's talk about trauma and fear. And this happens to be something that I specialize in trauma and something I talk with my clients about on a daily basis. And first, I always like to distinguish stress and trauma because we have stress responses and then we have trauma responses. So think of it as stress is you're pressing your gas pedal and your brakes still work. Trauma is you press the gas pedal, the gas pedal is stuck, or the engine shuts off, and your brakes are not responding. So looking at a stress response, this is adaptive. It is triggered by manageable demands. Our body returns to baseline after the stressor ends. This often enhances performance in short bursts. And our parasympathetic nervous system, that vagus nerve, restores us back to calm. So we're going to activate, we have that stress response, but then we're going to feel that calm. And it may not be, you know, there is a time frame, so it may not be instant, but it may be 15 minutes, for example. Whereas if we look at a trauma response, when we think trauma response, think overload. So a trauma response, this is triggered by overwhelming, uncontrollable, or a prolonged threat. The brain detects the threat. This happens in our amygdala, which is our fear center, immediately activates the hypothalamus within our brain, signals to our adrenal glands, okay, we need to secrete adrenaline and cortisol. Both of those are released, hence why we go into fight or flight. Our nervous system becomes dysregulated at this point, and our body may stay activated even after the threat or the danger is long gone. So we definitely feel it in our body with a trauma response. And what I always tell my clients is if your body responds first, increase heart rate, sweating, faster breathing, muscle tension, heightened focus, that hypervigilance, you're having a trauma response. The body responds first, then the mind catches up and says, there is danger, there is a threat. So fear becomes stored in the body, right? And reactivated every time we feel threatened. So our body reacts, even when maybe there is no current danger. Something will remind us, our senses get activated, and immediately that trauma response is triggered. So once again, stress is that response, it is adaptive, where the trauma response is overload. So I'm gonna pause here because I know that we're talking about some intense stuff, but I think it's so important to understand the difference between the two.

SPEAKER_01 15:52

Any thoughts? One thing that definitely is coming to mind as you're kind of talking about this is as much as we want to have control over our responses, our reactions, and especially in these trauma responses or these triggers, this overload that kind of comes up is it really is something that like our body kicks in and it takes our brain, you know. And I can't even say how quickly or not quickly it may, in fact, kick in. This is something that I think I talk about all the time is that sometimes we don't even recognize, and I think we come from different places of like, well, you can control it, you get to choose. Like sometimes you don't, like, and that is okay. Like, what is important is to recognize that oh, I need to regulate myself and what can I do when after experiencing these elements and components or these triggers or these responses. But if you've ever experienced something like this, just kind of pop in for an unknown reason. What seems like it's unknown, definitely there's information there, but also know that it's okay. Like you don't have as much control sometimes of your body and how it reacts in those moments. And I think extending yourself some grace in those fearful moments can be really helpful, or even just post as you're kind of processing whatever may in fact happen. And that's kind of one of the biggest things that I think just in general with emotions comes up, but more so particularly with things like fear um and panic and anxiousness, which I know we'll we'll eventually talk about anxiousness, but um, and I think that's just such an important piece. And there's one other thing that you said earlier about it's information, it's not an identity. And I think that's so important. Some of these responses, especially on the negative side with emotions, we can label ourselves as being a fearful person or being um you know just a scurdy cat or something along those lines, but that's that may not always, in fact, be true. It's not who you are, but it's something that's happening and coming up in that space. So um, anyway, that's just a couple of things that um stood out to me. What about you?

SPEAKER_00 18:02

Yeah. So I want to talk about next when fear becomes a problem and when to kind of seek help. Always when we're feeling persistent, excessive, and out of control. And the number one thing if fear is interfering with your functioning of any kind, work, in relationships, school, etc., that is the time to seek mental health help. So when we look at additional problems, we're gonna look at three survival mode patterns that we go into when fear is a problem. The first is what we call hyper arousal, that is that fight or flight. So usually when we're in hyperarousal, we have chronic anxiety or panic, we're irritable, maybe angry, insomnia, which we talked about earlier, which is sleep issue, and then that hypervigilance. We're just heightened. Then number two, we have hypo arousal, which is when we freeze or shut down. So that numbness, that disassociation, we might feel fatigue, or we just have this feeling of being checked out. And then lastly, we have fun, and this is sort of relational survival, if you will, where we're people pleasing, we are not setting good boundaries or have difficulty setting boundaries, and our safety is through appeasing others. So those three in particular is how we survive, how we get through it, um, if you will. And those are all reasons, like I mentioned, to seek help. So, some disorders that we see, mental health disorders um that we see associated with fear, generalized anxiety is one, panic disorder, post-traumatic stress disorder, are are I think the most common ones. Also, sometimes we have to adjust. Um, so an adjustment disorder is something else um that I think is important to add on there. So, in continuing to talk about therapy and seeking help for fear in particular, um, in connecting fear back to trauma, EMDR therapy, which stands for eye movement, desensitization and reprocessing, is a type of therapy focused on trauma. So we can look at past trauma or we can look at recent traumatic event trauma. EMDR can be done in individuals, uh, in couples, in groups. And I specialize in EMDR therapy, so I just want to talk about it really briefly. Um, EMDR can be such an impactful treatment to focus on the trauma, whether it's past or present, and you bring down those three survival sort of patterns that I mentioned before. So, EMDR, what it does is it targets the traumatic event through what we call bilateral stimulation, which is eye movements. And through bilateral stimulation, both the left side and the right side of the brain are activated. We want both sides of the brain activated. Why? Because trauma doesn't happen on just one side of the brain, it's either or, or it could be both sides of the brain. And oftentimes we don't know what side. So we want the brain fully activated when we're processing trauma, and that's what EMDR does. There's more things with EMDR, it's a very structured protocol. Call and it targets a wide range of disorders as well as trauma. PTSD, number one, anxiety, also um, you know, borderline personality disorder, obsessive-compulsive disorder. Those are just some of the things that EMDR can target. Um, but there is a lot more. And as a therapist, clinician, it really is wonderful to be able to see in real time people heal from their traumatic experiences and no longer have to be in survival mode. And that's what I love really about doing EMDR therapy. So that's my plug for EMDR.

SPEAKER_01 22:46

Um, Tatiana, any thoughts about anything? I think just going back to some of the the fear responses, those survival mode patterns, I think I just really want to highlight that in true situations when things come up and and there are definitely scary things and fearful things that happen, like these are also normal things to come up. And like you were mentioning, like we want to be really aware when it starts to interfere with function. And I think that's a really big piece of if these things are happening outside of a certain type of window, because I think if we talk about PTSD, right, we also have different types of PTSD, and also we have acute responses when it makes sense that you're gonna be feeling certain things also popping up after a specific event that you may experience for you know a good week to two weeks. And if you're still feeling the impacts, please reach out and get some support. Um, because there is definitely some things that can be helpful so that it doesn't interfere to the point where it's having some really long-term and lasting effects. I'm sure you and I have both worked with clients who have either had those recent events or for years and years have been experiencing their bodies being in survival mode. And it's so nice when you can work through that and regulate the system and get back to a place of calmness and being able to really kind of reintegrate and engage in life again. But some of what we're talking about, I think is so human in nature and so part of how we were created. We have to be aware though that it's also okay to ask for help and support so we can get past those really difficult times, especially with this one in particular. So um also love the plug for EMDR. I am not trained in EMDR, but I am trained in brain spotting, which does some kind of similar stuff, but not exactly the same. Um, but also love it just as well if you need variety or if something is working or isn't working. Um, don't be afraid to look into some different kinds of areas of support because there's lots out there.

SPEAKER_00 24:52

Absolutely. So our mini tool for today is gonna focus on some self-compassion. And this is Kristen Neff's work. So we're gonna name and normalize the fear. So we're gonna pause and say, This is fear. We're gonna add fears trying to protect me. We're gonna place our hand on our chest, and we're gonna take four in breaths and six out breaths, and we're going to do this very slowly. And then we're gonna ask, what do I actually need right now? And just taking that moment for yourself, you can feel fear and still move forward. Your body may be trying to protect you even if it's overreacting, you are not weak for feeling fear. You can learn to work with your fear, not against it by acknowledging this is fear, and what the fear is trying to do, whether it's trying to protect you or alert you, you can listen without obeying it. You can take one small step anyway. So remembering that fear doesn't need to be eliminated to be handled.

SPEAKER_01 26:27

Yeah, it really kind of expands on that just a little bit more. Um, but once again, kind of a filling in the blank if you're noticing some intense emotional reaction or response, especially as it relates to fear. I feel afraid because I need what? Fill in the blank. I need safety, I need support, I need certainty, I need time, I need control, or maybe even reassurance. And then we're gonna say, one way I can meet that need is and then fill in that blank. Can either ask for help, get information, set a boundary, slow down, make a plan. As a reminder, fear often points to a need, not necessarily a weakness, it's a protective factor. So something important to keep in mind. So we hope that you learned something new or had a better or more clear understanding of this particular emotion. There's a lot to unpack with it. Um, but as always, we really appreciate you taking the time to spend with us today. In the next episode, we'll explore anxiety, what it is, and how it shows up in the body. So thank you so much for being here. This episode helped. Consider subscribing and sharing it with someone who could use better words for what they feel, and we'll catch you on the next episode. Take care, everyone. See you next time.