Fear, Anxiety & Panic: Core Concepts

All 3 Terms & Definitions

Fear

An emotional and physiological response to a perceived immediate threat. Fear triggers the fight-or-flight response — rapid heart rate, increased respiration, muscle tension, and narrowed attention — and is adaptive when the threat is real. In anxiety disorders, fear is disproportionate to, or independent of, actual danger.

Anxiety

The state of apprehensive anticipation about a perceived future threat. Unlike fear, which is acute and present-focused, anxiety is sustained and forward-looking — involving worry, hypervigilance, and physiological arousal about something that might happen. Because the threat is anticipated rather than present, anxiety can be difficult to escape and tends to persist.

Panic Attack

An abrupt surge of intense fear representing the fear response to a perceived immediate threat — even when no objective threat is present. Panic attacks involve a rapid onset of physical symptoms (palpitations, shortness of breath, dizziness, chest pain) and a sense of impending doom. The perceived threat is often internal: bodily sensations misinterpreted as catastrophic (e.g., heart palpitations misread as a heart attack).