Fear vs. Anxiety: How to Tell the Difference and Take the Next Right Step

Host Laura Mangum Broome explains that fear and anxiety are different experiences requiring different strategies, using her own experiences with bilateral breast cancer, chemotherapy-related congestive heart failure, and waiting for a heart transplant to illustrate both. Fear is a response to a real, present threat and is specific; anxiety is a response to a perceived or future threat and is often vague and driven by “what-ifs.” 

Laura offers three steps to identify which you’re facing—name it out loud, look for the source, and check the timeline—and three steps to move through it: use a control map (what you can/can’t control), regulate the nervous system with paced breathing (inhale 4, hold 4, exhale 6), and take one micro-step in the next ten minutes. Additional tools include treating anxiety as a messenger, using a daily worry window, and separating facts from the story.

00:00 Fear vs Anxiety Intro
00:34 Show Welcome and Free Guide
01:23 Why One Strategy Fails
02:26 Personal Story Cancer to Transplant
03:58 Clear Definitions That Matter
04:48 Identify What You Feel
06:39 Move Through It Three Steps
08:56 Three Bonus Anxiety Tools
12:26 Try This Guided Exercise
13:12 Recap and Encouragement
14:21 Closing and Call to Action

• Free Resource: Reframe the Spiral: 5 Quick Coping Strategies to Shift Negative Thoughts and Reclaim Your Day: https://www.icope2hope.com/reframe
• iCope2Hope 3-Step Resilience Framework: https://bit.ly/FrameworkRoadmap
• Website: iCope2Hope: From Hardship to Hope: https://www.icope2hope.com
• Move Beyond Adversity Blog: https://www.icope2hope.com/blog
• Free Newsletter: Wednesday’s Resilient Recharge: https://www.icope2hope.com/newsletter

Schedule a free 15-minute Clarity Call with Laura: https://bit.ly/15mincallLMB