Understand the difference between fear and anxiety. Both can cause a weakened immune system, both can cause memory distortions, both can cause a disruption in cognitive processing. While these two experiences affect the body similarly, they are not the same. Fear is defined by psychologists as a present reaction to a present stress or threat. Anxiety is a present reaction to a not-present stress or threat. The meaningful difference is that in fear, as soon as the threat or stress is gone, the fear also is gone. In anxiety, since the stress or threat is not present (either recollection of the past, or worrying about the future), it is possible that the stress or threat never goes away, and the physiological effects last indefinitely.
