Living in Fear of the Future: What to Do

Key Takeaways

• If fear of the future affects your life, it may be time to seek help.
• Anticipatory fear is common and can be linked to past trauma.
• Protective responses and preventative preoccupation can stop you from thinking clearly.

As the world works to emerge from a global pandemic, conflict and war are breaking out around the world, you notice people talking about the rapture more frequently, and you realize that artificial intelligence is no longer science fiction; it’s understandable if your fear of the future has reached an all-time high. That said, if you’re starting to find that it’s impacting your ability to function or make decisions, it may be time to seek help.

To learn more, we spoke with Frank Anderson, MD, a psychiatrist and psychotherapist who specializes in trauma treatment. This article examines how anticipatory fear, or the fear of the unknown, might manifest through a person’s habits and actions. It also outlines coping methods and tips for finding therapists to help with this issue.

Dreading the Future

“Dreading the future, more commonly known as anticipatory fear, is quite common and can be quite debilitating in extreme cases,” says Anderson. “People struggle with anticipatory fear when they worry about the outcome of a future event they have never experienced before.”

Anticipatory fear can also be linked to the intolerance of uncertainty, which can lead to indecisiveness about large and small decisions and an increased likelihood of constant comparison. This fear of the unknown can lead to anticipatory fear, as it causes people to continually overthink the possible outcomes of their decisions.

What Anticipatory Fear Might Look Like

Anderson explained three ways that people might experience anticipatory fear. This, it turns out, is the brain’s way of trying to help manage any negative outcomes in future events.

Avoiding Prior Painful Experiences

This is a common reason why people may experience anticipatory fear. Past negative experiences can make people feel worried that the same series of events will line up allowing the past to recreate itself.

Frank Anderson, MD

When the anticipatory fear is rooted in a past event or experience, it is often associated with dread, which can be physiologically intense and frequently associated with something ominous or traumatic in nature. Some form of trauma is usually at the root of a dread response.

— Frank Anderson, MD

While it’s important to learn from past experiences to a certain degree, it’s also important to remember that situations can change for the better.

Protective Responses

Of course, nerves and anticipation that stem from past experiences are really just your brain’s way of trying to protect you.

One study that followed foreign exchange students during their first semester abroad found that moderate levels of anticipatory fear were associated with higher levels of adaptive outcomes in students.

That said, if you’re experiencing high levels of anticipatory fear, protective responses can lead to difficulty with thinking clearly, social withdrawal, or being afraid to leave the house (agoraphobia). This is when it’s time to seek out help from a licensed therapist.

Preventative Preoccupation

Anderson calls preventative preoccupation the reason why many people experience anticipatory fear. This is when people begin to obsess over potential risks based on something that happened in the past.

People with generalized anxiety disorder tend to worry excessively about, well… everything. They spend time overthinking and over-planning to prevent something from going wrong.

It is also experienced by people who have struggled with anorexia nervosa or other eating disorders, as psychologists realized that many survivors become overly preoccupied with the fear of relapse or, in this case, weight gain.

Ways to Fight Anticipatory Fear

Below are some ways that can help you tackle anticipatory fear.

Practice Mindfulness

Research has shown that mindfulness can improve emotion regulation, which is incredibly helpful in reducing stress. It has also been shown to improve present-moment awareness, which is particularly important for people who worry about future events. Research even found that mindfulness can potentially alter parts of the brain to help improve self-awareness over time.

Repeat Mantras

While Anderson notes that mantras are short-term fixes that aren’t associated with permanent relief, he says that they can “help mitigate the anticipatory fear response.”

You can repeat things like:

• “I am safe.”
• “Nothing bad will happen to me.”
• “Everything will be OK.”

Anderson notes that saying things like this to yourself can be helpful as your search for a long-term solution.

Exercise

Exercising, especially trying new forms of exercise or exercises that incorporate mindfulness, can help keep you in the present moment. This forces you to think about the task at hand rather than worry about the future.

Keep a Journal

Keeping a journal can help you combat hindsight bias, which occurs when you think you have had better control over past events.

Journaling can also help you stave off thoughts that the past was much more ideal. Finally, keeping a journal can help bring focus to the present moment and the positive aspects of the present and future.

Seeking a Therapist

Whether you have found yourself experiencing anticipatory fear as a result of past traumas or for another reason altogether, it is important to find a therapist who can help you. Specifically, it would be helpful to seek out a therapist who specializes in the treatment of anxiety, trauma, and PTSD.

Below, you can find some tips on finding a therapist that can help you manage anticipatory fear:

• When looking for a therapist, make sure they are accredited by the American Psychological Association.
• Consider factors like age, gender, and religion to make sure that you find a therapist who will be a good match.
• Make sure you check their website to see if they take your insurance.
• In the first session, come prepared with questions for your therapist that will help you better understand their history of treating people with similar concerns.

Verywell Mind uses only high-quality sources, including peer-reviewed studies, to support the facts within our articles. Read our editorial process to learn more about how we fact-check and keep our content accurate, reliable, and trustworthy.

1. Butzer B, Kuiper NA. Relationships between the frequency of social comparisons and self-concept clarity, intolerance of uncertainty, anxiety, and depression. Personality and Individual Differences. 2006;41(1):167-176. doi:10.1016/j.paid.2005.12.017

2. Chiu ML. The influence of anticipatory fear on foreign student adjustment: An exploratory study. International Journal of Intercultural Relations. 1995;19(1):1-44. doi:10.1016/0147-1767(94)00022-P

3. Neumark-Sztainer, D. Excessive weight preoccupation: Normative but not harmless. Nutrition Today. 1995;30(2): 68–74.

4. Tang YY, Hölzel BK, Posner MI. The neuroscience of mindfulness meditation. Nature Reviews Neuroscience. 2015;16: 213–225.

By Brittany Loggins

Brittany is a health and lifestyle writer and former staffer at TODAY on NBC and CBS News. She’s also contributed to dozens of magazines.

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