Feeling afraid
This is anxiety at its most unsettling: fear without a clear reason. Nothing obvious is wrong, yet your body behaves as if danger is imminent. There’s a background sense of dread, waiting, or impending doom that doesn’t attach to a specific event.
This often emerges when the threat system is sensitised by prolonged stress, past trauma, or repeated uncertainty. The alarm goes off without a clear trigger.
Your nervous system is erring on the side of caution. It’s trying to keep you safe — even if it’s doing so clumsily.
Ongoing unexplained dread can lead to avoidance behaviours, heightened physical tension, and a persistent sense of vulnerability that limits engagement in daily life.
If this keeps showing up, it’s probably worth taking seriously — white-knuckling anxiety rarely leads anywhere good.
In this short series, I unpack the seven common experiences of anxiety. These are patterns many people recognise in themselves — sometimes quietly, sometimes uncomfortably. If you see yourself in one or more of these, it may mean your nervous system has been working hard for a long time.
More in this series:
Feeling nervous or on edge
Constantly worrying
Worrying about different things
Trouble relaxing
Feeling restless
Easily annoyed or irritable
Feeling afraid
