According to a 2025 report on PRNewsWire.com, 93% of young adults between the ages of 18-28 plan to celebrate Halloween this year and spend an average of $622 on items such as costumes, candy, and decorations. Such reports indicate that for many young and emerging adults, celebrating Halloween is more about social and entertainment factors as opposed to invoking fear and anxiety.
Though fear and anxiety may not be the foundation for Halloween celebrations, they are important factors in the mental health of young people, including college students. A 2023 report by HonorSociety.org described 13 common fears that students have about college, and the 2025 Health Minds Study showed that close to one-third of students reported moderate-to-severe symptoms of anxiety.
A key component to coping with fear and anxiety is understanding that these experiences are more than just simple feelings. Below are four important facts to consider:
Fear And Anxiety Are Assumptions
A 2018 report by U.S. News & World Report described how fear is often a protective mechanism that safeguards safety and health. The same is true for anxiety, and humans are one of the few species that can imagine a future threat and plan for it in advance. Such are the adaptive functions of fear and anxiety; however, these experiences often include assumptions that a worst-case scenario is likely to occur. Thus, fear and anxiety can be viewed as basic emotions that are associated with cognitive assumptions that the future will bring a negative outcome.
According to a 2024 report on HealthCentral.com, catastrophic thinking is the tendency to ruminate about worst-case scenarios and is a major contributor to fear and anxiety. This report outlined how catastrophic thinking is often irrational because most worst-case scenarios never become reality. It’s important to note that fear and anxiety are different from stress. It’s healthy to focus on stressors, which are real and present demands in the environment.
Fear And Anxiety Are Hypervigilant Reactions
Though fear and anxiety often include false assumptions about the likelihood of worse-case scenarios, these experiences often make individuals hypervigilant to additional fears and anxieties. A 2025 report on SimplyPsychology.org described the fight, flight, freeze, or fawn responses that are natural ways for the body to respond to real or imagined threats. As this report explained, these reactions aren’t meant to keep one happy, but rather alive. However, part of this self-preservation is being overly sensitive to the possibility of another threat occurring. As such, many people with a certain fear and anxiety will become fearful and anxious about other things. For example, many students who ruminate about the possibility of failing an exam will also ruminate about the possibility of failing out of school, being ridiculed by peers, and not obtaining future employment.
Fear And Anxiety Are Related To Interpersonal Attachment
The fight, flight, freeze, or fawn responses are typically associated with threats in the environment; however, fear and anxiety are important contributors to one’s interpersonal and attachment styles. A 2024 report on SimplyPsychology.org discussed Karen Horney’s Social Psychoanalytic Theory and how individuals display interpersonal styles of moving toward, away from, and against others in response to basic anxiety. Though much of Horney’s work focuses on childhood experience, a general tendency to cling onto others, isolate from others, or create conflict is an important consideration and a possible indicator that someone is struggling with fear and anxiety.
Fear And Anxiety Are Universal
A 2024 report by HelpGuide.org explained how social support often counters the body’s response to fear and anxiety. Such reports show how humans are social beings, and that no one should be dismissive about needing help from others. It can also be argued that a person who claims to have no fear is a person who cannot relate to others. A 2025 report on VeryWellHealth.com stated that a common fear to all humans is the fear of the unknown. Eliminating this fear is denying human experiences, and suppressing emotions is a weakness. For those with significant struggles, seeking the help of a mental health professional might be warranted. As stated above, fear and anxiety have adaptive functions and understanding that these experiences are more than emotions can help us cope and thrive in our environments.
