Dread

What it is

A deep, apprehensive fear about anticipated events that generates significant suffering — common in anxiety disorders, PTSD, and as part of severe depression.

Commonly experienced as

• The experience of significant dread is exhausting — it creates a sustained state of threat activation that depletes energy, disrupts sleep, and colours all perception. Many describe waking with dread, before conscious thought has oriented to the day. The disproportion between the fear and the actual threat is often visible to others but not to the person experiencing it.

Evidence context