Like it or not, fear and anxiety are part of the human experience. And if these emotions get out of hand, they can seriously — and needlessly — hamper your quality of life.

Here’s the difference between fear and anxiety, and a technique to help with both. Fear is specific. Anxiety is more general. They overlap, but they do have a few subtle dif ferences.

Usually, fear is targeted at something specific, like a thing or a situation. Anxiety is more a feeling of something not being right. In other words, if you can run away from it, it’s probably fear. Think: Spiders, snakes or that airplane you’re supposed to board.

If it’s more lingering and hypothetical, it’s probably anxiety. What if my loved one gets sick?

What if the stock market crashes? If you’re stuck on the vague possibility of something bad happening, that’s anxiety.

Whatever your trigger, the key to overcoming it is changing your brain’s response to it.

There are several proven approaches, f rom medication to therapy. One of the most ef fective is cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT), a form of counseling that involves helping patients to do things differently and teaches how to manage fear or anxiety better.

Unlike talk therapy, which tends to be more open-ended, CBT is focused. Right from the start, you’ll have a plan of action for a specific goal. If you are anxious in general, you’ll learn to challenge your usual way of thinking and reacting, a process psychologists call “cognitive restructuring.” Af raid of heights? Eventually, you may literally climb a ladder as part of your CBT session.

The basic idea is facing your fears, and thinking about things f rom a dif ferent perspective.

Whether it takes five or 25 sessions, you’ll eventually graduate. Don’t worry, the benefits stay with you for a lifetime.

To learn more about the IOL Anxiety Disorders Center, call 860.545.7039.

David Tolin, Ph.D., is director of the Anxiety Disorders Center, The Institute of Living, part of the Hartford HealthCare Behavioral Health Network. Backus Checkup is a regular feature in the Times.