Fear is sometimes like a building on fire. If you freeze up, it will consume you. And if you walk through it, you'll get burned. Sometimes, if you have time, you can face it slowly, but those are usually old ingrained fears, which sometimes keep reappearing in a new form.
Fear is also a warning sign that something is amiss, and without knowing what it is, it's hard to adress it. Some people could end up being or feeling defined by the fears, instead of being defined by their lives. But fears come and they go. It can be like fire and all consuming. It can also be calmly exciting like the water in a river you need to cross, curious what's on the other side.