The Data Is In: Fear Is Making Us Sick
I set out to do something I hadn’t seen done before: collect real data from people who have actually recovered. Not just recovery stories, but hard data.
Collecting recovery stories has always been the heart of Recovered but I knew that wasn’t enough.
Stories show us what’s possible. Data proves it.
And because I’ve built close connections with so many people who’ve healed, and gathered so much narrative evidence, it felt like the right moment to gather numbers.
This survey was the first step of what I hope to be many.
For this first survey, I focused on one question - one I believe is quietly central to the whole recovery conversation: What role does fear play in long-term illness?
Who Took Part in This Research?
This survey was completed by 22 individuals who have fully recovered from long-term conditions. Many were featured previously in the Recovered story library. These aren’t vague or minor health issues - respondents listed complex and often debilitating conditions, including:
CFS/ME (59.1%)
Long COVID (50%)
Digestive disorders like IBS (45.5%)
Anxiety/Depression (40.9%)
Sleep disorders (40.9%)
Stress-related illness (27.3%)
Burnout (27.3%)
Chronic Pain (18.2%)
Fibromyalgia (22.7%)
Smaller numbers also reported recovery from autoimmune conditions, Lyme, CIRS, skin conditions like psoriasis, migraine, and hormonal imbalances like thyroid disorders.
Why Fear?
Because after collecting and reading hundreds of recovery stories, one theme kept showing up beneath all the others.
Fear under the stress
Fear under the exhaustion
Fear under the collapse
Fear under the worries
Fear under the attempts at recovery
Fear under the entire mindset
Many people never even made this link consciously - not even after they recovered. But when you trace the behaviours, the beliefs, the physical shutdowns… fear is at the core.
That’s why this survey was created. To ask: Is fear your missing link?
And now, with 22 full responses from people who consider themselves recovered, we have the early signs of an answer. And it’s loud.
What We Learned
1. Fear Was Not Just Present - It Was Central
77.3% said fear was likely the root cause of their illness or burnout
95.5% said fear contributed to their illness in some way
85.7% said addressing fear was key to their recovery
And nearly half (45.5%) reported a dramatic improvement in physical health after working on their root fears
This is the first time we’ve seen numbers like this from people who are no longer in the thick of illness.
These numbers are impossible to ignore.
2. The Same Fears Came Up Again and Again
When asked what fear lay beneath their illness or burnout, the patterns were strikingly consistent:
People pleasing and perfectionism came out on top with over 70% of respondents saying it was a fear they dealt with.
Followed closely by:
Fear of not being good enough
Fear of failure
Fear of rejection
“I have always thought of it as stress (in it’s many forms) or overwhelm vs. fear - but I can see where fear was underneath most of it. Interesting take away from this survey, thanks!”
3. Fear Didn’t Look Like Fear
At the start of their recovery, only 13.6% believed fear, stress or shame were a likely cause of their illness. Over half (54.6%) were neutral, sceptical or outright dismissive.
What’s interesting is that some respondents still didn’t realise at the time of completing the survey (post recovery) that fear was running the show.
That’s because these fears don’t always announce themselves. They’re not panic attacks or obvious phobias. They’re often learned early in life, buried in the behaviours we’ve come to see as part of who we are - manifesting as overworking, ignoring your needs, controlling, performing, proving, worrying, ruminating.
These patterns are usually rooted in childhood, tied to our deepest limiting beliefs:
If I slow down, I’ll fall behind
If I disappoint people, I’ll be rejected.
If I’m not perfect, I won’t be safe.
My theory is… If we don’t do the deeper work to uncover and challenge those beliefs - if we skip straight to nervous system tools without examining the emotional architecture underneath - we risk missing the root cause entirely. Recovery work that doesn’t include this level of self-inquiry might regulate the system, but it doesn’t always resolve what’s driving the dysregulation in the first place.
“I would have termed it chronic stress rather than fear, but in essence, all stress is rooted in the emotion of fear.”
4. The Disconnection Was Real
Another standout finding: 90.5% said they were disconnected from themselves before recovery. When asked if recovery required reconnection with themselves, 85.7% said yes.
This is enormous. We are not talking about minor lifestyle tweaks. These individuals had to confront years of emotional disconnection.
5. Fear Work Was Not Optional
When asked what helped reduce or silence their fears, a clear pattern emerged. This wasn’t about relaxation. The most impactful interventions were emotional breakthroughs and deep personal work.
Across multiple formats of this question, the top responses were:
Personal breakthrough (e.g. deep self realisation) (22.7%)
Mind-body connection work (22.7%)
Neuroplasticity work (22.7%)
And the impact was physical, not just emotional. 86.4% said addressing fear directly contributed to their recovery. Over 40% reported significant improvements in physical health.
But Not Everyone Saw It
A small number of respondents disagreed. One even said:
“This survey sounds like it is gaslighting people who suffered from Long Covid or other chronic illnesses.”
They had misunderstood the question - or perhaps not reached that part of their recovery yet. What’s most interesting is that their comment proved the data.
In this same survey, 90.5% of others said they were disconnected from themselves, and 36.4% were extremely sceptical about the emotional basis of illness at the start.
This one comment, placed against that data, doesn’t disprove the results. It reveals how hidden the root cause can be.
And for some, how threatening it is to look at.
The Game-Changer: Joy
One final data point: 77.3% said joy was a game-changer in their recovery.
That number deserves to be taken seriously. In a medical world obsessed with symptoms, scans, and diagnostics, this dataset is a quiet explosion:
Fear made people sick.
Safety made them well.
And joy brought them back to life.
Why This Matters
As anyone who has recovered knows, we’ve been looking in the wrong places. For decades.
The causes of these illnesses are not just biological. The solutions are not pharmaceutical. The answer - for many - lies in unearthing what’s really driving the system. And in a terrifying number of cases, it was fear.
We aren’t looking at fear directly, even after recovery, even as we create recovery products and methods. We look at stress, guilt, shame - but not what lies beneath.
This survey didn’t ask people what they believe. It asked what they lived.
And they told us, clearly:
“Fear was the root.”
