The scary email doesn’t get less scary unopened. It just gets older.

Avoidance does not pause a problem; it only removes your information about it while the clock keeps running. The dread also grows, because an unopened message can contain anything, and your mind will happily fill it with the worst option. Most of the weight is in the not knowing.

Open it now and read it once, standing up if that helps. Nine times in ten it is duller than the version you built. If it is genuinely bad, you now have time to respond instead of time to worry.