A reasonable fear can still recommend an unreasonable action.

Fear can be entirely justified and still give terrible advice. It is built to prevent the worst case, not to optimize for a good life, so its recommendations are systematically overcautious. Recognizing that a fear is reasonable does not oblige you to follow its suggestion. The signal can be sound while the proposed response is wildly out of proportion.

When fear has an opinion, separate the concern from the plan. Write down the actual bad thing you are worried about, then ask what a proportionate response would be if a calm friend faced it. Usually the answer is smaller and more specific than what fear wanted: one conversation, one safeguard, one contingency, rather than avoidance of the whole thing.