The problem occurs with fear setting when you have naturally pessimistic of cynical tendencies, because then you're just contemplating the severity of various bad outcomes. It sounds completely bonkers like some sort of backwards trick, but I've found (lessons from anxiety medication) that you shouldn't even consider bad outcomes a possibility; if a bad outcome occurs, then you deal with it. However, contemplating what bad thing may happen so you can 'be prepared' is really just wasted effort and self imposed resistance. You need to adopt a mindset of 'dumb optimism'. Granted, the meds made that much easier for me, and life was great during those periods. being off them I see my old thought patterns returning, namely dwelling on imaginary 'bad' scenarios. Its counter intuitive, but it works.
I don't think it's counter-intuitive, but rather a simple trade-off. The benefit you get from closing off the majority of your anxiety is worth more than the slight amount of extra preparation you might get from considering certain outcomes. It's not too different from the calculus involved in deciding to quit social media, with the hit on mental health not being worth being in the loop 100% of the time.
