Editorial & Review Policy

All ladders on Fear Ladder are built upon principles of behavioral exposure and inhibitory learning documented in mainstream psychological science. Every situation guide cites authoritative, publicly accessible health institutions and peer-reviewed journals, such as:

• National Health Service (NHS UK)
• National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH)
• National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE)
• Peer-reviewed publications in journals such as Behaviour Research and Therapy
• For facts about a specific place or vehicle (how elevators or aircraft are kept safe), the relevant regulator or safety body, such as the FAA or New York City's Department of Buildings, and occasionally a manufacturer's published safety facts, which we name as such

We do not accept commercial sponsorships, affiliate partnerships, or pharmaceutical advertising. Fear Ladder is made by the team behind a mobile app for panic and anxiety, and some pages invite you to hear when that app launches.

Drafts of a guide's text, including its steps, may be prepared with AI assistance. However, no situation guide is published until a named team member signs it off, in one of two ways:

• Human fact-check: the team member reads the guide claim by claim against its sources. The guide then says “Fact-checked against its sources by” that person. We never say a person wrote a guide that was drafted with AI assistance.
• AI source check: two separate AI reviews, neither of which wrote the guide, each open every source it cites and check it claim by claim against a fixed checklist, including step safety. Only when both find nothing to fix does a named team member approve it, and the guide then says “Sources checked claim by claim by an AI review. Approved for publishing by <name> on <date>.” We never call that person its fact-checker.

Either way, every guide goes through these checks:

1. Safety Review: Verifying that no step requires physically dangerous, illegal, or reckless activities.
2. Gradual Progression Check: Ensuring fear ratings are properly spaced (neighbours differ by ≤20 points) from approachable beginner actions to peak goals.
3. Source Verification: Checking that every cited study or medical portal URL exists and directly supports the contextual explanations.
4. Attribution: Under its title, every guide names the team member who performed the fact-check, or who approved it on an AI source check and says so; the last reviewed date is at the end of the guide.

When a source changes or we correct a guide, the correction is fact-checked the same way and the “Last reviewed” date on the guide is updated.

If you notice an inaccuracy, a broken reference link, or an unhelpful step suggestion in any of our ladders, please write to us at the address on the Privacy Policy page so we can review and correct it.