Howdy all. Just moved to the Northwest and am looking into taking baby steps into camping once I get more financially secure. Just absorbing info and learning about the area for now.

Point of thread though, how do you guys deal with the mental aspect of it? My imagination is far beyond over active and I can barely sleep in my own bed without giving myself the willies over any unusual noise. I was just doing random Google searching and found this piece from an article. Seems like a fair point that even of driving is statistically more dangerous than camping it's a new fear and doesn't feel as real. Have any of you seen bears or wolves? Do any of you carry? How do you not shit yourself in the absolute dark when you hear a twig break? I'll be sticking to campgrounds to start, but just imagining camping alone somewhere already makes me nervous. Any of you start like that and slowly get over it?