Your fear is making you weak Heather. When you get scared from a dog and starts running he chases you but as soon as you stop running dog stops too. Every one get scared some or the other time but the trick is not to show it. Once the a person realize that you are tougher than him he is never going to bother you again.You don’t have to fight back or something all you have to do is to stare direct in to his eyes and make him feel that you are not scared anymore.
Watch the movie ” The karate Kid” , there is a scene in the last fight of the movie where this kid directly stares in to the eye of his opponent without any emotion of fear or anger visible..Check that out that might make my point clear..