Anxiety Is Fear-Based – Part 1

Video Transcript

Anxiety Is Fear-Based – Part 1

Anxiety is fear-based, meaning we first have to be afraid of something before we can become anxious.

However, I need to qualify that by noting the important difference between anxious behavior and anxiety symptoms since they aren’t the same.

Anxiety is caused by anxious behavior. And anxiety symptoms, or the physical feelings associated with anxiety, are caused by the stress anxious behavior creates.

That means you can have the physical feelings and symptoms of anxiety without behaving anxiously.

Watch the “The Important Distinction Between The Behavioral And Physical Aspects Of Anxiety” video or read the article for more information.

You can also watch the “Why do I have anxiety symptoms when I don’t feel anxious?” video or read the article for more information. The links are in the description.

The behavioral part of anxiety starts with our thinking. For example, we first must believe we could be in danger before we become anxious. And to believe we could be in danger, we have to risk-assess, meaning we have to assess if something is a threat, the degree of threat, the kind of harm and lasting consequences it can cause, and evaluate our ability to deal with the threat and cope with the consequences.

This can all happen in the blink of an eye, which is why it can seem like the threat and anxiety occur together. This is also why it can seem like anxiety is uncontrollable.

However, they don’t occur together. We have to risk-assess first, and then, based on our assessment, we react with either confidence or anxiety.

So, a large part of overcoming anxiety disorder is identifying and addressing your fears.

As you extinguish your fears, you’ll also eliminate anxiety because you can’t behave anxiously if you aren’t afraid.

Identifying and addressing your fears is an important part of overcoming anxiety disorder for good.

Identifying and addressing fears is why we can completely eliminate anxiety disorder.

We’ll be talking more about this in upcoming videos.