Anxiety Is Fear-Based – Part 4

Video Transcript

Anxiety Is Fear-Based – Part 4

In part three of this video series, we talked about the two kinds of fears: Core fears and Secondary or Feeding fears.

In this video, we answer the question: Are we born with specific fears, or do we learn all our fears?

The answer to this question is: “Yes, and Yes.” We are born with some fears, and we learn some fears.

For instance, humans are born with seven innate fears, or fears we are born with. They are the fear of:

• Annihilation, such as the fear of death, complete obliteration, and ceasing to exist.

• Pain and suffering, such as the fear of being harmed, hurt, or injured in some way; chronic pain; or loss of bodily function.

• Loss of Autonomy, such as the fear of loss of freedom, being immobilized, restricted, or losing the ability to control oneself.

• Loss of Identity, such as the fear of loss of oneself or your personhood; loss of who you are; pertaining more to social, psychological, and emotional challenges related to one's roles, relationships, and personal history.

• Abandonment, such as the fear of loss of love and acceptance, fear of being rejected and separated from loved ones, and loss of connectedness.

• Being bad, such as the fear of being morally wrong in some way.

• Ego-Death, such as the fear of loss of one’s sense of self-identity, a transformative psychological state where the boundary between the self and the external world dissolves.

Automatic reactions to specific threats can display these seven fears, even though a person is unaware of the specific threat.

For instance, many researchers agree that there are certain “primitive survival instincts” present in newborns that can manifest as automatic “fear responses” early in life. These tend to focus on threats related to immediate safety, such as the fear of falling, loud noises, darkness, strangers, and separation.

When you look at these automatic fear responses and how they “feed into” or “trigger” the seven innate fears, you’ll see they relate.

For instance, fears of falling and loud noises feed into or “trigger” the innate fears of annihilation, pain and suffering, and loss of autonomy.

The fears of darkness, strangers, and separation feed into or “trigger” the innate fears of annihilation, pain and suffering, loss of autonomy, abandonment, and ego-death.

Moreover, even newborns have an innate sense of moral right and wrong, which feeds into the fear of being bad.

All learned fears feed into or “trigger” one or more innate fears in some way.

Learning about these seven innate or “instinctive” fears can be vital in overcoming all fears, which can substantially reduce and eliminate issues with anxiety.

We’ll delve into this in more detail in the next video.

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In the meantime, Recovery Support members can learn more about fears in Chapters 6 and 14.