Where Does Anxiety Come From?

Anxiety originates from a complex interplay of evolutionary survival mechanisms, physiological states, early developmental experiences, and cognitive habits.

It is fundamentally a natural threat response designed to keep us safe, but it often becomes maladaptive due to modern environmental mismatches, unresolved trauma, or metabolic imbalances.

1. The Survival Script: How Your Early Years “Hardwired” Your Stress

Much of what we label as anxiety in adulthood began as a brilliant survival strategy in childhood.

According to cellular biologist Dr. Bruce Lipton, children under the age of seven live in a “theta” brainwave state.

This is a state of constant hypnosis where the brain records the environment without a filter.

If a child grows up with stressed or emotionally unavailable parents, their nervous system “downloads” a state of high alert as its baseline setting.

What was a necessary survival strategy in childhood becomes a source of pathology, like anxiety, in adulthood.

These adaptations, such as hypervigilance or “tuning out”, become hardwired into the developing brain.

This “Small t Trauma” alters early brain development, specifically how the amygdala (the brain’s smoke detector) reacts to the world.

As adults, we aren’t just “worrying.”

We are playing back a survival script that was written before we could even speak.

---

2. The Prediction Engine: Why Your Brain Hates the “Unknown”

The human brain is, at its core, a prediction machine.

Its primary job is to look at past behavior to guess what will happen next.

Anxiety enters the room when the brain encounters a “prediction error” – a situation where it cannot guarantee an outcome.

According to neuroscientist Dr. Judson Brewer, the brain interprets this lack of information as an active threat to your survival.

This creates the “Anxiety Loop.”

When you feel the discomfort of uncertainty, your brain searches for a behavior to provide relief.

Ironically, it often chooses “worrying.”

The brain tries to “solve” uncertainty by worrying or catastrophizing (imagining the worst-case scenario) in an attempt to prepare for every outcome.

While worrying feels productive, it is actually a “mental behavior” that distracts you from the raw, uncomfortable physical sensations in your body.

We become addicted to the “worry loop” because it gives us a false sense of control over a future that hasn’t happened yet.

Interoception (Body Sensing)

The brain constantly interprets signals from the body (heartbeat, breathing, gut).

If the brain predicts that a racing heart indicates danger (rather than excitement or exertion), it constructs the emotion of anxiety.

People with high anxiety often have “noisy” or amplified internal body signals.

---

3. The Cycle of Avoidance: Why Running Away Only Makes Anxiety Grow

If anxiety is the “smoke detector,” avoidance is the battery that keeps it screaming.

According to neuroscientist Dr. Judson Brewer, anxiety often functions as a reward-based habit loop rather than a random emotional spike.

When we encounter a trigger, such as an intimidating social invitation or a difficult project, the brain experiences an immediate surge of discomfort.

To escape this, we engage in Avoidance.

This creates a dangerous “Relief Loop”

The moment you decide not to go to that party or send that email, your brain receives a hit of relief.

This relief acts as a reward, signaling to your nervous system: “Running away kept us safe.”

The next time you face a similar situation, the anxiety will be even stronger because your brain has “proof” that the situation was dangerous.

Safety Behaviors: The Invisible Crutch

Even when we don’t physically run away, we often use Safety Behaviors.

These are subtle rituals, like constantly checking your phone in a crowd, carrying a “lucky charm,” or obsessively rehearsing a conversation in your head.

Clinical psychologist, Dr. David Burns, notes that these behaviors actually prevent the brain from learning a crucial truth: you would have been safe without them.

By relying on a crutch, you never learn that your own legs can hold you up.

The Resistance Paradox

Finally, as author Michael Singer explains, anxiety is often the result of resisting reality.

When we decide that we cannot feel anxious, we begin to fight the feeling itself.

This internal war creates a “Second Arrow” of suffering. The first arrow is the initial anxiety; the second arrow is the judgment and resistance you heap on top of it.

Often, we experience a primary emotion (like sadness or fear), but then we judge ourselves for having it. We worry about the worry.

This secondary layer of resistance and judgment locks the anxiety in place

The more you fight an uncomfortable sensation, the more power it gains over your physiology.

True recovery begins with Radical Acceptance: the realization that a racing heart is just a racing heart, and a thought is just a thought, not a mandate for action.

---

4. The Hidden Emotion Model: The Cost of Being “Too Nice”

One of the most profound findings in modern clinical practice is the link between “niceness” and panic.

In the Hidden Emotion Model, anxiety is viewed as a symbolic expression of suppressed feelings, usually anger or resentment.

Anxious individuals are frequently “people-pleasers” who fear conflict. Because they believe they shouldn’t feel angry, they sweep those feelings under the rug.

These suppressed emotions do not disappear.

Instead, they bubble up as physical anxiety or obsessive thoughts. According to the research, the anxiety serves as a “decoy.”

It is much easier for the brain to worry about a “feared fantasy” or a health concern than it is to address a painful truth in a marriage or a career.

Once the “hidden emotion” is identified and expressed, the physical symptoms of anxiety often vanish almost instantly.