What Causes Anxiety & What No One Tells You About the Root Cause
What causes anxiety? Anxiety is caused any time we, as humans, are concerned about our survival. The core, the center, the integral component that is connected to anxiety – essentially and fundamentally – is the feeling of threatened survival.
We all know that feeling. The feeling that we aren’t going to make it. There isn’t enough time. There is a significant lack, limitation, or scarcity in one place or another (in life), that fundamentally compromises our condition so much so, our safety is in question… Again a very common experience. One universal to humankind. Especially considering that we as people, reference the ideas and notions of our upbringing, society, or significant life events (trauma) in our perception of safety, unless it is directly confronted.
We, as people reference the ideas and notions of our upbringing, society, or significant life events (trauma) in our perception of safety, unless it is directly confronted.
Contextualizing What Causes Anxiety.
As young children we take in our environment, including society’s notions, how we were parented, and significant life experiences. These experiences engrave our subconscious, the ‘silent operating system.’ The subconscious informs what we feel is acceptable and unacceptable, safe and unsafe, and who we feel we are at our core. – Even if these thoughts are in conflict with the conscious mind (what we are aware of), and how we present ourselves to the world.
For example a person may not have an experience with another kind of person, but sees another (or their condition) as dangerous primarily based on societal conditioning from their community. Let’s use an example from Big Bill Broonzy’s lyrics, (song released in 1948). The lyric says, “if you’s white, be all right, If you was brown, stick around, But as you black, Oh brother…get back” (Song title: Black, Brown and White).
This thought can also be internalized by those oppressed by this rule, and can be ‘true’ for the individual (internalized hate). Both persons may engage in fear or hate, even if the surface mind finds the idea of racism or colorism egregious. Again, this stems from the subconscious, so there is limited awareness (and often denial), about it’s occurrence and how racism or colorism operates. (Hence, implicit bias, even aganist oneself). Furthermore, specific groups may have a set of experiences that threaten their survival, even if it’s not acknowledged or affirmed by the Collective (or Majority culture). We see this with marginalized groups at large (that their true narratives are less seen and validated from the majority, even though there is movement in this direction, through advocacy). Given what we know about imprinting, this is why intersectionality is also important in discussing the nuance of one’s experience (in terms of the layered, connected, interplay of oppression and privilege), and how one’s story came to be; to get at the truth of the real story, and the beliefs that have been operating (for or against one’s true nature).
Knowing What Causes Anxiety, What Happens?
Taking into account that survival is triggered, even if we have or haven’t asked it be; you might ask, “What happens?” — When survival is in question, the ego over-operates to ensure our safety in the physical world. It is as if the ego clenches down to hang onto life. Although it is understandable that a part of us is trying to ensure our survival, this results in us only perceiving life based off of the five senses. Relying only on what we can concretely hear, taste, touch, smell, or see; we do not incorporate the non-tangible factors that are often the guiding forces of life (for instance, love, hope, peace, spirituality, intuition, or our roots (ancestry/correct historical context), etc.). As a result of smaller perception, there is more difficulty seeing the inherent truth of situations, solving problems, and resolving the true crux. Limitation in vision, perpetuates feelings of danger and encourages further scrutiny from the ego of the physical world. As a result of threat not being truly alleviated, a selective focus for danger ensues, where the ego narrowly focuses on specific threat and indicators of such. This in turn facilitates the pairing of ‘danger’ with ‘neutral or positive content’ that is present at the same time threat is. As a result, associated neutral and positive content is then available to be categorized as threatening, hence anxiety is often generalized.
Anxiety, An Innate Signaling System.
When we look at what we just talked about above, and place it in context with what we already know about anxiety (the avoidance cycle, see Quick Guide: What Is Anxiety? | What Anxiety Feels Like (Example.) Blog), we then can see that humans have an innate system that signals when our survival is questioned, yet due to uncomfortability, we as people tend to make surface means at addressing the issues that threaten survival on an individual level (and understandably so, as it is painful), versus taking deep, thorough introspection into the subconscious. This process is needed to discover our true selves (source our Soul) to reveal the inherent truth of situations, which starts with the correct view of Self. When we think of anxiety in this way, we can see that anxiety (or this signaling system) is just a mechanism for us to begin, re-align, or continue the journey to the Authentic Self, which includes confronting how we have been imprinted, healing from those experiences, and embracing who we truly are more and more until infinity…
So you see, there is discomfort or suffering whenever there is separation from the Authentic Self, as we were all meant to live as our unique selves fully.