In today’s episode of the anxiety guy podcast I’ll be sharing with you the most important differences between anxiety and fear. Enjoy the show!
Show notes from today’s podcast episode on the differences between anxiety and fear:
- Anxiety can still survive even if the conscious mind doesn’t believe in what the subconscious mind believes.
- Anxiety is fear represented at a subconscious level.
- Anxiety is a chronic state, and is accompanied by a high level of emotional investment in irrational fears which have its roots within the interpretations made between conception and the age of 5.
In essence, there is no difference between anxiety and fear.
Fear is the main component of an anxiety filled life and as we understand more deeply that logic alone cannot convince the inner child to change its interpretations, we will be open to new and deeper ways of communicating with our own inner child’s.
Many people ask me who the inner child is (this YouTube video explains) and how he or she plays a role in anxiety and fear. The inner child is your subconscious mind and mainly manifests through your initial feelings. Your initial feelings of fear look to help you to escape or not enter a situation. Your initial feelings around safety feel more neutral emotionally and therefore is deemed a safe environment or situation.
Healing anxiety and fear comes down to your relationship with your own inner child.
A relationship in conflict will see differences in feelings and conscious ideas. A relationship that shows rapport and congruence will show similar interpretations between initial feelings and conscious ideas. This is how true core beliefs are formed, and re-formed. These are the important steps we must take in order to become more than anxiety once and for all.
More information on The Inner Child:
- We all have an inner child, it’s just that some of us work with that side of us better than others.
- The inner child takes a vow which says there is something seriously wrong with me, and I must make sure the organism never experiences this again.
- The inner child acts like a child. Think of Piglet and Eeyore in Winnie the Pooh; Piglet, The poster child of GAD, stutters which is very likely due to shock over 1 or a series of events that left him with very low self esteem. The poster child of chronic depression Eeyore has a bleak outlook on life and rarely feels positive emotions. We go in and out of both of these states as anxiety sufferers.
Feel out the inner child now by bringing to your awareness their physical and psychological defenses…
- Notice any itching
- Negative or limiting posture shifts
- Spontaneous pain or bodily discomfort
All of these are defense mechanisms coming from the inner child looking to prevent change, even positive change. The inner child is the provider and maintainer of anxiety due to what IT believes is the best way to approach life.
Why is it important that we understand and work with the inner child? Because if we don’t we’ll interpret our instincts and our symptoms in a negative way. If this continues we’ll always be looking to cope and manage our symptoms, we’ll never heal fully.
If you haven’t already Sign Up to my 5 point Saturday’s weekly newsletter and also receive a digital copy of my first book Me vs Myself free: The Anxiety Guy Weekly Newsletter (Sign Up Here)
Subscribe to the #1 Anxiety Healing podcast on any one of these podcast directories today: Apple, Stitcher, or Podbean.
My Books on Amazon:
Beyond Anxiety – What To Expect On Your Path Towards Freedom (3rd book) can be purchased on Amazon here:
F*** Coping Start Healing (2nd book) is now out on Amazon and you can pick up your copy today:
