Anxiety tries to keep up safe.
Fear is the root emotion beneath anxiety. Anxiety is what happens when our brain’s threat detection system — designed to keep us alive — stays switched on. From an evolutionary perspective, this system was essential: when our ancestors encountered real danger, their bodies shifted instantly into fight, flight, or freeze. Heart rate increased, senses sharpened, muscles prepared for action. That surge of fear kept them safe.
The challenge today is that our nervous system hasn’t evolved as quickly as our environment has changed. Now, deadlines, social rejection, uncertainty, intrusive thoughts, or perceived mistakes can activate the same danger alarm, even when we are not physically at risk. The body reacts as if survival is on the line.
In this way, anxiety isn’t a flaw — it’s an overprotective protector. OCD can show up within this same system. Obsessions trigger the brain’s alarm (“something is wrong” or “this could be dangerous”), and compulsions develop as attempts to neutralize the threat and restore safety. The behaviors aren’t irrational attempts to cause distress; they are strategies the mind has learned in an effort to prevent harm.
My approach.
Understanding anxiety and OCD through this lens doesn’t make them disappear, but it helps us approach them with compassion: these patterns formed to protect us, even if they now misfire. Blending EMDR, ACT, and parts work (IFS) can be especially powerful for anxiety because each approach addresses a different layer of the fear system. EMDR helps reprocess past experiences that sensitized the nervous system, ACT builds the capacity to stay present and act in alignment with values even when anxiety shows up, and IFS helps us relate compassionately to the anxious “protector” parts rather than fighting them — allowing the alarm system to soften instead of intensify.
Symptoms of anxiety:
- Nervousness, restlessness, or being tense
- Feelings of danger, panic, or dread
- Rapid breathing or hyperventilation
- Increased or heavy sweating
- Trembling or muscle twitching
- Weakness or lethargy
- Difficulty focusing or thinking clearly about anything other than the thing you’re worried about
- Insomnia
- Obsessions about certain ideas; a sign of obsessive-compulsive disorder
- Anxiety surrounding a particular life event or experience that has occurred in the past; a sign of post-traumatic stress disorder