Exploring the source of the anxiety

Understanding Anxiety

Objective of the Psychoeducational Lesson and Exercise

The objective of this psychoeducational lesson and therapeutic exercise is to assist the individual in understanding the origins, underlying mechanisms, and root causes of their anxiety responses. This includes educating the individual on the biopsychosocial and existential dimensions of anxiety, enhancing insight into the evolutionary role of fear and threat detection, exploring cognitive-emotional sources such as trauma, attachment wounds, and core beliefs, and empowering the individual to develop a compassionate and nonjudgmental internal relationship with their anxiety. The intervention aims to help the individual gain clarity about how anxiety manifests in the mind and body, recognize its adaptive intentions, and begin the process of unblending from anxiety-driven thoughts, emotions, and behaviors.

Therapeutic Rationale

Anxiety is often misunderstood as a purely negative or dysfunctional experience. However, from an integrative mental health perspective, anxiety is a multifaceted signal—rooted in ancient survival circuits, shaped by early relationships, and reinforced by cultural, cognitive, and social conditions. By reframing anxiety not as an enemy but as a messenger from the nervous system or from inner parts of the psyche (as described in Internal Family Systems Therapy), clients can begin to develop a more Self-led, curious, and compassionate stance toward their internal experiences. Understanding the source of anxiety is foundational to self-regulation, trauma recovery, and personal growth. This lesson facilitates increased metacognition (thinking about one’s thinking), emotional granularity (naming and understanding nuanced feelings), and nervous system literacy (interpreting physiological stress responses).

Exploring the Source of Anxiety

Anxiety arises from an interplay of biological, psychological, social, and existential factors, each of which contributes to a person’s unique experience of anxious distress. In this lesson, the individual will explore these dimensions in detail:

Biological and Evolutionary Sources
The human brain evolved to prioritize safety and survival. The amygdala, hypothalamus, and sympathetic nervous system are hardwired to detect threats, producing the “fight, flight, freeze, or fawn” responses. Anxiety is the anticipatory activation of this system in response to perceived future threats. In some individuals, genetic sensitivity, neurochemical imbalances (e.g., involving serotonin, GABA, or cortisol), and nervous system dysregulation may predispose them to heightened anxiety.
Psychological and Cognitive Sources
Anxiety is also influenced by internal thought patterns, cognitive distortions (e.g., catastrophizing, black-and-white thinking), and schema rooted in past emotional experiences. Unresolved trauma, attachment disruptions, or chronic invalidation can lead to internalized beliefs such as “I am not safe,” “I am not enough,” or “Something bad is going to happen,” which trigger anxiety in seemingly unrelated present situations.
Social and Environmental Sources
Anxiety can arise in response to environmental stressors such as academic pressure, social comparison, economic insecurity, systemic oppression, or chronic overstimulation from modern technology. Cultural values around productivity, perfectionism, and independence often intensify anxiety in ways that are normalized and even valorized.
Existential and Meaning-Based Sources
Anxiety also has a philosophical and spiritual dimension, sometimes called existential anxiety. This form of anxiety emerges from deeper questions about mortality, identity, freedom, responsibility, and meaning. While often pathologized, this anxiety can also be seen as a natural response to human self-awareness and a catalyst for growth.
Parts-Based and IFS-Informed Sources
From an Internal Family Systems perspective, anxiety is often a protective response initiated by manager or firefighter parts that are trying to prevent the individual from experiencing internal vulnerability or emotional overwhelm. These parts may activate anxious thoughts or bodily sensations to distract from, prepare for, or preemptively avoid feelings associated with past pain or fear. When a person learns to unblend from these parts and relate to them with curiosity, anxiety tends to decrease.

Mapping the Source of Anxiety

Instructions for the Therapist/Coach:
Invite the individual to complete the following reflective exercise either during session or as a structured homework assignment. The exercise is designed to promote self-awareness, integrate psychoeducation, and build internal trust between the Self and anxious parts.

Exercise: The Source Map of Anxiety

Purpose: To identify and externalize the possible roots of anxiety in the client’s experience—biological, psychological, social, and existential—while helping them locate these experiences in thoughts, body sensations, memories, and emotions.

Materials Needed:

Printout or digital worksheet
Quiet environment for reflection
Journal or drawing tools (if desired)

Step 1: Mind-Body Awareness Check-In
Begin with a brief mindfulness practice. Invite the individual to close their eyes, place a hand over their chest or belly, and breathe slowly for 1–2 minutes. Ask them to bring awareness to where they feel anxiety in the body. Encourage them to name any physical sensations, images, or emotions that arise.

Step 2: Four Quadrants of Anxiety Worksheet
Present a four-quadrant grid labeled as follows:

Biological/Evolutionary
Psychological/Cognitive
Social/Environmental
Existential/Meaning-Based

Ask the individual to write down or draw any associations, memories, thoughts, sensations, or stressors that seem to relate to each category. They may consider the following prompts:

What triggers this feeling in my body or thoughts?
Are there past memories associated with this feeling?
What are my current stressors?
What does this anxiety say about my values, fears, or purpose?

Step 3: Parts Dialogue (IFS Integration)
Once the individual has completed the quadrant map, invite them to check in with the part of them that feels the anxiety most strongly. Ask them to reflect (in writing or out loud):

Can you sense where the anxiety is located in your body?
Can you ask the part: What are you afraid would happen if you didn’t make me feel this anxiety?
Can you ask the part: What are you trying to protect me from?
How old does this part feel?
What does this part need from me right now?

Step 4: Self-to-Part Connection Practice
Encourage the individual to thank the anxious part for its efforts to protect. Invite them to return to their breath and gently say to themselves:
“I am here with you. I see you. I hear your concern. You don’t have to carry this alone.”

Step 5: Integration Reflection
End the exercise by asking the individual to journal a short reflection on what they learned about the source(s) of their anxiety. They may consider:

What surprised me?
What did I feel compassion for?
What do I want to explore more deeply?

Clinical Notes and Implementation Guidelines

This exercise may be used as a standalone intervention or as part of a larger anxiety treatment track. It integrates well with cognitive-behavioral therapy (CBT), mindfulness-based cognitive therapy (MBCT), internal family systems (IFS), acceptance and commitment therapy (ACT), and somatic experiencing. Clients who are emotionally dysregulated or have trauma-related dissociation may benefit from more grounding or titration before engaging deeply with existential or early life sources.

Closing Reflection for Clients

“Anxiety is not the enemy. It is a part of you trying its best to warn you, protect you, or prepare you. When you explore its source, you begin to see that underneath the anxiety is often a longing—for safety, for love, for connection, or for meaning. By understanding your anxiety, you reclaim your power to respond to life with clarity, calm, and courage.”