One of the grand fears that people have as they get a bit further into the deeper work of recognizing the BS core beliefs they were imprinted with, at a very young age, and realizing where those came from is having to cut people out of their lives, or at least radically reduce the presence of those people in their lives. It’s something you’ve never imagined or never considered an actual possibility. Or, if you have, it’s something that becomes more startling as that possibility becomes something you find yourself considering with increasing frequency and seriousness.

For some, it seems like a giant leap to say. For others, it’s an obvious statement of fact that, fundamentally, anxiety is fear.

To worry about what might happen, to feel anxious over how things are going or where things seem to be going means, at the root, to fear what might or might not happen. Be it anxiety regarding family, money, politics, AI, parenthood, climate/environment, job, relationships/love, society, friendships, the state of the world, or anything else, it is fear about how this or that thing might negatively impact me and/or those I care about.

On one hand, there’s nothing wrong with anxiety. We all feel it. It’s a perfectly normal human feeling to have. In fact, in certain situations and amounts anxiety and fear keep us safe from eventualities that might cause us harm.

Depression, anxiety, lack of motivation. Have you been hit by them? I have. They landed me in a 12-year suicidal depression. And, the question I’m asked, on occasion, is,

“Sven, the way you speak of your parents is that they were remarkable people who did so much right as parents. Yet, you also talk about being in a 12-year suicidal depression, at some point, that you had to pull yourself out of because you couldn’t find any therapist who could really help you. If everything goes back to childhood and parenting, as you say, then how could this possibly make sense?”

The answer is rather simple.