Growing 27, June 1999
Fear and Trembling: Understanding Anxiety

Featured Writer: Jim Shackelford, Ph.D., Licensed Clinical Psychologist

When Soren Kierkegaard wrote his little monograph, Fear and Trembling (1843), he focused on a reality that we all must face, namely that existence brings with it anxiety. Currently, anxiety is the most frequently identified mental health problem, affecting more than 19 million Americans each year. Heredity, early experiences, biological causes and current and cumulative stresses, all contribute to the development of anxiety.

Heredity and Early Experiences
Some of us grow up in families that are highly reactive to the world in which they live. Having the same genetic makeup as someone else with an anxiety disorder makes us twice as likely to have similar problems. Parents might communicate an overly cautious world view. The world may be seen as a dangerous, threatening and unsafe place. Whether anxiety is learned or inherited is not clear. However, familial legacies or hereditary vulnerability do appear to predispose us to sensitivity, reactivity and the development of anxiety.

Some of us grow up with overly critical caretakers. These caretakers set excessively high standards, often shame based and perfectionistic. We live with the fear of losing face and the dread that we will be humiliated or worse. We doubt whether we will ever be “good enough.”

Some of us experience neglect, rejection, and/or abandonment through divorce or death. Others have been physically or sexually abused. Still others live with substance abusive parents. These experiences all contribute to emotional insecurity and excessive dependency.

Some of us have been to war or have lived in a war zone. Some have lived in gang-controlled neighborhoods. For others, violence and unexpected injuries can come suddenly—rapes, auto accidents, drownings, bombings like in Oklahoma City. We all watched the seemingly secure community of Littleton, Colorado, be rocked by teen violence, a violence that shattered for some any sense of safety. These severe experiences are often traumatizing and contribute to the development of anxiety. Many years later we may still suffer from our memories.

Heredity and past experiences affect how we view life and our felt sense of the world as safe or secure. Anxiety is part of life. Kierkegaard taught us that. However, for some of us, anxiety is so much a part that it makes life difficult to face, enjoy, embrace or cherish. Learning to understand and accept our past and to find better ways to cope are often called for. Therapy, spiritual direction and supportive groups often help with transforming the past from something to fear and dread to something to accept and move beyond.