Recently, I appeared on aParently Speaking podcast with Miriam conner. Miriam asked me to speak about fear—specifically, how parents may inadvertently pass on anxiety to their children.

We discussed humans’ typical responses to fear—building upon the Fight or Flight model we all learned in school, and we explored the profound power of how we frame fear i.e. do we consider it part of our identity? Do we say things to ourselves like, “My anxiety makes me do such and such” or “I have anxiety”? Or rather, do we see fear as a part of life, but not a part of our core sense of self.

We can empower ourselves by considering the ways we manage our feelings and ask ourselves questions like:

Did I learn this emotional response from my mother?
Did I get “my anxiety” from my father?
As an adult can I shed any generational patterns of managing fear that aren't serving me?

We may have inherited anxiety from our families, but we don’t need to own it in adulthood!

Dr. Karin

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Did You Inherit Your Anxiety from Your Parents? Ep. 188