Why I love Anxiety from Inside Out 2!

* contains spoilers if you have not seen the film. 

In my opinion, Anxiety is not the villain of Inside Out 2. Anxiety is relatable. Anxiety is trying to protect Riley just as much as all the other emotions. Anxiety is a needed member of headquarters!

 Anxiety can be healthy. It is crucial that we have a little anxiety when crossing the road. This keeps us safe. Anxiety has the ability to save us when we wonder about eating an unknown plant in the forest. As long as anxiety remains a part of the healthy balanced team and doesn’t dominate headquarters, we benefit from having them on side. 

Anxiety says her job is to keep Riley safe by planning for the future. You will notice in the pillow fort scene before Riley’s big match, Anxiety demands all hands on deck to come up with every eventuality that could possibly happen so that she can be prepared and plan against it. To some extent a contingency plan can be useful, but to cover every eventuality is unrealistic, unhelpful, exhausting and unsustainable. This is where Anxiety dominating headquarters tips the balance and becomes unhealthy. 

I love the fact that the parts have to help each other. Once Anxiety is understood by Riley‘s other emotions, they realise that they can help. When Anxiety becomes overwhelmed, the others encourage her to relax, have a cup of tea, sit in a massage chair and light a candle. All parts need some self compassion from time to time and all parts need each other.

 Another moment I appreciated is when Joy casually says at the beginning of the movie to Sadness ‘where I go you go.’ This is a nod from the first movie where Joy has to learn that Sadness too is a part of Reilly‘s emotions and needed. When Riley‘s parents drive off after dropping her to camp, Joy lets Sadness take the controls and Riley begins to cry. There is a beautiful moment where Joy says that Sadness is the one that’s needed and can linger a little longer. This shows real maturity and that all the parts accept each other and know which emotion needs to be held and felt in that moment. 

My favourite part of the movie is towards the end when Joy gently highlights to Anxiety that the things she is worried about are not going to happen today and she cannot control the future; but Anxiety still has a valid job to do. Riley has a Spanish test the following day and it is Anxiety who is the only one that has remembered the things she needs to remember. It is Anxiety that has caused Riley to revise and study. This is a helpful part of the emotion. It is at this moment that all the emotions and Anxiety herself, realise her value and that she is an asset, not an emotion to be scared of and banished. In the words of Richard Schwartz all parts are welcome and wish to protect.**

** Schwartz, R. (2021) No Bad Parts. Colorado: Sounds True.