How “Inside Out 2” Helps Us Understand Anxiety as a Protector | Anxiety Therapist Los Angeles Ca
As an anxiety therapist Los Angeles CA, I explore how Inside Out 2 helps us see anxiety as a protector and provide a guide toward healing.
Recognizing Ourselves in “Inside Out 2”
You are sitting in the theater and you watch Riley’s friends telling her that they are going to a different high school than hers. You hear the emotions in Riley's head go back and forth around not knowing how to react, and then Joy steps in, pushing those feelings to the back of Riley’s head.
You think to yourself, this feels familiar. That fear of being left behind. The tightening in your chest. The quiet panic of being alone, of feeling hurt and worried.
In my previous blog, “What First-Gen Anxiety Really Feels Like” I touched on how anxiety, at its core, is a protective mechanism. The brain’s way of alerting you to potential danger or threat. Inside Out beautifully illustrates this by giving us a closer look at that protective part, that one influencing our behaviors when we struggle to slow down and take a closer look at our emotions.
Anxiety can sometimes feel like an enemy, but this movie helps you create more compassion for it — the protective part that wants the best for us. As an anxiety therapist Los Angeles CA, I often hear clients describe moments like this, when anxiety shows up to protect rather than punish.
I especially hear this from First Gen, BIPOC, and queer adults who have grown accustomed to distracting themselves with busy work, entertainment, or other forms of escapism. Subtle ways anxiety protects them from confronting uncomfortable feelings directly. Many clients I work with are learning how to navigate this ongoing push-pull between independence, belonging, and pressure to have it all together.
What “Inside Out” Teaches Us About Anxiety
In Inside Out 2, we see how new emotions like Anxiety join Riley’s inner world as she faces big changes in her life. For many of us, this mirrors how anxiety first showed up for us; when something we loved or depended on began to change.
Situations show up in our life that we do not control. Some ideal experiences that do not go as planned, expected, and suddenly change.
No one teaches you how to handle unexpected events and the unknown. And it feels scary.
That is when our defense mechanisms show up, trying to find ways to provide protection, reignite a sense of safety, and remind us that everything is going to be okay.
For Riley, it is this unexpected news that her friends not going to the same high school, her ideal highs chool experience being ripped away. We observe Fear, later replaced by Anxiety, stepping in and taking control in an effort to protect Riley from being hurt.
The movie portrays these through behaviors like: Keeping distance from her middle school friends because of hurt and mistrust, changing herself to be accepted (like Riley’s hair or interests), trying to belong with the high school hockey team through lying about interests, and practicing hockey for hours and striving to be the best
A mirror of our own behaviors of pulling away when connection feels risky, over-performing or people-pleasing to avoid rejection, and struggling to pay attention to the underlying emotion of fear.
Anxiety’s goal in the movie is simple: if Riley makes the team and is well-liked, She won’t have to worry about being alone in high school. We see how Anxiety’s efforts to keep her safe lead to different ways of seeking connection, all driven by fear.
This is not a farfetched idea. We all grow up around the pressure to fit in, by finding ways to connect by mirroring others or adopting shared interests. The idea of being different or seen can feel scary.
Towards the end of the movie we see the impact of these fear driven behaviors and how suppressed emotions begin to take a toll on Riley. Tracing it back to that moment of hurt, worry and sadness when her friends shared that they wouldn’t be attending the same school. Just like Riley, many of us cope with fear and uncertainty by working harder to feel safe; pleasing others, staying busy, or keeping our true emotions tucked away.
This is especially true for many first-gen adults who grew up navigating unpredictability, expectations, and change on their own.
Why Anxiety Feels Familiar for First-Gen Adults
For many First Gen and BIPOC adults, myself included, early childhood experiences were shaped by being raised in households where parents didn’t know how to integrate emotional expression into their parenting. Many of our parents grew up in environments that didn’t teach them how to understand or respond to anxiety, uncertainty, and instability. Often because no one taught them what it was or the impact. This led us as children, now adults, to create our own ways of navigating anxiety.
Children are not born knowing how to adapt to their environments, they learn to help themselves when there is no one there to guide them. In moments of fear; of disappointing, being too much or not enough, or of feeling pressure to perform in expected ways. For many first-gen adults, anxiety often steps in as a silent teacher helping us navigate systems not built for us, but at a cost to our peace.
Many grew up receiving messages that being emotional was a weakness, or that needing and asking for comfort was “too much.” I explore this theme further in my blog “Attachment Theory & Emotional Healing,” where I discuss how early childhood and cultural conditioning shape how we show up as adults, with ourselves and in relationships. Whether it is struggling to trust, distancing when things get hard, or feeling worried about being a burden.
These patterns come from what we learned early on; that to feel safe often meant staying silent or agreeing with others, rather than tuning into our own feelings and speaking them aloud.
This deep familiarity with anxiety often continues into adulthood, until one day, it starts to feel less like a guide and more like it’s running the show. That’s when we begin to notice the shift from anxiety protecting us to anxiety taking over.
When Anxiety Takes Over and How to Befriend It
There is a point in Inside Out 2 when we see Riley’s emotions begin to spiral out of control. Anxiety takes over, and you can see the physical impact it has on her. The disconnection between what is happening around her and what is going on internally. The lightheadedness, chest tightness, and increased heart rate.
It is a familiar experience for many of us. The moment when anxiety stops feeling like a helper and starts feeling like it’s in charge, leaving us with a sense of losing control.
In these moments, we often find ourselves:
Overanalyzing every interaction
Replaying conversations in our heads
Trying to fix or control everything to avoid disappointment
Feeling exhausted from holding it all together
There is frustration in experiencing these anxious thoughts and feeling unsure how to get rid of them. Maybe it even leads to trying to push them away. But just like Riley, there is a way through and it’s not by running away from anxiety, even if that feels like the easier option.
It is through pausing to listen and understand what anxiety is trying to protect you from. It is being curious with why it’s trying to help you.
Can you recall a time when you pushed through fear, only to realize later it was your anxiety trying to protect you from pain?
As an anxiety therapist Los Angeles CA, this is often where healing begins with my clients. We stay with the frustration and explore what your anxiety is trying to protect you from, even if it feels out of control. We also begin to build relationship with it.
Asking anxiety: What are you trying to protect me from? What do you need me to know?
The goal is to meet anxiety with curiosity and compassion. The real change begins when anxiety feels safe enough to step back, and that comes from helping you understand what it needs. Healing does not come from silencing anxiety.
As a BIPOC and LGBTQIA2S affirming anxiety therapist Los Angeles and across California, I help clients explore their patterns of anxiety and the ways it has protected them throughout their lives. Together, we create a balance between listening to anxiety’s message and not letting it take control. Over time, clients experience more pauses, deeper self-understanding, and fewer moments of feeling out of control.
What Would It Look Like to Listen, Instead of Silencing Anxiety?
If you’re ready to explore your own relationship with anxiety, I offer anxiety therapy Los Angeles for adults across California who want to create deeper relationships with themselves and in relationships. Together, we can help you feel more grounded, connected, and at ease within yourself. Contact me today for your free consultation at (323) 493-6644 or Book Here.
Ligia Orellana, LMFT (#122659)
I’m an anxiety therapist in Los Angeles, California, certified in LGBTQ+ Affirmative Therapy and Somatic Attachment Therapy. I help first-generation BIPOC and Queer adults who feel the pressure to hold it all together move through self-doubt, anxiety, and relationship struggles. My work creates space for deeper connection and self-trust through emotional safety and cultural understanding.
Learn more about my work with relationship stress, people-pleasing and self-doubt, and online therapy, or visit my About page to learn more.
