Anxiety Explained - SEL Sketches

This video explains anxiety in a relatable way, using the analogy of a bunny in a field to illustrate the fight, flight, and freeze response. It highlights how anxiety can be both helpful and overwhelming, especially when it becomes a constant presence.

Do you ever worry about things? Do you worry that something bad is going to happen while you're at school? Or maybe that scary noise you hear in your room at night is a monster lurking under your bed. Or maybe it just seems like you have a worry cloud that hangs out and follows you wherever you go. Guess what? That big worry that never seems to go away or seems to pop up out of nowhere has a name. It's called anxiety. It's a big feeling that has many other feelings wrapped up inside. So, what is anxiety really? For the most part, this feeling is around for one purpose: to keep us safe. Anxiety's job is to let us know when there's danger and then act super fast to stay safe. Believe it or not, anxiety's ability to act as a natural alarm in difficult situations, like taking a test, can actually help us by making us more alert and increasing our desire to do well. However, when anxiety happens a lot, causing us to feel nervous all the time, it loses its helpfulness and can make us feel worse. Still curious? Let's look at it this way. Pretend there is a cute little bunny. This bunny is in a big, beautiful, open field full of grass. The bunny has two goals for the day: eat food and stay safe. Our bunny friend is hopping along and enjoying the beautiful sunny day, eating all the grass he can. So, our bunny is eating—check one item off of their to-do list—but how is he staying safe? Well, bunnies are pretty small and super cute, but they don't really have many defensive abilities. Because of this, they have to stay extra alert to possible dangers all around them. Could there be a fox in the bush or a bear lurking nearby in the woods? With all of the other animals that would find them kind of tasty, they have a good reason to be afraid. In this case, the bunny's anxiety is helpful in keeping it safe by ensuring that the bunny is alert. So, the bunny is on high alert for any predators lurking around the forest because it has to be able to react fast at the first sign of danger. If an owl all of a sudden flies over, the bunny's brain has three choices to make: one, fight back; two, run away super fast; or three, freeze in place and maybe the owl won't notice them in the field. This fight, flight, and freeze response happens automatically in order to keep the bunny safe.