Anxiety (Inside Out)

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Anxiety is a fictional character from the 2024 film Inside Out 2. She is the personification of the emotion of the same name. Anxiety serves as an antagonist in the film.

In early drafts of Inside Out 2, Anxiety was intended to be an antagonistic force. Kelsey Mann, the director of the film, said that she felt like a "Cardboard Villain", and was unsatisfied with the writing. He hired two psychologists as advisers. Lisa Damour and Dacher Keltner, and they decided to rewrite it so that Anxiety would be motivated by the love of Riley. ^[1] Lisa Damour stated that one of the ways to solve anxiety, grounding, or touching a physical object, inspired a scene where Riley overcomes a panic attack by touching a Hockey Stick.^[2]

Anxiety is first shown to appear in the film Inside Out 2. She is one of the four new emotions in the film. After Riley Andersen goes to an ice hockey summer camp, she decides to take over Riley's brain entirely. Joy and the other main emotions are stranded, and are forced to come back. Anxiety tries to mold Riley in her own image, causing Riley to be obsessed with succeeding in hockey. At one point, Riley has a panic attack. However, by the end of the film, the other emotions come back.

Anxiety has received praise. Meg Walter of Deseret said that the film helped her understand her own anxiety.^[3] Noah Berlatsky, in a CNN article, said that " I appreciate the way that “Inside Out 2” gives its anxious antagonist a heart and some positive characteristics amidst its frantic quivering"^[4]