Enneagram 101: Core Threats

When I try to explain the concept of the "core threat" in an Enneagram context, I like to use this narrative example:

Imagine the world's friendliest, most well trained, sweetest dog. Now, imagine if someone offered you a billion dollars if you could get that dog to snarl and snap at you.

If you decided that the money was worth it, and you set about trying, I guarantee you that no matter how tame and friendly that dog is, you'd eventually find a way to set him off. Every single creature has their limit, and when pushed to that limit, they will defend themselves against what they perceive as an intolerable threat.

However, you might take a while to figure out what it will actually take to get that individual dog to snarl and snap at you. That's because all dogs are individuals, just like people. Different dogs have different things that irritate them or push them closer to snapping. However, just like people, dogs generally have a limited set of things that will set them off. You probably won't ever get a dog to growl or try to bite you by giving it infinite treats, but you might have success if you came up behind it and startled it with a loud noise, or if you poked around in its face, or if you tried to take away its food.

We're the same way - each one of us has certain feelings, circumstances, or threats that put us into "snarl and snap mode." And while these differ across people, they tend to cluster into similar categories. The Enneagram gives us words for those categories, helping us name the things that make us feel most threatened.

Threat Mode Behavior

Humans are a lot more complex than dogs, so we do a bit more than growl and bare our teeth when we feel the need to protect ourselves from an intolerable threat. But we're not all that complex in the end, so a person in threat mode is usually pretty easy to identify. It can be harder to recognize when you yourself are getting into threat mode, but fortunately, the Enneagram can help us be more mindful of these shifts in our attitudes and patterns.

When someone isn't getting their core need met, or when they feel their core need is threatened, they tend to fall into a few types of patterns. All of these patterns are an attempt to solve the problem - to make the threat stop and to regain or protect access to our core need. They don't usually work, but that doesn't usually stop us when we're in threat mode.

The Enneagram identifies three emotional centers that reflect our responses to a threat: shame, fear, and anger. Each of the nine types has different patterns and experiences these feelings differently, and we'll get into more specific examples later.

In general, threat mode patterns can look like:

Anger: Picking fights, looking for someone to blame, lashing out, or otherwise externalizing the threat onto other people is a very easy way to try and redirect the energy of threat mode. It gives us a clear target for our anger, creates relationship conflict that can distract us from the deeper problem, and is often a misguided attempt to get our core need met.

Shame: Hopelessness, a victim mindset, a sense of being at fault or 'deserving' the threat, or otherwise feeling bad about oneself are also common when someone is in threat mode. This can look like self-sabotaging behavior, depression, or an inability to reach out for or accept help. People may become overly focused on their appearance or accomplishments as a replacement for self-worth, or may also try to numb this sense of shame with distractions or substances.

Fear: Anxiety, clingy or controlling behavior, suspicion and paranoia, excessive interpersonal drama, and attempts to protect oneself from any potential threat are fear patterns. People may seek safety by any means necessary, become mistrustful of others, avoid risk taking, and perceive the world as fundamentally dangerous.

You've probably felt all three of these, but it's likely that one in specific feels most applicable to your "threat mode." That's because the types are grouped into the three centers. Make a note of which one stood out to you, because it will be helpful later when identifying your type!

Chronic vs. Acute Threat Mode

There are two ways we can be in threat mode: chronic and acute.

Chronic threat mode means we are in a period of our life when our core need is consistently being threatened, or simply not being met. We may be living in circumstances that don't allow us to meet our core need, such as working at an unfulfilling job, being in an unhealthy relationship, or living in stressful conditions.

In this case, our thread mode behaviors dominate our lives, creating long-term patterns that influence our overall health, relationships, career, and general sense of well being. We may feel stuck, hopeless, trapped, or lost. Chronic threat mode is a signal that we need to start identifying our core need and pursuing it with different methods than we've been trying so far.

For example, if someone's core need is security and stability, they may be in chronic threat mode if she's working a month-to-month contract job, dating someone who won't commit, or otherwise feeling unmoored. Her threat mode patterns might look like excessive control-freak behavior at home and at work, pestering her manager for updates or constantly daydreaming about a different job, and picking fights with her partner every time she feels like she can't count on them.

But none of those patterns are actually going to help her get what she needs, which is stability and security. She needs to identify that she's feeling so frustrated, abandoned, and lost because she's missing her core need, then take intentional action to pursue that in a healthy way. Easier said than done, I know! We'll get into how, exactly, to do this sort of Enneagram work in a later article.

Acute threat mode means that in a specific moment, we're feeling threatened and retreating into immediate behaviors that define our threat mode. (Some people refer to this state as being "triggered," but that term isn't used in Enneagram work.)

Maybe someone says something to you that really gets your hackles up. Maybe you come home to an unexpected bill in the mail and get upset and scared. Whether it's a moment of conflict or a bunch of crappy experiences that add up to a bad day, acute threat mode can happen to anyone, even if you're in a season of your life where you're generally getting your core need met effectively.

When you find yourself getting into acute threat mode, your best tools are mindfulness and intentionality. Don't act on your immediate instincts - to say something nasty, to storm off, to break down in frustration. Instead, recognize that you're feeling threatened and identify what, specifically, is making you feel that way. Then, choose how you want to respond, based on what your best self would do.

For example, say someone's core need is independence and control over themself. He may feel threatened when their coworker comes in and gives him a "friendly reminder" to clean out the office fridge by Friday. This makes him feel nagged and controlled, and threatens his sense of independence and his ability to choose what he does and when.

His first instinct might be to say something rude, roll his eyes, or even simply ignore his coworker out of spite. But if he slows down and thinks about it, he may realize that spending a few minutes throwing out his expired yogurts isn't actually preventing him from living his life the way he wants, and starting conflict about this isn't worth it at work.

Again, this is much easier said than done! That's why we use tools like the Enneagram, because they let us identify what's going on and act with intentionality.