12/18/2025
Greed is what happens when a survival instinct for “enough” gets supercharged by ongoing threat. In true scarcity—famine, war, disaster—accumulating and hoarding resources is adaptive. The brain quite sensibly says, “If I have more, I’ll survive.”
In modern life, however, many people live with chronic psychological scarcity: constant stress, insecurity, and fear of loss. The threat system doesn’t distinguish well between real and imagined danger. It can slip into a mode where “enough” doesn’t exist. The inner message becomes, “If I don’t keep getting more, I’ll lose everything.”
That mindset spawns RUTs like: “It’s never enough.” “Someone’s going to take what I have.” “If I relax, I’ll lose my edge.” These looping thoughts can be used to rationalize behavior that hurts others, but underneath, there’s usually a terrified nervous system trying to feel safe through accumulation.
When you work directly with threat—naming fears, stabilizing your life where you can, building real relationships—the intensity of the “more, more, more” drive can ease. As the system feels safer in the present, the need to cling to excess for future protection softens, and the RUTs about scarcity and loss become less dominant.
Greed is what happens when a survival instinct for “enough” gets supercharged by an ongoing threat. In true scarcity—famine, war, disaster—accumulating and hoarding resources is adaptive. The brain quite sensibly says, “If I have more, I’ll survive.”
Where does ‘more’ show up in your mind as a way to feel safe?
