The adaptive importance of anxiety is obvious from its role in the avoidance of danger. Attenuation of the anxiety response is adaptive because extreme anxiety may impede effective coping behavior and because extreme anxiety has harmful physiological effects. This attenuation has traditionally been explained in terms of “taming,” “structuralization,” and “turning passive into active.” The present article argued for the explanation provided by the double-prediction theory over traditional explanations because of its logical connection to the concept of the impulse-defense equilibrium. An innate mechanism is postulated that communicates information on the status of the impulse-defense balance to the censor.