Does VIF account for negative correlations?

Does VIF account for inverse correlation? For example if you have two variables that are negatively correlated, like lifesatisfaction and anxiety. If I do a regression of LifeSatisfaction = Anxiety, I get high explanatory power etc. with anxiety having a negative coefficient, which is too be expected. But yet if I do Y = lifesatisfaction + anxiety,, and do a VIF of that the VIF score is pretty moderate, around 4.4 for each.

Am I misunderstanding VIF or collinearity? Because my assumption of the above scenario would be that the VIF should be high, not moderate.