Triggers

Every person with anxiety has certain triggers that set them off. It varies for each person and can depends on what type of anxiety they are dealing with. It’s important to recognize those triggers so that way you can best decide which course of action you should to take to manage it.

Majors stressors can range from your physical health to things happening in your everyday life, such as stress from work or your home life. Stress can also occur from previous experiences like a past trauma or a situation that scared you.

I’ve always recommended writing down your thoughts and I recommend doing that here as well.

When you start to have anxious feelings, write them down. It could help you identify which triggers are the cause of your anxiety. Consider things like: What were you thinking of right before? What situation, if any, occurred right before? Were there any physical symptoms that appeared like, sweaty palms or a pounding heart?

If you continue to document your feelings and emotions, you may see a pattern.

For myself, I recognized that it was certain social settings that would cause my anxiety spike. I would then catastrophize, thinking of all the of horrible things that would happen to me if I left my house and went out.

When I knew that I was catastrophizing, I would have to tell myself that I’m not thinking rationally. I had to tell myself that the likelihood of these things happening are slim to none. I would have to do this over and over and over again, every time I had to go out.

Over time, after knowing what my triggers were, I was able to manage my anxiety much better than I previously had.

If it all seems unmanageable and you don’t know what steps you need to take to manage your anxiety, you can always seek help from a professional. They can better help you find appropriate ways to cope with and manage your anxiety.  

With Love & Support,

Molly