Each person with anxiety has one or more triggers that sets their anxiety alarm off. Triggers can vary from person to person and can vary depending on what type of anxiety they are dealing with. It’s important to be able to recognize those triggers so that individuals can best decide what course of action they should take to bring about relief.
Anxiety commonly manifests when we experience a stressor or a set of stressors. Major stressors can range from our physical health, to things happening in our everyday life, such as stress from our work or home life. Stress can also occur from previous experiences like a past trauma or a situation that scared us.
When you begin to feel anxious, if possible, write down what you are experiencing in the moment.
Consider things like:
- What was I thinking of just before my anxiety manifested?
- What situation, if any, occurred right before?
- Were there any physical symptoms that appeared like sweaty palms or a racing heart?
By asking yourself these questions and by documenting your feelings and emotions over a period of time you may be able to see a pattern emerge. By identifying the pattern you can then analyze why your anxiety is manifesting itself as well as come up with a solution to ease your worry.
Example:
Event: Every time I have to drive some place I’ve never been before.
Symptoms: pounding heart, excessive sweating, sweaty palms, hard to breath.
What about this event is making me anxious?: I don’t know how to get there, I don’t know what parking will be like, I don’t know how busy this place will be. What if I can’t find any parking at all? What if it’s parallel parking only, and I don’t know how to parallel park?
What can I do to ease my anxiety?: I can use Apple maps ahead of time to pick the best route for me to take. I can also use the satellite view on my map to see what the parking situation is like ahead of time. If there is parallel parking, I can find the next closest parking lot that isn’t parallel parking. If time allows, I can drive to the location with a friend before hand to get a feel for what the drive/parking is like.
How do I feel now?: I feel better having a plan in place for next time I have to go somewhere I haven’t been before.
By knowing what our triggers are and how we can ease our anxiety induced by said triggers, we are giving ourselves the upper hand in anxiety management.
With love and support, Molly
A few years ago, I was getting ready to go on a first date. We planned to meet up at a bar equidistant from where he and I lived. I was nervous beyond measure and contemplated canceling 87 different times, but I decided to go through with it because I was very interested in him.
After talking my anxiety through with my mom, I realized that the anxiety was coming from the fact that I was supposed to meet him at a bar I’ve never been to before that was located on a pretty busy street. It was also well known that in the downtown area where the bar was, there was only parallel parking available, and that fact didn’t help my anxiety either.
I decided to pull up the location on my map and found the easiest route to take to the bar. I pulled up the satellite view of the bar as well, and found that there was a parking lot just next door that wasn’t parallel parking. I even had my mom drive down to the bar with me (three hours before my date) to get a feel for the route and scope out the location so that I could get more familiar with the street and find the parking lot next door.
Fast forward three hours, I was still nervous, but not nearly as much as before. I stuck to the route I picked out and followed my GPS. I got lucky when I arrived because I found a spot that I could just pull into without having to parallel park or park next door.
Since I was able to analyze the event that was causing me anxiety, and find some solutions to ease my anxiety about the situation, I was able to work through the anxiety and enjoy my first date.
