Triggers to Anxiety
Common Anxiety Triggers and their Coping Strategies
What is Anxiety?
Anxiety is a disorder that compromises your mental health to an extent that it starts affecting your physical health as well. People going through anxiety disorder respond to otherwise normal situations with fear and worry. They face constant physical symptoms such as palpitations, sweating, etc.
Common Symptoms:
There are several symptoms depending on the type of anxiety disorder. Some common symptoms are listed below:
Physical:
· Cold hands
· Excessive sweating
· Palpitations
· Having a dry mouth
· Constant feeling of nausea or vomiting
· Numbness or tingling sensations
Mental:
· Feeling fear, tension, panic
· Having nightmares
· Continuous flashbacks
· Irrational and obsessive thoughts
Behavioral:
· Always feeling restless
· Difficult to stay calm
· Abnormal behaviors, such as shaking legs, etc.
· Insomnia or sleeping too
Common Anxiety Triggers:
Different types of anxiety are stimulated by different triggering factors. Certain habits, situations, events, or stressors can aggravate your anxiety if they are out of your control. Some of them are mentioned below:
ü Caffeine:
ü Research has shown that too much intake of caffeine triggers and even worsens anxiety symptoms. Its high doses can cause panic attacks in people already going through the disorder.
ü Inappropriate Sleep:
Adequate sleep is really important for the proper functioning of the brain. Not having enough or quality sleep changes our mood and emotional state of mind and can be a triggering factor for anxiety.
ü Skipping Meals/ Inadequate Dietary Intake:
Good nutrition is really important for the optimal functioning of both mind and body. Taking an inadequate or inappropriate diet interferes with our daily life activities. Skipping meals can also trigger anxiety as it causes a lack of energy and low blood glucose levels leading to fight or flight response.
ü Certain Medications:
Medicines should always be used as prescribed by physicians. Using over-the-counter medicines can trigger anxiety in some cases. Some medicines that can be a triggering factor are:
- Antidepressants
- Corticosteroids
- Anti-histamines
- Thyroid medicines
ü Self-doubt:
Low self-esteem and self-neglect are the major causes of anxiety. Ignoring your body cues and not taking care of your physical needs can aggravate stress. It makes you hopeless and irritable.
ü Health Complications:
Encountering any severe health problem that is difficult to treat can lead to anxiety. Sadness and worry increase symptoms. Certain health conditions like thyroid problems directly cause anxiety due to hormonal imbalances.
ü Sudden Change in Life:
Unexpected life changes can be disturbing for some people. Loss of a loved one, losing a job, or getting a new one, etc. can challenge your mental state. These events can cause anxiety or worsen the existing anxiety.
ü Disturbed Relationships:
Having compromised relationships affects your mental health. If you are not able to manage certain arguments and conflicts, they can aggravate stress which can trigger anxiety.
Improve your Coping with Anxiety?
When you recognize your anxiety triggers, the next step is to focus on their management. Make plans to decrease the times you experience anxiety symptoms and avoid those triggers which aggravate them. Some ways to control anxiety are given below:
o Improve Your Physical Health:
Maintaining your physical health decreases the risk of developing stress. Avoiding excess intake of alcohol or caffeine, taking nutritious food, and staying physically active improve overall health.
o Regulate Emotional Skills:
Learn to deal with stressful situations. Work on different tools of stress regulation like mindfulness, deep breathing, certain exercises, etc. It will help you to stay calm during a stressful situation.
o Meditation/Yoga:
Meditation is very good for your mental health. It enables you to focus on the present moment and helps you get rid of stressful thoughts and sad events of the past. Yoga has a very soothing and calming effect on the body as well.
o Stay Optimistic:
There is always a way out of a difficult situation. Try to look at the positive side of life. Staying hopeful and positive will help you decrease stress levels.
o Realize your Self-Worth:
Realize your self-worth. Give respect and love yourself. Work on positive self-talk. You are important and your mental health is very crucial to maintain your overall health.
o Ask for Help:
Never feel shy to ask for help when you can’t control your situation. Go to people you feel comfortable with and share your thoughts. It will help you release your thoughts and decrease the risk of anxiety.
o Seek Professional Help:
Sometimes you unintentionally adopt habits to manage the anxiety that actually has damaging effects on your health. A therapist will help you recognize them and teach you to manage them. Anxiety can be life-threatening if not treated on time. Go to a professional physiologist who will help you to identify the root cause of anxiety, preventing its reoccurrence in the future. You can make an appointment with any of our counselors for in person, or telemedicine appointments at: http://www.orlandparkcounselors.com/appointment