Intro
As much as I’d love to say that I have my anxiety under control, this isn’t always the case. I have days where I’m feeling great. I’m living out of my head in the present moment and enjoying life. Then out of nowhere, my anxious thoughts start creeping in. This usually happens if I’ve had a bad night’s sleep. I’ve found for myself that less sleep equals higher anxiety levels. When those anxious thoughts start creeping in, I do my best to combat those thoughts and feelings. Using different techniques like exercise and journaling. But these techniques get increasingly harder and have less effect when we have other distractions around us or in us. Identifying anxiety triggers can make it a lot easier to manage our anxiety.
Through my experience with anxiety, I’ve found different actions and substances that can trigger it. Or make me more anxious when my anxiety levels are heightened. Below I’ve written about 3 of my anxiety triggers. These are actions or substances I try to avoid, particularly when my anxiety levels are heightened. I hope that writing about my anxiety triggers will help you to understand what could be causing or making anxiety worse in your life. Everyone is different. The 3 anxiety triggers written about below may not be the same for you. But it should get you thinking about what’s happening in your life that could trigger or make your anxiety worse.
3 anxiety triggers
1. Caffeine
Even when I’m not feeling anxious, I try and avoid caffeine unless I really want it or need it. I’ve got a very active brain and drinking caffeine only increases my brain activity. If I haven’t got something to focus on my brain will overthink everything. I’ll find it hard to relax with all those thoughts rushing around my head. Basically, unless I’m completely knackered, I don’t drink caffeine. Also, I would never drink it in the afternoon.
We’ve already got a lot of thoughts rushing around our heads that we’re trying to control. We don’t need to add something else in there that is going to make it harder to do that. Caffeine is a stimulant, and stimulants increase our brain activity. It also raises our cortisol levels, which is a stress hormone. So yeah, for those two reasons alone I try to avoid caffeine, especially when feeling anxious.
Try this:
If you’re someone who struggles with anxiety and drinks a lot of coffee throughout the day, don’t stop drinking it immediately. It can give you horrible headaches! Initially, just try cutting back on it. You could swap your afternoon coffee for decaf or tea. Give this a go and see if it makes your anxious thoughts easier to manage.
2. Social media
When I’m feeling anxious, my brain activity increases. I struggle to keep my thoughts under control. I begin to overthink everything. Those thoughts quickly turn hostile and make me feel even worse. When I’m feeling like this, I avoid sitting there scrolling through social media. Personally, I’ve found social media also increases my brain activity and increases my anxiety levels. I start to compare my life to those that I see on social media and start feeling like I’m not good enough. Or worry that I haven’t got a good future ahead of me. But as we know, what people want you to see on social media, is rarely a true reflection of how their life is.
Another reason I avoid socials when I’m feeling anxious is because of the number of negative headlines. It will only take a few scrolls before there will be a headline predicting when World War 3 will start! I’m already fucking struggling to deal with my own thoughts, now I’ve got to worry about World War 3!
Try this:
Now I’m not saying you should stop using social media. It’s a part of life and many of us need it to be able to do our jobs. But you can limit the amount of time you use it each day and avoid it when you know you’re not feeling great. There are two tricks I use to do just that:
- To reduce social media use, set an app limit on your phone – most phones allow you to set time limits for app use a day and will lock the app off once you’ve hit the time limit.
- When you’re feeling anxious, switch your phone off and move it out of sight – You’ve heard of the phrase ‘out of sight, out of mind’, well it’s true! If you can’t see it, it won’t take long for your mind to be focused on something else. In fact, removing your phone can make it A LOT easier to focus on something else, like journaling….
For more tips on ways you can use your phone to benefit you, check out our blog post.
3. Talking badly about people
If I’m feeling anxious, the last thing I want to do is bitch about someone. This only puts more negative thoughts into my head. It also makes me worry about how the other person is feeling. When I speak badly of someone, I nearly always overthink that conversation later in my head and feel bad for doing it. I also worry the person I was with will be judging me for bitching.
From time to time, it can be healthy to get those irritating thoughts out of your head. Sometimes we need to have a moan to our best mate about the person who’s winding us up. But don’t make a habit of it and avoid it at all costs if you’re feeling anxious.
Try this:
If someone has wound you up, don’t bitch about them to someone else. Write down what they’ve done and how they made you feel. Then, sleep on it. Read back what you’ve written down and I’m sure you’ll feel better about the situation and more understanding.
Conclusion
Like I said at the start of the blog post these are 3 of my anxiety triggers. They may not be the same for you. I hope from reading this you can understand that there are loads of different anxiety triggers in our day-to-day lives, that can have a negative impact on our anxiety. I’m not saying these 3 things will have an impact on your anxiety. As humans, we’re all different and individual creatures. But the next time you start feeling anxious, try avoiding one of the triggers mentioned on this list. And see if it helps you. You can also start to think about what you’re doing in your life that could be triggering your anxiety. Start writing these things down and try to avoid them when you’re not feeling great.
To understand more about anxiety triggers, check out this blog post.