3 Causes of Anxiety Triggers That You Might Not Have Realized

Does it seem like every little thing is making you anxious? Things that can trigger anxiety vary from person to person and could be virtually anything. However, before you think about seeking out a psychiatrist and pumping yourself full of pills, you’d probably want to first consider if there’s anything in your life that is causing these triggers to surface. Instead of addressing each trigger individually, it’d be much more efficient to identify the source of them and work on it from there. Following are three seemingly harmless things that could be turning every day life into a minefield of triggers.

The most easily identifiable factor that could be affecting your anxiety levels is your mindset. Your mindset can profoundly affect the way you perceive things, consequently changing the way you react to them. For instance, a pessimistic person would be much more likely to interpret things as being negative, increasing the chance of their anxiety being triggered. You’d be surprised at how great of an effect a slight change in your thinking could have. Individual philosophies work the same way, so it’s no surprise that a person whom subscribes to a bleak philosophy may find themselves generally more anxious or depressed.

Similar in this regard is one’s religion. Now I’m not saying to denounce your religion if you think it might be causing you a little anxiety, but to at least re-evaluate your beliefs and ask yourself if you truly feel that certain things will happen (for example, anxiety about being punished for sinning). Working on finding a balance between being spiritual and religious can help you come to terms with issues of guilt, in turn reducing the likelihood of certain thoughts or actions triggering anxiety.

Lastly, the people surrounding you can have a detrimental influence on you as well. Try analyzing the people who influence you the heaviest such as your parents or your teachers if you’re in school. Re-evaluate the ideologies that they have been imparting on you, and make sure that they are not conflicting with your own ideologies or are just plain unhealthy.

Also make sure that you don’t suffer from Obsessive Compulsive Disorder or depression, since those two could be responsible for increasing your anxiety. If you don’t have either of those conditions, and none of the aforementioned sources of triggers seem to have any bearing on your anxiety, then chances are that you suffer from Generalized Anxiety Disorder. Generalized Anxiety Disorder, or GAD, is a blanket term for anxiety that can be triggered by various things, and switches focus regularly. For information regarding the distinctions between GAD, OCD and depression, visit anxiety.org.