Anxiety Triggers: Common Causes and How to Cope
People use the word “trigger” a lot. Sometimes, it’s used properly. Other times, it’s not. What does it actually mean? In the context of anxiety, learning about triggers can be critical for people who live with it themselves. It can also help those wondering how to help someone with anxiety understand their loved one. Identifying your triggers means that you can prepare ways to cope with them in advance and reduce the impact they have on you and your life.
What Is an Anxiety Trigger?
An anxiety trigger is something that evokes or worsens anxiety symptoms. Triggers can be internal or external. In other words, they could be things that happen within your mind or body that other people cannot see, or they could be things that exist outside of you.
Internal anxiety triggers often include thoughts (e.g., negative self-talk), memories, emotions, or physical sensations. Examples of external anxiety triggers, on the other hand, include situations, environments, objects, or people.
Triggers do not cause anxiety disorders. They are things that activate symptoms in a person who already has a mental health condition, such as generalized anxiety disorder (GAD). Triggers differ from person to person. There can be multiple reasons for this. Trauma history, neurobiological differences, and learned associations are just a few possible factors that can play a role.
Common Anxiety Triggers
Although what triggers anxiety attacks and symptoms can vary, there are some common anxiety triggers that elicit symptoms for many people with anxiety disorders and related conditions.
Environmental and Social
Let’s start with environmental and social anxiety triggers:
- Conflict (e.g., arguments with loved ones, disagreements at work
- Social situations
- Crowded or unfamiliar environments
- Watching or reading the news
- Social media
- Major life transitions
Many of these things can heighten stress. For people with social anxiety, situations like meeting new people, eating or drinking in front of others, and public speaking can cause great distress, both beforehand and in the moment.
Physical and Dietary
While lifestyle doesn’t replace anxiety treatment, it often plays a role in management. This is something mental health providers can help with. It’s not always easy to make certain changes on your own. Some of the most common physical and dietary anxiety triggers we see include:
- Caffeine. Caffeine signals your adrenal glands to release stress hormones, like cortisol, which can contribute to physical and psychological anxiety symptoms. It also blocks adenosine, a natural chemical that promotes feelings of sleepiness and calmness.
- Poor sleep. Lack of sleep or poor sleep quality can affect your brain’s ability to regulate emotions while activating regions responsible for fear and stress. It also means that extra stress hormones are released.
- Skipping meals. Eating every 3-4 hours stabilizes blood sugar levels. Skipping meals can cause blood sugar crashes, which can heighten anxiety and cause other disruptive mental and physical symptoms.
- Alcohol rebound. Alcohol temporarily boosts calming brain chemicals, such as GABA, while suppressing excitatory ones like glutamate. When it wears off, you experience a rebound effect, which can make you feel jittery and anxious.
- Certain medications. Some medications can worsen anxiety. If your anxiety increases significantly after starting a new medication (or even a supplement), tell your doctor. They might be able to suggest changes if the increase in anxiety levels is or could be related at all.
Pay close attention to these things. Caffeine isn’t just in coffee and energy drinks; it can be in certain foods, pre-workout powders, and other sources you might not expect. Poor sleep, alcohol, and caffeine can create cycles for people with anxiety. Getting in touch with your body and mind matters.
Psychological and Cognitive
Much of anxiety is psychological and cognitive. For example:
- Rumination. Replaying worries, past mistakes, or negative thoughts “on loop” in your brain.
- Perfectionism. Trying to avoid all possible errors or setting rigid, high standards for yourself. Many people with anxiety are hard on themselves. One might not even identify perfectionism for what it is because they’re focused on not meeting, or being afraid of not meeting, the expectations they set for themselves.
- Catastrophizing. You may find yourself thinking of worst-case scenarios. This can certainly trigger anxiety. Called catastrophizing, this is a common cognitive distortion we talk about and challenge in cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT) for anxiety.
- Uncertainty. A lot of people with anxiety disorders find that symptoms are triggered by uncertainty. It can be hard not knowing what to expect.
- Trauma and grief. Unresolved grief and trauma are stressors that take a toll on the body and mind. They can certainly trigger an overactive fight-or-flight response. Remember that trauma isn’t always “Big T” trauma. Little t traumas (smaller, less overt traumas) can also add up and impact you.
Learning how to handle not being in control can be important for people with anxiety disorders. Part of this can be focusing on what you can control as opposed to what you can’t.
Seasonal and Cyclical Triggers
Keep track of your patterns. Are there certain times of the week, month, or year when your anxiety increases? Some common cycles we notice include:
- The “Sunday Scaries.” This is anticipatory anxiety about the week ahead. It’s an example of how anxiety can live in the future. You might worry about all there is to do and have trouble resting or recharging because of it. Sticking to a “wind-down routine,” making a short Monday preview list of only your most necessary tasks, and setting media limits can be helpful.
- Holiday anxiety. The holidays bring up stress and anxiety for a lot of people. This could be due to family dynamics, financial pressure, disrupted routines, amplified grief, or something else. Identify ways to ground yourself throughout the holiday season. For example, maintaining sleep and exercise routines, setting social limits, or having an exit plan for gatherings.
- Election anxiety. Elections can cause a great deal of stress. Outcome uncertainty and media overconsumption–feeling like you can’t look away–can make it worse. Setting boundaries regarding how and when you take in the news and civic action (e.g., campaigning, volunteering) are a couple of things that can aid in anxiety reduction.
How do you parse out whether it’s time to get help? Let’s take the Sunday Scaries as an example. If anticipatory anxiety about the week ahead ruins your whole weekend, that’s clinically significant. You deserve to relax. As a general rule, if something causes frequent distress or affects quality of life and functioning for two weeks or more, it’s something to seek support for.
How to Identify Your Personal Triggers
Knowing your specific anxiety triggers can be a vital step in managing or reducing sensitivity to them. Some people wonder how to identify anxiety triggers in the first place, especially if it feels like their anxiety is unpredictable or comes out of nowhere. Take these steps.
- Notice the physical signal first. Your body might feel anxiety symptoms, even if you don’t know what set them off. Pay attention to the body before the mind–are you sweating or shaking? Did your heart rate increase? Do you feel sick or like the room is spinning?
- Work backward from the signal to the situation or thought. When you notice these physical sensations, write down when it happened and what else was going on. Did you have racing thoughts? Were you getting ready to go out with friends? It could be anything: jot it down even if it seems inconspicuous, like a phone call or grocery store trip, having a large iced coffee, or drinking the night before.
- Track over 2 weeks. Don’t just write it down once. Keep a record over the course of two weeks. Write about the situation or thought, the physical sensation(s) you noticed if any, and rate the intensity (of how anxious you felt) on a scale of 1-10.
Why does this matter? It helps you notice patterns that in-the-moment awareness doesn’t catch. An anxiety triggers worksheet can make it easier for you. Try our free downloadable trigger journal template.
Coping Strategies for Anxiety Triggers
Coping strategies for anxiety can take different forms. There are things you can do to address anxiety in the moment, ways to prevent or reduce the severity of anxiety, and ways to modify thought patterns that can empower you in the long term.
In-the-moment
In acute moments of anxiety (times when you feel heightened), there are coping skills you can use then and there. To reduce anxiety and help yourself feel more balanced right now, try:
- 5-4-3-2-1 grounding. This is an activity you might’ve heard of before. It is popular for a reason. Name 5 things you can see, 4 you can touch or feel, 3 you can hear, 2 you can smell, and 1 you can taste.
- Box breathing. Breathe in for 4 seconds, hold your breath for 4 seconds, breathe out for 4 seconds, and pause for 4 seconds. Repeat 4-6 times.
- STOP technique. Taught in dialectical behavior therapy, the STOP technique involves: freezing (pause what you’re doing), taking a slow, deliberate breath, observing what’s going on in and outside of you (e.g., thoughts, emotions, sounds) without judgment, and proceeding mindfully–choosing your next action carefully with your values and goals in mind, rather than acting on autopilot.
- Physical stimuli. Use cold water, an ice cube, or physical movement (e.g., shaking your arms by your side, jumping, walking).
These should bring the nervous system to a more regulated state relatively quickly. They help you get back into your body and the present moment.
Preventive
Use preventive measures to set yourself up for success. These create a foundation of resilience and can decrease the stress on your mind and body.
- Sleep consistency. Prioritize rest. Use good sleep hygiene. Try to fall asleep and wake up at around the same time each night, do not use screens for about an hour before bed (the blue light makes your brain think that it’s time to be awake), sleep in a cool, dark room, and reserve your bed for sleep and sex only.
- Caffeine and alcohol reduction. Lower your caffeine use to a healthier, tolerable amount, or eliminate it if you are sensitive to it. If you drink, be extra mindful when it comes to your alcohol intake. Reduce it to occasional use, save it for when you do not have something that provokes your anxiety (e.g., work, school, performances) the next day, or cut it out entirely. Many people with anxiety disorders have co-occurring substance abuse: seek dual-diagnosis treatment if this is the case.
- Regular movement. Add regular physical activity to your routine (as long as it is not medically inappropriate). Pick an activity that you enjoy. Movement is a great way to boost feel-good hormones and lower stress hormones naturally. It also adds structure to your day and can be a form of “me-time” or ways to connect with others, depending on if you choose a solo or group activity.
- “Worry time” scheduling. Pick a specific time of day where you can worry. When anxiety spikes, pretend that you are putting your worry and fear in a “worry box” that you can only open during that designated timeframe instead of thinking about it right then.
It’s not that these things will stop all anxiety from happening. It’s more so that they help you stay at a more regulated baseline. In addition to in-the-moment and cognitive skills learned in therapy, you will have a pretty solid arsenal.
Cognitive
Since much of anxiety is cognitive, it makes sense that a lot of what helps is cognitive, too. Here are some of the techniques we often use to help people with anxiety in therapy.
- Thought restructuring. This is what we talked about a little bit earlier; it’s the CBT skill we use in mental health treatment to help you reframe your thoughts. To do this, identify negative thoughts or thought patterns you have (e.g., “I can’t go to the party – what if I make a fool of myself?” and reframe it in a more realistic, helpful light (e.g., “I can go, even if it’s only for a little bit. Other people might be nervous, too.”
- ACT defusion. Acceptance and commitment therapy (ACT) is another effective therapy frequently used in anxiety treatment. Cognitive defusion is a technique used in ACT where you practice seeing thoughts as passing mental events rather than facts. You do this by noticing them without judging them. For example, noticing “I am having the thought that…”
- Gradual exposure to avoided triggers. Make an anxiety triggers list. Rate them on a scale of 1-10, from the least to most distressing. Starting with the least distressing, your therapist will guide you through experiments where you engage in the feared task, situation, or activity safely.
Your therapist will teach you how to use anxiety relief techniques like thought restructuring on your own so that you can keep using them outside of therapy sessions.
When Triggers Are Running Your Life
Often, anxiety goes untreated for a long time. This can mean that cycles get worse gradually. Before you know it, anxiety triggers start to run your life. This can look like:
- Avoid shrinking your world. There are things you’d like or need to do that you can’t, such as social events, taking a job you want, participating in a hobby, or making calls.
- Needing more recovery time after triggers. Overcoming triggers and their effects takes longer than it used to.
- Escalated physical symptoms. You’re having more panic attacks, insomnia, GI issues, teeth grinding, flutters in your stomach, heart palpitations, etc.
- Triggers multiplying. There’s an increasing number of new things that cause distress, set off anxiety symptoms, or activities you cannot do.
More coping strategies aren’t the answer at this point. Clinical support is. There are different types of anxiety treatment. At Sanford Behavioral Health, you can find care that meets your needs. Contact us online or call 616.202.3326. All calls are free and confidential.
Frequently Asked Questions
What are the most common anxiety triggers?
Financial worries, daily life stress (e.g., stress about work), conflict, social situations, and health concerns are some of the most common anxiety triggers.
What is the #1 worst habit for anxiety?
Various habits can worsen anxiety. However, avoidance is generally regarded as the #1 worst habit for anxiety. It creates a feedback loop in your brain that reinforces fear. Exposure therapy can help people with anxiety disorders fight avoidance behaviors through a gradual, controlled, therapist-supported approach.
How do I identify my personal anxiety triggers?
Keeping a log of things that elicit or may have worsened your anxiety for a couple of weeks and rating their severity can help you identify your personal anxiety triggers. Use a downloadable anxiety trigger template to make it easier. This is an example of something an anxiety therapist may give you as a homework assignment.
Why do I get anxiety every Sunday?
You might have the “Sunday scaries”! It’s not a clinical term. It’s verbiage used to describe the anticipatory anxiety and dread that spikes on Sundays in relation to the upcoming work week.
