Understanding Anxiety: From Triggers to Treatments
April 24, 2023
4 min read
What happens when the body’s reaction to stress goes haywire?
Written by Mathieu Taddeo
Anxiety is the body’s natural reaction to different kinds of stress. It can be as mild as a nagging concern or it could manifest as a feeling of impending doom. When the anxiety interferes with everyday life — affecting your decisions, relationships, and grades — it is time to get help.
More than one in ten Canadians is currently living with an anxiety disorder. Normally, you get anxious before an important presentation or during a final exam. Before a big job interview I often feel nervous, my heart races, and I worry about making a good first impression. Before writing a final exam, I sometimes worry I will run out of time or encounter questions that I didn’t study for. But these feelings of anxiety go away after the stressful event passes.
But for one in three high school and university students, the feelings of anxiety aren't proportional to the stress. When a presentation passes, someone with an anxiety disorder might still feel anxious. For social anxiety, symptoms like chest pain persist even outside stressful situations. Though anxiety symptoms can throw you off track, they are manageable.
What triggers anxiety?
For many people, anxiety is brought on by stressful situations. Both internal and external factors play a role in triggering a person’s anxiety.
A commercial or song could remind you of a traumatic situation. Even email notifications can cause anxiety. It can make you worry about whether bad news is on the way from your boss or professor.
Here’s the rundown on some of the most common types of anxiety triggers:
Money problems. Not knowing whether you can pay rent, especially when you’re living alone is extremely stressful.
Personal life. After toxic friendships the thought of getting close to someone again is hard. Traumatic experiences earlier in life lower self-esteem, and make routine social interactions difficult.
Expectations at work or school. Meeting expectations, whether they are your own or your parents’, can be a major trigger. The stress and anxiety can actually impair your thinking, leading to a vicious cycle.
Managing anxiety triggers and symptoms
Anxiety can make people hesitant around any potentially stressful situations. Even though anxiety may have evolved to help with self-preservation, the symptoms can be debilitating.
They could cause you to miss out on trying out new hobbies or social experiences. Or they could lower self-esteem and affect how well you do in school or university. Stepping out of your comfort zone takes time, courage, and sometimes professional help. Working with mental health professionals can help you address your symptoms and triggers.
After a few therapy sessions, you build up a toolkit of strategies and coping techniques. Like anything else in life, managing anxiety takes practice and what works for one person may not work for you.
Here are some other tips and strategies that mental health professionals may recommend:
Exercise. Any form of physical exercise, no matter how small, can be helpful. For some people, going for a 15 to 30 minute walk in the park can lower anxiety. For others, getting back into a consistent exercise habit can help keep the anxiety at bay.
Social activities. Going to meet up with friends for lunch or doing a family activity outside the house can help distract you from anxious thoughts. It can also get you out of your comfort zone. Start with small gatherings if you’re socially anxious, and build up your exposure from there.
Making time for yourself. Sometimes, the trick to reducing anxiety in your life is saying no. It is easy to overload ourselves with hobbies, extracurriculars, and work. But it is hard to step away and focus on yourself. It might mean playing video games every Friday evening or visiting a favourite cafe more often.
Thinking through what you can and can’t control. A great strategy that therapists can teach you is to list all the things that you are worried about. Then you can take a look and see which of these are factors beyond your control. Recognizing what you can and can’t change can help provide a fresh perspective on the anxious thoughts.
Journaling. Journaling is a great way to keep track of your feelings over time, offering a way to express them on paper.
Putting anxious thoughts into perspective. Sometimes it can be helpful to think through the worries and anxieties. Anxious about emails? What’s the worst email you could receive right now and what happens if you do get it? Often, this helps people realize that the worst case scenarios might not be realistic or even all that bad.
Medications. Sometimes the brain needs a little extra help. A psychiatrist may prescribe some anti-anxiety or antidepressant drugs if other strategies aren’t working.
Takeaway
Think you’re the only person wondering anxiously whether your cat really loves you? Or whether your friends are all secretly talking behind your back? You’re not alone. You don't have to suffer in silence or shame. With the right support, you can learn to reduce your triggers and manage anxiety in a healthy way.
**Please note, this is article is not therapy or a replacement for it. Engaging with it does not constitute a therapeutic relationship of any kind with the writer. Please seek professional help if needed.**
