Triggers

[damianjmcgrath]

I know what my triggers are for getting anxious in the first place, as in, I know what symptoms I notice first. However, the whole anxiety thing came out of nowhere for me, and I can't put my finger on what caused it. I have had a few life events that sound big but I haven't been consciously anxious about them. Could they have been building up in my subconscious?

I first started noticing symptoms properly around 18 months ago.

Over the last 4 years ago, I've had a relative die suddenly from bowel cancer, I had my first baby 18 months ago, I got married 4 months ago, I started my own company 3 years ago and have to find new clients every 6 months to keep money coming in, my wife had pancreatitis and gallbladder removed in surgery 12 months ago, and I'm currently planning to buy my first house this year.

I've never been anxious or nervous about those things. My wedding day was the one day I felt absolutely fine. My baby stresses me out but no more than usual. Work is always fine.

Is it possible for anxiety to be caused by things I'm not aware of? I always think if I can identify the trigger, I can stop the anxiety.

[MyNameIsTerry]

It was a build up for me but I have GAD which later added OCD, so not HA.

I was under a load of stress at work (which I always thrived on) and I started letting my social life die off as well as my fitness. I noticed a few minor things in the 6 months before the switch in my head clicked such as having difficulty sleeping on my holidays for a week or so and throwing up after a night out despite having the same level of normal consumption. Then one day I rushed into work, as usual, sat at my desk and found I couldn't quite tell what people were saying yet everything seemed louder. Then I felt nausea, legged it to the toilets and it eased off. Went back to my desk and it happened again so I went to the toilets again. After a couple of times I found I would get worse the closer I got to the doors to the main office and eventually found myself outside the building struggling to get back through those doors.

It spiralled from there and about 4 months later I had a breakdown and ended up on Citolopram which made me much worse. The rest is history!

So, yes I think it can often be an accumulation and then it goes bang. From there on the things we do reinforce it to make it worse e.g. avoidance, safety behaviours, symptom focus, analysing, etc.

As a GAD sufferer, there can often just be no triggers - its just there. This is why its not always about resolving triggers, it can just be about healthy behaviours and learning to bring down overall stress levels.

We should look for our triggers though but not obsess over it all or you end up looking for things to minute levels of detail and get bogged down when you could be working on recovery instead. I've fallen into this trap before.

Aside from triggers and overall anxiety levels, you have to look deeper anyway. Its all learnt behaviour (not considering any alllergy, chemical or physical disorders) so it brings into play neuroplasticity. On top of this we also start to alter or create new core beliefs and use negative thinking styles (Cognitive Distortions) so unless we work to address these, we don't really escape and recover.

I have read some interesting articles & studies on methylation that also show how we can create a negative state in the body that leads to disorders such as anxiety. This fits pretty well for me but the good news is that methylation works both ways and genes are only blueprints that science in the form of epigenetics has found we can change.

So, coming back to you. Can you see anything leading up to this in terms of how you did things, how you thought, levels of stress, did you feel trapped by things, etc? These could accumulate and cause changes in things like your thinking styles and core beliefs and put you on the road to a disorder. Its not just about symptoms and we have to look at things like self confidence, self worth, self esteem, fulfillment, etc.

I am sorry to hear about your baby, that must have been terribly traumatic.