What triggers your anxiety?

[lovemydogs]

I have been doing pretty well with my health anxiety through the help of a great therapist. I am trying to see what triggers my anxiety. What do you find starts your worry and what do you find ends it? Sometimes mine goes from one health fear to another.

[unsure_about_this]

Media , adverts, google, knowledge etc

[ErinKC]

I have a few triggers. Often just being depleted will do it - not enough sleep, over extending myself. Other times a real illness is the trigger. For example, my family just had Covid for the first time and it was a major trigger. Two weeks later and I’m still in a hyper vigilant state noticing every sensation and jumping from worry to worry. Still other times exposure to other peoples anxiety will do it. My mom has bad health anxiety and if she’s talking to me about a worry it can often spark my own worries.

My therapist wants me to imagine ways of disposing of my intrusive thoughts this week and then practice thinking through the whole thing - like writing them down, rolling them up, putting them in a balloon and letting them float away. I’ve been trying but it’s still really hard to shake them!