Imagine you’re in the middle of a shopping trip when you notice your heart start to race and your palms start to sweat. You feel a tightness in your neck and shoulders that creeps up on you. Nothing major happened, you just start to feel overwhelmed.
Now imagine an intense chest pain that suddenly comes out of nowhere while at work. When you inhale, you feel like a sharp object is stabbing you. No specific warning, and no clear cut ending to the sudden pain.
Maybe you’re at the gym doing a workout when you hear this swarm of negative thoughts go through your head. Your mind ends up in a loop that is hard to get away from.
This is what living with anxiety can feel like.
Understanding what causes anxiety and what triggers yours can be important in knowing how to manage it. Here are four common causes.
1. Social Stressors
Social anxiety is very common and has only increased since the Covid lockdowns. Social constructs and behaviors have changed over the past few years, plus many people were isolated causing a reduction in social skills. Returning to life as normal, interacting with people in a new dynamic, or working under a new hybrid model can be stressful and cause a new spin on social anxiety.
Anxiety can also occur from having to speak publicly due to fear of how you will be perceived. Worrying about how you will come across to your peers (or strangers) can exacerbate symptoms and become a disabling experience. It could even result from feeling overwhelmed in a crowded, busy area. Social stressors are large drivers of anxiety among many people.
2. Work (or School) Environment
Unless you have a money tree in your backyard, you probably don’t have an option not to work. Life is expensive and you need money to live. Most people aren’t going to have a perfect work environment every hour of every day of the week. Hopefully, the good times should outweigh the bad times.
A stressful work culture or job itself can be a trigger for anxiety. Some stress is normal, but over a longer period of time, it can build up and become a burden to carry. Going in to work with a sense of dread or unease can bring on anxiety very easily.
3. Caffeine
Caffeine is a staple for a lot of people, especially that morning cup of coffee or tea. Energy drinks, chocolate, sodas, supplements (like a pre-workout), and some medications are also sources of caffeine.
All of these serve their purposes and caffeine in small doses can be helpful, but if your intake is too high, it could actually be working against you. Too much caffeine can, in fact, induce anxiety. So while you swear by your morning coffee to get you going in the morning, it may be what’s triggering your anxiety later in the day.
4. Too Little Sleep
Schedules get busy and today’s society still praises the “grind” more than is healthy. Doing it all and overloading your schedule can leave little time for the appropriate amount of rest and relaxation. Not getting enough sleep is linked to many different physical and mental issues, anxiety being one of them.
One night of missed sleep isn’t going to impact you too hard, other than causing some grogginess the next day. But over time, not getting proper sleep can fuel your anxiety and make it hard to manage life stressors effectively.
Causes of anxiety can stem from a number of different areas and are not always universal. What causes your anxiety could look a little different than what affects the person next to you. If you’re struggling with anxiety, it is worth taking a deeper dive to identify what your triggers are. Contact me today to learn more about anxiety therapy.