Anxiety Triggers

What triggers anxiety in your mind and how does it show up?

Pure and simple, anxiety (or its twin synonym, worry) is a form of fear. It is triggered when you are afraid that something bad will happen or that something good that you hope happens won’t. It is triggered by imaginary fears, which themselves can be prompted by scary movies. Anxiety never solves anything. It is like a rocking chair. It keeps you occupied and moving—but only in one place. You never really go anywhere. How does anxiety show up? In any number of ways with symptoms such as: Sleep disturbances, Restlessness or feeling on edge, Difficulty concentrating or your  mind going blank, Easily fatigued, Irritable, Nausea, Diarrhea, Sweating, Dizziness, Accelerated heartbeat or palpitations, Muscle tension, Headache, and more. The symptoms are not pleasant. Personally, I am uninterested in experiencing any of them, especially for imaginary fears. That has been a learning process for me since I was raised by a mother who basically lived within the encircling arms of anxiety. Perhaps the bigger issue is that a person can develop the habit of being anxious. Fear stimulates the release of adrenalin. As adrenalin rises, so does dopamine, the feel better chemical to counteract the fearful and anxious feelings. Anxiety can become a habit. It can even become an addiction to your own adrenalin and dopamine.