Fear : dealing/overcoming anxiety and negative thoughts.

Fear : dealing/overcoming anxiety and negative thoughts.

Triggers; What Triggers You?

Piggybacking off of my last blog I want to talk about things that trigger your fears and anxiety or panics.

Do you know what your triggers are? 

Now, before we get into triggers I just want to say that knowing your triggers will not necessarily stop the worrying, anxiety or panics right away but it will help you to understand certain situations, while making you aware of your feelings, and helping you with situations you should avoid. 

Many people have no idea what triggers their fears, or anxiety attacks or panic attacks. 

Do you know what causes or contributes to yours? 

Many times your attacks or fears are tied to a situation or experience you can not see or understand right away. 

Traumatic situations or experiences are commonly linked to fears and attacks and these attacks and fears can stick around long after the traumatic situation plays out. 

I'm sure you've had a panic or anxiety attack “out of nowhere.” but to be honest it did not come out of thin air. 

Your thoughts, surroundings, or experiences/situations may have triggered these attacks. 

When you think about the situations, how it made you feel in that moment, how you feel everytime you think about it, how something else makes you feel or experience similar feelings, being around someone experiencing the same feelings as you, being around someone whose in a similar situation as your traumatic one, being on the same street as it happened, being in the same space, or even an identical space, and most important never addressing or dealing with the feelings you feel when you come face to face with the situation whether its an exact mirror of the trauma, or a similar situation, these are all triggers to fear, anxiety, and panic. 

Not dealing with the feelings you experience when you do something as simple as think about the situation can haunt you for a very long time. Thinking about the situation and just quickly pushing it to the back of your head because those feelings are a trigger for you does not stop the thoughts or attacks. 

Knowing your triggers is not a promise that you can prevent attacks because some triggers happens when you are in you daily routine and can not avoid going some places or talking to some people but they can help you to avoid the things that are avoidable, deal with the attacks in a more calm and knowledgeable way, and find ways to deal with the situation that's haunting you. In this case time heals all and from experience I know that what triggers your anxiety and or panic attacks will not be a trigger forever. 

This tip may be weird but I want to share it with you anyway. A few months ago in July I went through a traumatic event involving my daughter. At the time I didn't know right away that this was a relief to me. I began going on youtube. I was drawn to psoriasis hair scratching videos. I would spend 2-3 hours at a time, 2-3 times a day watching these videos. I began to notice that when I would be lost in these videos I would not have one panic or anxiety attack. I also noticed that when I was facing an attack those videos would calm me. I began watching these videos as much as I could and now 2.5 months later I don't have as many triggers and I can now spend 2-3 hours a week watching the videos. 

So even if you don’t know what triggers you yet, find out what calms and or soothes you and dive into it head first. It could be reading, writing, youtube, scrolling instagram, making videos, singing or dancing. 

You could help yourself overcome many things by doing the things you always spend time doing, you just have to make that connection.