What Causes Anxiety? Insight & Understanding
Not everyone has the same first triggers for overcome anxiety. However, anxiety is a pervasive and distressing emotion that is difficult to shake once it sets in. In addition, because of the physiological and neural changes triggered by anxiety, it takes the body more time to reestablish its normal state of equilibrium after experiencing anxiety and its associated symptoms.
Anxiety disorders, which are distinct from everyday nervousness and affect around 35% of the adult population worldwide, are the most prevalent mental health problem in the Western world. These disorders often originate from being too concerned or stressed, feeling afraid or guilty, or expecting too much.
Knowing what’s causing your anxiety is the first step toward overcoming it. If you’ve ended up here, then you’re exploring the possibility that you’re being held back by your anxiety. So my first question is, why exactly did you end up among the 35% of the population suffering from anxiety? Let’s explore this further.
What To Expect in This 7-Part Series: A Journey to Understanding and Overcoming Anxiety
What follows is a set of detailed, easy-to-follow suggestions for identifying and addressing the root causes of anxiety with hypnotherapy. In this series, I will guide you through understanding the origins of your anxiety, reframing your responses to symptoms, and overcoming your limiting belief patterns.
Common Triggers for Anxiety
It’s possible that the root of your anxiety isn’t anything physical at all. Among the many potential causes of anxiety are:
- Relationship, professional, academic, and environmental sources of stress.
- Negative or traumatic experiences, whether psychological, physiological or otherwise.
- Financial worry.
- Preparation for an upcoming performance or event-related stress.
- Side effects from certain medications.
- The use of addictive substances like drugs and alcohol.
- A chronic medical condition.
However, it’s important to note that each of us is on a unique life journey with unique physiological make-ups. Therefore, anxiety may be experienced through different circumstances and in different ways for each of us. Genetic factors, your upbringing, your outlook on life, your experiences, and the connections you make and the connections you keep attracting all play a role in the development of anxiety.
Understanding How Anxiety Manifests Itself
Anxiety and its intensity are created by your life events and may be reinforced, further embedding anxiety in your subconscious and providing you with a steady source of triggers. Anxiety may take a wide variety of forms, including:
- Obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD)
- Panic Attacks
- Fear
- Guilt & Shame
- Abuse, Rage & Aggressive Outbursts
- Phobias
- Avoidance
- Procrastination
- Withdrawal
- Self-harm
- Overeating / Lack of Appetite
- Insomnia
Just as all people’s life experiences are different, every person’s anxiety is also different.
Understanding Why Anxiety Occurs
Anxiety disorders have two primary causes, both of which may be easily understood:
A person’s neurotransmitters may undergo environmental and biological modification. These imbalances influence the experiences that eventually lead to anxiety disorders. Anxiety can also originate within, manifesting itself in how you physically feel and the things you’ve observed and experienced.
Neurochemical Deregulation: Imaging studies of the brain have shown that those who suffer from anxiety exhibit distinct patterns of brain activity and chemical differences. In addition, some people with anxiety disorders have been shown to have vascular and metabolic abnormalities, as well as structural brain abnormalities. Anxiety disorders are generally brought on by underlying chemical imbalances in the brain. The neurotransmitters (brain chemicals) serotonin, norepinephrine, and gamma-aminobutyric acid are often deficient in people with anxiety disorders.
Environmental Conditioning: Anxiety disorders in children raise questions about whether they are transmitted through family relationships and dynamics or if they occur genetically. From my perspective, all children are born with an open potential. Often, if one or both of their parents suffer from their own emotional or psychological disorders, this will impact the child’s future. Children learn behaviours from the people and places they spend the most time in, so it’s no surprise that they pick up behaviours from their families. As a result, any abnormalities shown by a child’s parent or legal guardian are almost certain to be mirrored and amplified by the child themselves.
Medical Conditions Contributing to Anxiety
Anxiety may be exacerbated by some medical conditions. Especially those that impact the brain and cause some degree of disturbance in the brain’s chemistry, which can be seen as a mental-emotional disease. In some instances, the severity of living with a medical condition can trigger feelings of anxiety. In other cases, a condition can make a patient more susceptible to developing anxiety.
Common anxiety contributors include:
- Allergies
- Hypoglycaemia
- Sleep Apnoea
- Asperger’s
- Asthma
- Cancer
- Celiac Disease
- COPD – Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease
- Flu
- High Blood Pressure
- Hormone Imbalances / Disease
- Hypertension
- Hypothyroidism
- Lupus
- Menopause
- Mental Retardation
- Mitral Valve Prolapse
- Multiple Sclerosis
- PMS
- Prostate Problems
- Seizures
- TMJ
How Can Hypnotherapy Help?
Symptoms of anxiety might include alterations in brain structure and function, as well as disruptions in blood flow and metabolism. Hypnotherapy has been shown to be a very successful treatment for anxiety, unlike pharmaceuticals, where the effects are only short-lived and centred around symptomatic treatment. Hypnotherapy can help people overcome the debilitating symptoms of anxiety by getting to the root of the problem. In addition, hypnotherapy has the ability to restore equilibrium to the unbalanced and rewire the brain with improved systems and solutions for coping with life’s challenges.
Although chemical interventions mitigate anxiety, hypnotherapy addresses its root causes. With the speciality modules I have put together through years of research and implementation, anxiety can be something of the past. My innovative techniques will help you change your perspective so that your whole being ‒ your body, mind, and spirit ‒ can grow and improve on its own, bringing you inner calm and a feeling of self-healing.
Take The First Step Towards Overcome Anxiety
My name is Dr John Souglides, and I am a qualified and registered hypnotherapist and life coach. In this series, we will explore the common human condition of overcome anxiety in depth. Now that you understand more about the root causes of anxiety and how hypnotherapy can address them, keep an eye out on my blog to discover more as we delve into greater detail. Looking to take the first step towards overcoming your anxiety? This is a great place to start! Reach out, and let’s embark on this journey together.
