Anxiety and its loop
Anxiety: How that nuisance beast gets triggered!
Anxiety can be triggered in many ways. The main cause is via some form of trauma. Trauma is specific to the individual, so what may seem not so bad to one person may not feel the same for another. The experience of trauma then creates a form of protection device preventing further distress. This new protection device turns your radar up to 11 and starts looking for any potential threat to you.
Anxiety is future-based. This means that your brain is trying to anticipate what may happen to you. It will probably play out scenarios iin your imagination. Your thoughts become centred around the 'What ifs' and in doing so you feel unsafe. Anticipatory anxiety uses a lot of energy while your brain's Limbic system is triggered. This often requires extra fuel to keep it operating, eg. increased intake of sugary foods and stimulants.
Because the Limbic system has been triggered, your body is now under distress due to the release of chemicals such as Cortisol and Adrenaline. These should only be released short-term to aid escape from a situation (Fight or flight) and then be switched off. When you have anxiety, you will have these chemicals being constantly being drip-fed into your system and so that causes you to feel 'on-edge' and unable to relax.
Your sleep will be affected and you may encounter insomnia, poor quality sleep (no deep sleep), regular waking up and racing thoughts as soon as you wake up. It is then very common for someone to find a way to drown out the myriad of useless thoughts by using sleeping tablets, alcohol or prescription/non-prescription drugs. These can damage the body as well as impact on your daily function.
Anxiety sufferers will often look for some kind of distraction for their thoughts too. Trying to have everything constantly in order or trying to be in control can lead to obsessive thoughts and even OCD.
Some people endure anxiety on a daily basis. Over time, anxiety can be triggered more and more by smaller and smaller things. The limbic system tries to justify its existence by creating distressed thoughts. It's a vicious circle.
Your brain thinks that it is helping you and protecting you. Bear in mind that this is not a disorder, it is actually your brain trying to take care of you. It feels it has your best interests at heart. It just doesn't realise that it is being way too protective to the point of smothering you. Look at my infographic to understand more.
What can be done? That's where I come in.
The original trauma (root cause) needs to be removed/released. This in turn will switch off the limbic system when it realises the potential threats are no longer there. Watch my Trauma Tree video on my website or YouTube channel and it should all make sense.
Can all this be remedied quickly? You bet! The system I use is rapid and effective. It doesn't have to be many many sessions of talking about it. We need to switch your limbic system off and turn that radar down to normal settings again. That can happen in an instant and I see it happen on a regular basis. Would you like your trauma and anxiety switched off? Let's have a chat.
Learn more about anxiety, trauma and how to stop it rapidly by viewing my Resources page on my website. Book a free 20 mins Discovery call too and let's look at the best solution for your situation.
