Find Your Triggers for Anxiety
Find Your Triggers for Anxiety
If you can find your triggers for anxiety, you can find ways to manage it! Let’s see if we can help you…
Anxiety is About the Future
Anxiety is based in the future. We may feel anxious RIGHT NOW but the true fear is based in the future! It’s about what could happen.
When you think about your anxious thoughts, most of them probably start with, “What if…”. During the early days of the pandemic, some of these may have looked like:
What if I get laid off from work?
What if I can’t pay my bills?
What if my kids don’t return to school until September?
For many people, the thought is the tip-of-the-iceberg, and doesn’t get into what is truly making us anxious. So let’s get below the surface.
Find Your Triggers for Anxiety
Here’s a technique to uncover our fears and fantasies that trigger our anxiety:
1. Write down your anxious thoughts and choose one to focus on.
Suppose Your Worst Fear is True…
2. With the thought you decided to focus on, ask yourself:
“What if this was true?”
“What is the worst thing that could happen?”
“What am I the most afraid of?”
A new fantasy or thought will pop into your head.
3. Write down the new fantasy or thought below, or beside, the previous one.
4. At each level, draw an arrow after each thought. For example:
What if I get laid off –> Then I would not be getting paid –> I could not pay my bills –> my utilities may be shut off or I could get evicted –> etc.
5. Stop when you have struck a chord- you will know when you’ve hit it. This is the core fear!
This technique is used to expose the fear, but being aware is often not enough, ultimately we have to face it. We can help you with that, too!
Your Free Handout
Click this link to view in a new window & download: What If.
[You can find more free handouts on our Free CBT Resources page!]
What If*You can find lots of helpful mental health Vlogs on our website and our YouTube channel!*