For those who experience elevated levels of stress or anxiety more frequently, life may feel less harmonious. During a period of panic it may be difficult to envisage a time when those thoughts and symptoms won’t be present. This is how people can start to consider anxiety as their identity; as part of them and their personality, rather than a pattern of behaviour that can be changed. It is important to remember that whilst we may be unable to change a particular event, we can learn to control our reaction to it.
Know your triggers
What can be a good first step is to take a few moments to analyse yourself honestly. Do you tend to feel more anxious at a particular time of day for instance? For some people anxiety strikes on waking and for them, imagining the day ahead can seem overwhelming. For others lying in bed trying to fall asleep at night can feel impossible, as the events of the day play through the mind making it hard to switch off mentally. Is there a particular person or people who make you anxious when you're around them? Do any specific scenarios set off a catastrophic chain of thought, such as dealing with a work colleague, starting a new job, going somewhere unfamiliar? For some, watching the news can set off alarm, especially after tragic events overseas or at home.
Try to gather as much information about your patterns by asking yourself these types of questions and noting your responses. This will help you to get a clear picture of what makes you anxious. You may find it helpful to make a record of these triggers by noting down in a mood diary whenever you start to feel anxious and what you are doing at the time. Doing this enables you to become more aware of what sets off an anxious cycle and may help you to modify your behaviour in order to minimise them. By using this method, what can also be revealed, is that there are times where anxiety isn’t present and this can be a helpful for keeping things in perspective.
