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Specific stressful events.
Specific stressful events. If you feel you have not been particularly ‘stressed out’ over the past year or so, it may be that anxiety started after a specific incident, known as a ‘trigger’.
This is also a very common reason for developing anxiety.
We have found that people are more likely to suffer anxiety disorders after experiencing any of the following: bereavement, divorce, moving house, surgery, illness and violence.
There are other triggers of course but these are typical and frequent ones. If you have developed a more ‘specific’ phobia, such as claustrophobia, you may have been stuck in a lift or on the underground and it is therefore probable that this triggered your current anxiety.
Think back again to events that have occurred over the past few months now.
Have you experienced anything which caused you considerable anguish at the time?
Having said this, some people who experienced a particularly traumatic incident during their childhood
find that their ‘experience’ stays with them into adulthood, although they may have consciously
forgotten it.
For example, a child who was frightened during a thunderstorm may grow into an adult with
an irrational fear of storms.
Anxiety which is caused by specific triggers usually starts very soon after the trigger and so is more easily traced to its source. For example, a bad flight may lead immediately to anxiety about further air travel, and a traumatic experience at the dentist may lead to dental phobia.
