Triggers: Why Knowing Them is Half the Battle

You might have had the experience of feeling anxious and having no idea why. Triggers are signals that tell our brain that something is wrong and set off symptoms of anxiety or distress. While we can sometimes have obvious triggers, like spiders, triggers are often subtle and can occur without us being aware of them. 

You can think of a trigger like a fire alarm for the brain. In some situations, a particular trigger may be related to actual danger. At other times, triggers can set-off the brain’s danger response even if there is no real danger (a false alarm). Regardless of the level of threat, triggers can activate our fight or flight response—urging us to evacuate the building even when there is no fire.

Common triggers for anxiety can include feeling tired or unwell, being affected by alcohol or caffeine, negative thoughts, being watched or judged by others, relationship conflict, or financial stress. These are just a few examples—triggers are very specific to an individual and can be any number of things, including particular situations, objects, thoughts, bodily sensations, types of interactions with others, sights, sounds, smells… the list goes on. Triggers affect us consistently and repeatedly and often reflect deeper personal struggles.

Psychotherapists will often suggest that people experiencing anxiety keep a record log of their feelings, thoughts, and behaviours that occur in different situations to help identify possible triggers of anxious symptoms. The Mind Ease app contains a Know Your Triggers activity which can help you consider possible triggers in your life.

Knowledge is power, but only if that knowledge leads to effective action—knowing your triggers can create opportunities for you to work on your coping skills.

I’ve identified a trigger… now what?

So, now you’ve found something that sets off your anxiety, you can stay away from it, right? Well maybe, but there is a good chance that this could make things worse.

As we discussed, triggers are often the case of mistaken identity—our brains think that something is a threat when it actually isn’t. When we try to avoid certain triggers, this sends a message to our brain that, if it’s something we have to avoid, then it must actually be dangerous.

Over time, this can cause us to become even more sensitive to that trigger. This is because the more we repeat something, like repeatedly avoiding a trigger, the more ingrained it becomes in our brains. It’s also because we don’t get an opportunity to discover that the trigger is not actually a sign of danger.

Avoiding triggers can prevent us from being able to learn more helpful ways of coping in challenging situations. If our go-to coping strategy is to stay away from anything that makes us feel bad, then we will struggle even more in situations that we cannot avoid.

After all, many triggers might be difficult or even impossible to avoid without rearranging your life. For example, having to speak in a work meeting may trigger feelings of anxiety, but it might be hard to avoid this if you want to perform well in your job. Or it could be that a certain tone of voice is a trigger for you, but we can’t control how other people speak—even if we wish we could sometimes! 

Of course, there are some exceptions to this. Certain triggers might be quite easy to avoid, and doing so would not negatively impact your life. In these instances, it might be appropriate to stay away from that trigger—for example, not watching the TV show that always upsets you!

Another example could be to reduce your interactions with someone who doesn’t treat you well. It can be good to closely evaluate these kinds of situations to decide whether avoidance helps the situation or serves to feed your symptoms of anxiety.

For example, if you stop talking to someone, is this a way of avoiding the discomfort of standing up for yourself? Will it cause you to further avoid others who upset you in the future? Or, have you already tried communicating assertively and the person is still being unkind (in which case, cutting them out of your life might really be the best option)? As you can see, learning how to best manage triggering situations is complex and can often involve some uncomfortable self-reflection.  

While many triggers are often unavoidable, it can sometimes be possible to reduce the chances of a trigger occurring. This is particularly true for triggers that involve bodily states, which you often have some degree of control over. For instance, for triggers like tiredness, hunger, or the effects of caffeine, you can put strategies in place to prevent these, like working on improving sleep quality, carrying snacks with you, or cutting back the amount of coffee you have.

However, even with these kinds of triggers, it’s likely that you’ll encounter them at some point—you can’t evade tiredness or hunger forever! A helpful approach that applies to basically all triggers is to develop your coping skills, so that you can manage your responses when you are faced with a trigger.

How do I cope with triggers?

When a trigger sets off your danger response, it’s good to keep in mind that this is completely normal and to notice what is happening in your body. If you can pause for a moment and refrain from acting on your impulses in these situations—like becoming defensive, shutting down, or trying to escape—you’ll likely find that your reaction to the trigger will pass pretty quickly.

A good first step for building up your ability to cope with triggers is to learn how to calm your body. There are various effective relaxation exercises for anxiety. Breathing techniques that involve increasing the amount that you exhale are some of the most effective ways to counteract the physical symptoms of anxiety. Another good technique is progressive muscle relaxation, which allows you to consciously loosen tension from your muscles. 

It can be helpful to practice these strategies regularly, even when you’re feeling calm, so that it becomes easier for you to use them when you encounter a trigger. Mind Ease includes a range of exercises involving different techniques that can be used every day. Check out the app to find out what works best for you.

Approaching triggers

Once you feel capable of calming your body, the next thing that might help is to slowly expose yourself to certain triggers on purpose. It’s usually best to take a very gradual approach and to rally support from a friend or therapist. For example, if being in a crowd is a trigger, you might start by being in a very small group of people and keeping to the edge of the group.You can then gradually work your way up to being in the middle of bigger crowds.

This approach is called exposure therapy, and it’s a common treatment for anxiety, but it can be challenging to do on your own. This is because one of the key elements is to remain in a situation even when you feel distressed. Exposure can be really powerful, but only if you are able to ride out the discomfort. Using your calming strategies can help you withstand the discomfort for longer, until the symptoms pass (and they will!)

The more you are able to do this successfully, the less and less you will react to the trigger. Of course, it is important to not put yourself in any actual danger—focus on triggers that don’t have any real threat, or that aren’t associated with any severe traumas.  

Finally, once you are aware of your triggers, you can start to view your experience with more self-compassion. Rather than thinking thoughts like “why am I so anxious, what is wrong with me?” or “I can’t handle this, I’m a mess” you can think something like “I’m feeling anxious today because I had a bad sleep last night” or “my heart is pounding because I feel triggered by my co-worker’s angry tone of voice”.

The way we think about a situation can greatly impact how we feel and react. By taking away self-judgement, we can evaluate situations more clearly. For example, if you can work out why your co-worker is using that tone, you can communicate with them in a way that helps to resolve the issue calmly.  

While knowing your triggers can be really helpful, be aware that this knowledge is usually one piece of an often complicated puzzle. Learning how to manage and cope with triggers can be a challenging task. If you are overwhelmed with the idea of this or find that you are encountering triggers a lot and not coping well, it can be a good idea to reach out for support from a mental health professional.