Sometimes, I Don’t Know Why I’m Anxious

One of the problems I have found when dealing with anxiety is not knowing why I'm anxious. Overall, throughout the years, I've been able to build my resilience to stress, and as a result, I can cope more effectively when I'm experiencing a stressful situation. But, part of the problem with having an anxiety disorder is that, even if you've felt fairly well for quite some time, you can still experience a resurgence of anxiety symptoms. Even during the happiest times in my life, I've had to be aware of anxiety triggers and how they may affect me when I least expect it, even when I don't know why I'm anxious.

What I Feel When I Don't Know Why I'm Anxious

When I experience anxiety unexpectedly, this will usually begin with feeling as though I am on edge. I may feel irritable and easily agitated. I might even direct that agitation at people around me for no particular reason.

I'll also feel an overall feeling that something terrible is going to happen. This is not usually due to anything specific, but I end up with a sense of foreboding that becomes difficult to shake off. Sometimes, this feeling will automatically lead to being in a poor mood, and I'll also find that I'm just waiting for that bad thing to happen. Because of this, it becomes hard to see things in a positive light, as I normally try extremely hard to do. All of this without me knowing why I'm anxious.

One of the most difficult things to deal with is the sense of panic that I may experience. This is beyond the typical racing heart rate and shortness of breath that I might feel. If I do panic, the physical symptoms may be so intense that I try to attribute it to some cause, any cause, and so I might find myself incorrectly identifying an unrelated trigger.

How I Deal with Not Knowing Why I'm Anxious

So, how do I deal with not knowing why I'm anxious?

First, I have to deal with panicking in the moment, which is calmed through deep breathing and grounding myself. Then, what I've found is that one of the most helpful strategies when I am experiencing an unexpected panic attack is to journal. Journaling helps me sort out my emotions and organize them in a way that makes sense to me. When I can see things logically, this tends to help relieve my anxiety.

Perhaps counterintuitively, I try not to focus on what has caused me to feel anxious without knowing why. This is because I know that sometimes, I may feel anxious even without a trigger, or perhaps the trigger has occurred without my conscious awareness.

In any case, I instead try to focus on calming my symptoms. I've noticed that building my self-awareness of the physical and psychological symptoms of anxiety that I usually experience and then learning how to reduce and calm these symptoms has naturally helped me to build my resilience.

In the video I've included, I talk about my experiences with dealing with the situation when I don't know why I'm anxious.

Are there strategies you use to cope in these situations? If so, share them in the comments below.