Trigger-Specific Anxiety vs. Generalized Anxiety: Understanding the Differences
While anxiety impacts millions of people, it isn’t a one-size-fits-all issue. Some people deal with generalized anxiety disorder (GAD), which often means they struggle with anxious thoughts and feelings around the clock without anything specific causing them trouble.
People with trigger-specific anxiety, on the other hand, might not struggle with anxiety all of the time. Certain events, situations, or even people can trigger their anxiety and make it feel nearly impossible to be around whatever is causing such intense symptoms.
Let’s take a closer look at the differences between generalized anxiety and trigger-specific anxiety. Recognizing these differences and the signs of both can help you learn more about why you might be dealing with anxiety, and what you can do to start your healing journey.
What Is Trigger-Specific Anxiety?
As the name says, trigger-specific anxiety is caused by something specific—a trigger. There can be multiple things that trigger your anxious thoughts, but they all tend to be at least loosely related.
Examples and Symptoms
Social anxiety is a great example of trigger-specific anxiety. You might feel fine and calm most of the time, but when faced with a social setting or event, your anxiety symptoms start to come through. Those symptoms can include a racing heart, sweating, trembling, and more.
You might think that dealing with trigger-specific anxiety would be easier than managing generalized anxiety. In many cases, that’s correct. Sometimes, simply removing the stimuli causing your anxiety can be a big help. But that’s not always possible. If you have social anxiety, for instance, you’re not going to be able to completely eliminate social settings from your life.
So, while trigger-specific anxiety might not leave you feeling overwhelmed and anxious all of the time, it’s not something you should ignore.
What Is Generalized Anxiety?
Generalized anxiety involves a constant worry pattern. Your negative, anxious thoughts are likely to be invasive and cause you to feel like there’s always a threat, even when there really isn’t one.
Examples and Symptoms
Some examples of things that might cause generalized anxiety include finances, your health, relationships, your career, or your family. There isn’t always a specific cause or anything wrong with those areas of life. But anxiety can create plenty of “what if” scenarios and cause you to worry about things that probably won’t happen.
This consistent state of fear and worry can lead to some serious symptoms. You might have difficulty concentrating on things, restlessness, and irritability. Physically, you might find it hard to maintain consistent sleeping or eating habits, which can have a negative impact on your overall well-being.
Simply put, generalized anxiety can feel like it completely takes control of your life when it starts to spiral, leaving little room to think about or enjoy anything else.
What Can You Do?
Again, even if you’re not dealing with trigger-specific anxiety all of the time, it’s not something that should be ignored. You never know if those triggers might start to become more common or frequent, eventually leading to GAD.
Whether you have trigger-specific anxiety or generalized anxiety, it’s important to understand the root of it all. What’s causing your anxious thoughts? It could be something tangible, like a person, place, or certain situations. Or, it could be something that stemmed from childhood or a past experience.
Whatever the case, recognizing the root is the first step toward healing, and you don’t have to do that alone. Anxiety therapy is one of the best ways to understand the differences between types of anxiety and get the help you deserve. Together, we’ll dig deeper into what’s causing your anxious thoughts while working on symptom management, so you can eventually overcome the fear that’s holding you back. Contact me soon to start your healing journey.
