Do You Know the Recipe for Your Anxiety? Insights From an Anxiety Therapist in San Francisco.
As an anxiety therapist in San Francisco that helps clients manage their anxiety, many times I have found that there isn’t just one thing that is causing anxiety symptoms. In fact, anxiety is more like a recipe that is filled with different ingredients. One ingredient (or stressor) by itself would not cause anxiety but combine multiple ingredients and voila! Anxiety magically appears.
So how do you go about finding out what ingredients make up your particular recipe for anxiety? The following are some questions that can help you find out what goes into your personal anxiety recipe.
Questions From an Anxiety Therapist To Help Find the Ingredients to Your Personal Recipe for Anxiety.
Think back to the last time you felt anxious and answer these questions to the best of your ability.
1) How much sleep did I get the night before?
2) Did I drink enough water?
3) Did I eat regularly (at least three meals?)
4) Did I eat at least somewhat healthy foods?
5) Did I take any and all medications I am regularly prescribed?
6) Did I do any physical exercise?
7) Did I have extra stress at work?
8) Did I have any stress/fights/disagreements with friends or family?
9) Did I do my regular self-care routine?
10) Did any big changes (good or bad) occur in my life?
11) Were there any emotions that I was trying to push away or avoid feeling?
12) Was I sick or had I sustained any injuries?
13) Was I thinking about anything in particular that made me anxious?
14) Where was I when the anxiety occurred?
Take the time to truly reflect on which of these ingredients in your anxiety recipe were present. It might help to write these answers (and you can write down the questions, if they are useful) so that you can visualize what ingredients comprise your anxiety. Also, if there are other variables not covered by these questions, write those down, too!
Once you have identified what things in your life made up this latest moment of anxiety, you can start to look for patterns. By continuing to answer these questions each time you experience anxiety, you will gain more information into what ingredients make up your anxiety.
I hope this exercise proves helpful. If you have questions about anxiety therapy in San Francisco or how to manage anxiety in general, please feel free to contact me at lisa@lisamanca.com.