What Are The Triggers and Causes of Anxiety Disorder?

Anxiety disorder is a common mental health condition that causes persistent feelings of worry, fear, or apprehensiveness. Most people experience anxiety at some point as a normal reaction to stress, but anxiety disorders are defined by persistent, excessive worry, apprehension, and/or fear that disrupts the experience and quality of your daily life.

So, what triggers and causes anxiety disorder? The answer can be complex, as it may stem from a combination of biological, psychological, and environmental factors, often unique to each person.

In this article, we’ll explore the triggers and causes of anxiety disorder, and explain how modern diagnostic and treatment technology like qEEG brain mapping, biofeedback and neurofeedback treatment can help you overcome anxiety-produced symptoms or illnesses without prescription drugs.

The Drake Institute understands the complexity of treating anxiety disorders, and how every patient has their own unique history or circumstances. For over 40 years, we have provided non-invasive, drug-free treatment designed to address the needs of patients suffering from anxiety disorders and stress-related medical illnesses.

Understanding the Triggers and Causes of Anxiety Disorder 

Many factors contribute to the development and triggering of anxiety disorder. These include inherited traits, changes in brain chemistry, medical issues, early life experiences, personality traits, and daily or environmental stressors. Understanding possible causes can help demystify why this occurred, reducing fear and power of the disorder and enabling you to select an appropriate treatment. Let’s take a look at the most common causes and triggers of anxiety disorders:

Genetics and Family History

Anxiety often runs in families. It is not uncommon for people to inherit a predisposition to anxiety, or share anxious behaviors modeled by parents or family members. According to Cleveland Clinic, people with a first-degree relative, such as a parent or sibling, who suffer from anxiety disorder are at an increased risk of developing one as well. Some studies indicate that there may even be specific genetic variations that can affect how your brain regulates mood and reactions to stress.

Hormonal Contributors

Your thyroid produces hormones that are important to normal brain function. Thyroid disorders or dysfunction like hyperthyroidism, hypothyroidism, elevated cortisol levels, and abnormal adrenal function can affect our psychological state, leading to the development of anxiety disorder or worsening anxiety-related symptoms. In fact, an article published in the Journal of Thyroid Research reported that approximately 60% of people who suffer from hyperthyroidism presented with anxiety disorder.

Medical and Neurological Issues

Health conditions like heart problems, chronic pain, autoimmune diseases, and neurophysical issues can cause or exacerbate symptoms of anxiety.  Neurodevelopmental disorders like ADHD or autism can also contribute to the development of anxiety.

Childhood Trauma and Early Experiences

Traumatic childhood events and experiences can have a long-term impact on mental health. Abuse, neglect, early loss, or growing up with an anxious parent can all shape how the brain and body respond to stress.

Personality and Cognitive Patterns

Personality traits like hyper-sensitivity, perfectionism, or being overly self-judgmental may cause some people to be more prone to anxiety. A strong need for control or approval can also increase the risk of developing anxiety symptoms.

Stress-Related Triggers

Daily stress like pressures at work or school, financial challenges, relationship conflicts, or major life changes like moving or losing a loved one can all trigger anxious responses. Prolonged stress can change how the brain and body respond to danger which can create a constant state of apprehension known as hypervigilance. This leads to a loop where stress causes anxiety, and anxiety exacerbates stress. Elevated cortisol levels over time can damage the brain's ability to regulate mood, leading to additional mental health vulnerability.

Social and Environmental Triggers

Public speaking, crowds, or overstimulating social situations and settings can trigger feelings of anxiety. Social media can increase feelings of exclusion and inadequacy while constant exposure to negative news can lead to feelings of helplessness.

Situational and Anticipatory Triggers

Most people can feel anticipatory anxiety before specific events, like medical procedures, travel, or major decisions. In individuals predisposed to anxiety these reactions can be more intense and severe.

Diet and Nutrition

Blood sugar imbalances, lack of essential nutrients, food sensitivities, and substance use (like alcohol or nicotine) can affect mood regulation.

Sleep and Rest Patterns

Poor sleep quality, insufficient sleep, irregular schedules, or underlying sleep disorders can affect moods, increase emotional reactivity, and make it difficult to deal with stress and can exacerbate anxiety.

Age-Related Causes and Triggers

Anxiety looks different at various life-stages. Childhood anxiety may be caused by developmental challenges, school stress, or family dysfunction. Teenagers may struggle with hormonal changes, social demands, peer pressure, and academic expectations. Adults often experience anxiety from career demands, finances, family responsibilities, or health concerns. While older adults may deal with triggers that include health declines, grief, loss of independence, and side effects from medications.

Co-occurring Disorders That Worsen Anxiety

Anxiety often appears alongside other mental or neurological disorders like ADHD, autism, OCD, and PTSD. For example, depression can increase feelings of hopelessness and amplify anxiety, while ADHD difficulties can mimic or worsen anxiety.

Understanding Your Personal Anxiety Triggers

Recognizing what triggers your personal anxiety is one of the most powerful steps toward improving symptoms. Start by identifying patterns. What situations tend to cause a spike in anxiety, and what is one’s fear related to? Keeping a journal can help you track these. It’s also important to work with professionals who can help you connect the dots and develop coping strategies that work for you.

The Neuroscience Behind Anxiety Triggers and Causes

Anxiety symptoms typically result from dysregulation in specific brain networks. When these neural circuits become overactive, underactive or simply dysregulated, they cause the physical and psychological symptoms associated with anxiety disorders.

Brainwave patterns play a crucial role in anxiety symptoms. People with anxiety typically have excessive beta brainwaves associated with racing thoughts, mental restlessness, and hypervigilance, and fewer alpha waves linked to relaxation. Poor connectivity in the brain measured by coherence can also be associated with anxiety patterns.

At the Drake Institute, we use advanced diagnostic technology like qEEG brain mapping to identify specific brainwave dysregulation networks, and look for biomarkers correlated with anxiety. We then treat anxiety via brain map-guided neurofeedback, which trains the brain to develop healthier, more functional patterns.

In some cases, we also provide neurostimulation to help improve overactive brain regions, providing targeted relief from anxiety symptoms. These neurologically-based treatments address the root cause of anxiety rather than just managing symptoms, offering hope for lasting improvement and recovery.

Drake Institute’s Advanced Treatment for Anxiety Triggers and Causes

Conventional treatment for anxiety disorders usually includes psychotherapy and medication. However, for over 40 years, the Drake Institute has successfully treated anxiety and stress disorders using advanced, non-drug technologies including biofeedback, qEEG brain mapping, brain map-guided neurofeedback, and neurostimulation.

Here’s how our treatment works:

First, we use Biofeedback instrumentation to measure physiologic indicators of anxiety, including muscle tension, hand temperature, skin conductance response, brainwave activity, and heart rate variability.

Next, we develop a personalized treatment program designed to help the patient reduce tension levels to normal. Our treatment provides real-time visual and/or auditory feedback to teach you how to reduce abnormal tension levels to a healthier physiologic balance.

While traditional relaxation techniques like meditation may help you feel calmer, they cannot confirm whether or not you’re reaching the stable and deep levels of psychophysical relaxation that optimize healing. Our clinical biofeedback treatment can help patients confirm that they are consistently reaching deeper levels of relaxation needed to break up stress patterns that can lead to symptoms and illness. By developing self-regulation ability and skills, our patients become empowered in achieving lasting improvement in how one’s body and mind responds to stress.

Unlike medication, which only works while you're taking it, our treatment helps you develop lifelong skills you can use to reduce anxiety via self-regulation techniques. In short, we will teach you to shift out of “fight or flight” mode naturally so that you can maintain better emotional balance and prevent anxiety from taking you over again and disrupting your autonomic nervous system.

After Biofeedback, We Then Use Brain Map-Guided Neurofeedback

Once we’ve analyzed your brainwave patterns through qEEG brain mapping, we can then enable you to train the brain towards healthier, optimal balance and functioning via brain map-guided neurofeedback treatment.

Neurofeedback is a non-invasive, drug-free treatment that uses real-time feedback to help your brain learn  healthier, more optimal brain functioning through self-regulation. During a session, sensors monitor your brainwaves and display them on a computer screen with auditory and visual feedback so you can learn to produce healthier brainwave patterns.

Over time, neurofeedback can help:

• Calm an overactive stress response.
• Improve sleep and restore mental clarity.
• Enhance focus, mood regulation, and emotional flexibility.
• Promote long-term improvement by stabilizing optimal brain functioning.

Contact The Drake Institute Today!

Our comprehensive non-drug treatment helps address the psychophysiologic reactions that produce anxiety, allowing you to reduce or resolve symptoms without medication.

If you or a loved one are experiencing anxiety, please call us at 1-800-700-4233 or fill out our free consultation form to get started.