What to Do When You Feel Anxious for No Reason
What to Do When You Feel Anxious for No Reason
Anxiety can arise suddenly and without an obvious cause, leaving many people feeling overwhelmed and helpless. This “anxiety for no reason” is a common concern that affects countless individuals, especially when dealing with life’s uncertainties and past traumas. In this post, we’ll explore why anxiety might seem to appear out of nowhere, strategies to address it, and when to consider professional help. In this blog post, we interviewed lovers COUNSELING’s Owner/Founder, Chloé Miller, MA, MFTC, LPCC and we asked how she helps clients with anxiety.
Understanding Unexplained Anxiety
How Common Is It to Feel Anxious Without Knowing Why?
Chloé Miller, MA, MFTC, LPCC: First, I ask my clients to explore this internal sensation of anxiety, "What does that feel like in your body?". Once they can name or describe the feeling, I ask them, as you tune into this feeling, what do you notice happens? They respond, "If I stay with it (the feeling) long enough it starts to change...it starts to dissipate". I then guided my clients to stay with this until the discomfort goes away and we are able to come back to the present moment. This tells me the client is no longer in a pre-survival state (outside of their window of tolerance) and they are now able to think critically again (their brain's prefrontal cortex is back online).
At this time, I use psychoeducation to explain that anxiety is nothing more than your body's way of "pulling a number at the counter" and saying, "come back to me, we have unfinished business". Anxiety intensifies the longer we delay meeting with these parts of ourselves that need extra attention. With therapy, clients can go back and tend to each of these pain points, heal the wound, and then relieve the anxiety.
What Might Be Causing This Feeling?
If a client is noticing anxiety and can't identify the source, chances are the client's mind is perseverating on the possible outcomes of things that are outside of the individual's control. Anxiety is the body's response to preparing for a threat, but the mind's confusion around which threat is imminent. When thinking about the future, we don't know how things will unfold. A nervous system that feels safe and settled when in control will feel overwhelmed or out of control (unsafe) when thinking about the unlimited possibilities of outcomes of future events as they all are out of the individual's control. This creates a sense of helplessness (anxiety) and will intensify to fear if the client isn't able to downregulate their emotions.
Anxiety tends to focus on the future, often stemming from fear of what might happen next. When the mind fixates on potential outcomes that are beyond our control, the nervous system responds with a heightened sense of fear and helplessness, signaling that the body feels unsafe.
Anxiety is a fear of the future and depression is a longing for the past.”
-Chloé Miller, MA, MFTC, LPCC
This is especially true for people who prefer to feel in control. When we don’t know how a situation will unfold, the mind creates countless “what if” scenarios, which can lead to a deep-seated feeling of anxiety that may seem unconnected to any specific issue. The more the mind fixates on these unknowns, the more intense and overwhelming the anxiety becomes.
The Root Cause of “Anxiety for No Reason”
Is it normal to feel anxious this way? Yes, this is a very normal occurrence. As a trauma-informed therapist, I teach all of my clients that anxiety is a byproduct of trauma. Trauma comes in many forms, - incidental trauma (like a car crash), relational trauma (like a messy friendship breakup), or developmental trauma (unmet needs in childhood). Anxiety is the body's communication that there is a disruption in the system's process and attention needs to be focused to repair the system to harmony.
Anxiety is curable! It takes a trauma-informed therapist to conceptualize this type of approach and then provide holistic healing. Furthermore, everyone who experienced the pandemic has trauma and remnants of anxiety. We were told for months there was an invisible threat to our health and survival. Everyone was on high alert and this made us all hypervigilent. Without an "official end date," this hypervigilant state is a state many of us are still living in, unknowingly. We've been in this emotional state for so long, it feels like our normal state. But the overthinking of possible threats to your safety is the byproduct of the fear that was real for such a long time.
Tips for Reducing Anxiety “For No Reason”
If you’re struggling with unexplained anxiety, here are some actionable steps to try:
Anxiety is a fear of the future - the fastest antidote for it is gratitude. List 5 points of gratitude and repeat this until you feel the emotional shift.
Get in your body: Anxiety is the brain overthinking - redirect your energy into your body and your brain will stop ruminating. Go for a walk, do 10 jumping jacks, shake your entire body (head, arms, legs, feet) for 10 seconds to discharge the energy from your body, and brush off the energy - brush your arms and legs as if you were brushing away the anxious energy.
Mindfulness Exercises: When you activate both sides of the brain in an alternating pattern you bring your mind to the present moment (this is the goal of mindfulness activities). Sensory grounding (5 things you can see, 4 things you can hear, 3 things you can smell, 2 things you can touch, 1 thing you can taste) or breathing exercises like Box Breathing
Temp Changes: stick your face or hands in a bowl of ice water for 20 seconds. The attention will be redirected to the temperature change in your body that the mind will silence
Backward Figure 8: walk backward in Figure 8
When to Seek Professional Help
I recommend seeking professional help for anxiety when it becomes a problem in your daily life. If you are feeling unable to follow through because of debilitating anxiety, I highly recommend working with a trauma-informed therapist who will conceptualize anxiety as a byproduct of trauma and help you identify the source of the pain to heal holistically. Anything else is management and will result in long-term treatment and support. Healing the trauma heals the anxiety.
Clients will know therapy is improving as they will find themself more capable of downregulating their anxiety (emotional regulation skills increase), increased awareness of the source of the anxiety and triggers (increased understanding promotes self-compassion), and anxiety triggers are less triggering (neutralizing the anxiety through trauma-therapy).
Signs that therapy is working include:
Improved emotional regulation skills
Increased awareness of anxiety sources and triggers
Reduced intensity of anxiety responses
Healing the underlying trauma helps to relieve anxiety on a deeper level, transforming the experience from one of overwhelming fear to manageable, holistic healing.
Anxiety can feel overwhelming, but it’s important to remember that it’s your body’s way of seeking your attention. With the right strategies and support, it’s entirely possible to move beyond the grip of anxiety and feel grounded in the present. If you’re struggling with “anxiety for no reason,” don’t hesitate to reach out for the help you need to start your journey to calm and clarity. Our skilled therapists are here to help you understand and manage anxiety, offering personalized tools and strategies to bring calm and balance back into your life. Schedule an appointment today to start your journey toward lasting relief and resilience.
