Understanding Anxiety: Why It’s Rooted in Your Past and How to Break Free
- cm1619
- Feb 19
- 4 min read
Anxiety can feel like a oppressive, invisible weight—tight chest, racing thoughts, an awful feeling that something is about to go wrong. If this sounds familiar, you’re not alone. Millions of people struggle with anxiety daily, and while it often feels like a future-focused fear, the truth is that its roots stem from your past.
What Is Anxiety?
Anxiety is more than just worry. It’s your brain’s built-in alarm system, designed to keep you safe. When your mind perceives a threat—real or imagined—it activates the fight-or-flight response, flooding your body with adrenaline and cortisol. Your heart pounds, breathing quickens, and your mind tries to find a way out of danger.
The problem? Anxiety isn’t always triggered by real, immediate threats. Instead, it often reacts to perceived threats based on past experiences. That’s why you might find yourself overwhelmed by situations that don’t seem threatening on the surface—but your nervous system thinks differently.
How Anxiety Affects You Physically and Mentally
Anxiety isn’t just in your head—it has a real effects on both your body and mind.
Physical Symptoms of Anxiety:
Rapid heartbeat or palpitations
Shortness of breath
Muscle tension or aches
Digestive issues, such as nausea or stomach pain
Dizziness or feeling lightheaded
Fatigue or restlessness
Sleep disturbances, including insomnia or nightmares
Mental and Emotional Symptoms of Anxiety:
Racing or intrusive thoughts
Constant worry or overthinking
Difficulty concentrating or feeling mentally foggy
A sense of impending doom or panic
Feeling overwhelmed or emotionally exhausted
The Impact of Anxiety on Your Life
Anxiety doesn’t just affect how you feel—it can shape your entire life, holding you back from experiences, relationships, and opportunities.
Relationships
Anxiety can make it difficult to connect with others. You may find that you avoid social situations, struggle with communication, or worry constantly about how others perceive you. This can cause feelings of isolation, misunderstandings, and difficult relationships, both personal and professional.
Life Opportunities
When anxiety is making your decisions, you might find yourself avoiding new experiences, staying in your comfort zone, or hesitating to take risks. This can mean missing out on travel, personal growth, or even simple pleasures like trying new hobbies or meeting new people.
Career and Professional Growth
Anxiety can impact your performance at work, making it harder to focus, speak up in meetings, or take on leadership roles. Fear of failure or imposter syndrome can prevent you from going after promotions or pursuing a career that truly fulfills you and the second guessing your choices and fear of judgement from others can pile on the stress.
Health and Well-Being
Chronic anxiety takes a toll on your body. The constant release of stress hormones can weaken your immune system, lead to high blood pressure, and increase the risk of long-term health issues like heart disease and digestive disorders. Left unresolved, anxiety can also contribute to burnout, depression, and emotional exhaustion.
How Your Brain Processes Anxiety
Your brain's job is to keep you safe which means that it's wired for survival. When you experience something stressful, especially in childhood, your brain stores that memory to protect you in the future. The amygdala (your brain’s fear centre) remembers those early experiences, even if you can't remember them. Later in life, when something even remotely reminds your brain of that past event, it sends out danger signals—triggering anxiety.
This is why anxiety isn’t just about the future; it’s about unresolved issues from your past.
Becoming Aware of Your Triggers
The first step to breaking free from anxiety is awareness or mindfulness if you prefer. Your triggers might not always be obvious,in fact, until you choose to notice them, it's very difficult to work out where your thoughts and feelings are coming from. but here are some ways to start identifying them:
Pay attention to your body’s response – What situations make your heart race, your stomach churn, or your chest feel tight? Your body holds vital clues to what's going on in your head.
Track your thoughts – When you first start to feel anxious, write down what you were thinking right before. What fear came up? What belief did it trigger?
Look for patterns – Are there specific situations, people, or places that consistently make you feel anxious?
Reflect on your past – Does your current anxiety remind you of something you’ve felt before, even if it was years ago?
Beyond Coping: How to Rewire Your Brain’s Response to the Anxiety Rooted in Your Past
Most approaches to anxiety focus on coping strategies—breathing techniques, mindfulness, distraction. While these are helpful, they don’t resolve the root cause. My work goes deeper.
Rather than just managing symptoms, I help you rewire the way your brain responds to anxiety. Through trauma-informed coaching, and deep self-awareness, we uncover the core patterns that keep anxiety looping in your life.
Here’s how:
Understanding Your Triggers – We explore the deeper origins of your anxiety, tracing it back to early experiences and beliefs.
Rewiring Your Thought Patterns – You learn how to shift the subconscious stories causing your anxiety, so they no longer control you.
Building Emotional Resilience – Instead of avoiding or suppressing emotions, you develop a new relationship with them—one that empowers you instead of overwhelms you.
Reclaiming Control – Anxiety thrives on the illusion that you are powerless. My approach helps you take your power back, so you respond to life from a place of calm and confidence.
You Don’t Have to Live in Fear
Anxiety doesn’t have to define your life. When you understand where it comes from, you can start to dismantle it. Healing isn’t about silencing anxiety; it’s about transforming your relationship with it.
When you work with me, we go beyond surface-level fixes—we get to the root of your patterns so you can experience real, lasting change.
If you’re ready to take back control, let’s talk. I'm here to help.
Chris.
Book a Free Consultation https://calendly.com/essexanxietycoach/30min
Comments