Feeling Anxious But Don't Know Why? Consider These 5 Common Causes

Anxiety. It’s like a fog—shapeless but, once present, overwhelming. While you often may know why it’s brought on, it’s just as likely to paralyse you without any reason at all. Either way, anxiety is a feeling you need to learn to identify and manage.

A significant step toward dealing with anxiety is figuring out its cause. Since everyone operates differently, the scope of possible reasons you’re feeling anxious is quite broad. Anything can make you anxious—that’s why learning your triggers, whether it’s by yourself or with help from a mental health professional with a Masters in Mental Health, is incredibly important.

In this guide, we’ll focus on five of the most common causes that might just be behind your anxiety.

5 Common Causes of Anxiety

Anxiety’s greatest strength is its resistance to fixed interpretation. Often, we think we know the root cause, only to discover something else is responsible.

Health Issues

Imagine you’ve just had your yearly skin cancer check and the doctor wants to run a few tests on a mole that has changed shape since your last appointment. The week spent waiting for results feels like a year, a feeling not helped by knowing all about your family’s skin cancer history.

Major health issues, for you or someone dear to you, can trigger anxiety levels that are hard to shake. It’s natural to feel anxiety around life-changing moments like a cancer diagnosis; its rationality is what makes it so tough to deal with. Receiving outside reassurance may not temper this storm, which makes dealing with anxiety around health issues tricky.

Lack of Sleep

Ask a dozen strangers what advice they were constantly given as kids and it’s fair to assume they’ll mention being told how important a good night’s sleep is. Be honest, you can probably hear your parents speaking those words as you read this.

And they were right. Nevermind anxiety; a lack of sleep actively disrupts every part of your life. Suddenly, you're rubbing your eyes in a stakeholder meeting, much to your boss’s dismay, or forgetting to collect the kids from after-school sports practice. The disruption can be trivial or terrible; the only constant is that it gathers momentum if left unchecked.

Sleep is your body’s chance to recharge. It’s a tired cliche, but only because we frequently dismiss the importance of adequate, unbroken sleep. Rest properly, every night, and you’ll find the weight of anxiety lighten.

Poor Diet

When you’re busy with work and life commitments, the thought of making a nutritious dinner can seem too overwhelming—so you get Uber Eats instead. When tomorrow arrives and the issue remains, you opt for fast food or takeout once again. A pattern emerges: caffeine, cholesterol, and anxiety.

Your morning coffee might be the essential spark that ignites your day, but if you’re existing on caffeine and nothing else, you risk a spike in anxiety. The coffee that replaces deep sleep hasn’t been invented.

Unhealthy eating is one side of the coin; skipping meals is the other. The guilt you feel from eating poorly might compel you to go without dinner, but only if that unplanned nap doesn’t cancel lunch. It’s a slippery slope, one that usually leads to more acute anxiety.

Like sleep, it comes back to routine. Three healthy meals a day isn’t outdated wisdom; it’s a schedule that will remain critical as long as we exist on Earth. Of course, life often gets in the way of sound planning. If you can’t manage three meals, why not sprinkle healthy snacks throughout your day? Good eating keeps your body in good shape and keeps you looking forward to your next meal; the more this happens, the less room on your plate for anxiety.

Conflict and Stress

Not all causes of anxiety come from the inside. External influences can prove just as potent. Maybe friction between you and key stakeholders over a new work strategy has begun to cloud your thoughts outside of work. Or maybe you spend half the day thinking about an argument you had with your partner last week and get no work done in the meantime. Conflict triggers anxiety long after the fact.

Stress does the same. Anything can cause it; an overwhelming workload, a stuffy social calendar, or the same traffic jam day after day on your morning commute. If you feel stressed a lot, it’s only natural that you’ll feel anxious a lot.

Again, it’s about being proactive. Get familiar with strategies for conflict resolution. Adopt coping mechanisms for stress. The more you take control of the situation, the more you can rinse stress and anxiety from your thoughts.

Lack of Control

Nothing feeds anxiety like uncertainty, and from uncertainty comes feelings of helplessness, of having no control over certain situations or aspects of your life. The tricky part? It’s rational and irrational to feel anxious about this lack of control. If the company you work for is negotiating a merger that threatens your role, it’s okay to feel anxious about your immediate future.

The greater problem is when the anxiety stems from an irrational lack of control. If you’ve planned a day at the beach with friends and the weekend forecast suddenly looks less than inviting, you gain little from checking the weather radar every hour.

Plan, plan, plan. For example, suggest an escape room should the clouds gather. Immediately your anxiety will soften. Why? Because you’ve taken control of the things you can control. And in the process, you’ve prioritized what matters: hanging out with your friends.

There’s no right or wrong way to address anxiety; its continuously shifting nature repels a one-size-fits-all approach. It’s about finding what works for you, as simple as that sounds. When you’re dealing with anxiety, being patient, kind, and honest is a non-negotiable—anything less and you risk falling short of getting to the heart of your matter.

That said, doing nothing is worse than doing something. Anxiety festers when it’s left alone, so make sure you confront it sooner rather than later. Doing so will eventually let a cool, calm breeze blow through your mind.