Subscribe to Get Updates
  • Login
Anxiety Gone: Your Go-To Resource for Coping with Mental Illness, Anxiety Relief, and Mental Wellness Strategies
Advertisement Banner
  • Home
  • Shop
  • Mental Health
    • All
    • Addiction
    • Depression
    • Generalized Anxiety
    • Health Anxiety
    • Kids Anxiety
    • Panic Disorder
    • PTSD
    • Seasonal Affective Disorder
    • Senior Mental Health
    • Sexual Abuse
    • Sleep Anxiety
    • Social Anxiety
    Woman resting with a journal, fidget ring, and self-care items nearby, practicing mental health strategies while managing chronic illness.

    Powerful Tips for Managing Mental Health with Chronic Illness

    Child holding a worry stone and fidget ring during a pediatric visit, showing how pediatric services help manage childhood anxiety through emotional support and grounding techniques.

    The Surprising Role Pediatricians Can Help With Treating Childhood Anxiety

    A person holding a worry stone while practicing grounding techniques for anxiety, symbolizing the connection between trauma and anxiety relief through self-care items and relaxation gifts like fidget rings,

    Can Trauma Cause Anxiety? Breaking Down the Complex Connection

    woman with generalized anxiety disorder, using her fidget ring for anxiety relief

    Breaking Down Generalized Anxiety Disorder: What Is GAD?

    Person in a wheelchair practicing mindfulness outdoors, using a fidget ring, symbolizing anxiety relief and emotional wellness while living with a physical disability.

    Coping with Anxiety When Living with a Physical Disability

    A person offering support and encouragement, symbolizing how to support mental health through kindness, advocacy, and awareness.

    How to Support Mental Health: 9 Meaningful Ways to Make a Difference

    Woman sitting by a seasonal depression lamp with a fidget ring and cup of herbal tea for anxiety.

    The Ultimate Winter Wellness Plan: 10 Ways to Tackle Seasonal Depression

    Supporting a loved one with bulimia through empathy, self-care gifts, therapy, and professional treatment for recovery.

    How To Help Someone With Bulimia: Supporting Their Recovery Journey

    MAT for alcohol use disorder helping individuals overcome alcohol dependence, anxiety, withdrawal symptoms, cravings, and mental health struggles through medication and therapy support.

    How Alcohol and Anxiety Create a Dangerous Cycle

    Trending Tags

    • Techniques
      • All
      • Breathing Exercises
      • Gratitude
      • Meditation
      • Mindfulness
      • Reflexology
      • Self-Talk Techniques
      • Sleep Tips
      • Tapping
      coping mechanisms for anxiety

      How to Deal with Anxiety: 13 Coping Methods That’ll Keep You Calm

      Person using a fidget ring and journal as part of a healthy sleep routine for anxiety relief, surrounded by calming self-care items and soft lighting.

      How to Develop a Healthy Sleep Routine to Combat Anxiety

      Woman practicing deep breathing exercises with a fidget ring, using mindfulness techniques to calm an anxiety attack.

      How To Calm Anxiety Attacks: Tips For Quick & Long-Term Relief

      a women trying out different types of grounding techniques for anxiety relief, like fidget rings, deep breathing and more.

      Types of Grounding Everyone With Anxiety Should Know

      Adult's and child's bare feet on green summer grass as a grounding technique for anxiety

      37 Effective Grounding Techniques for Anxiety Relief Right Now

      Woman sitting by a seasonal depression lamp with a fidget ring and cup of herbal tea for anxiety.

      The Ultimate Winter Wellness Plan: 10 Ways to Tackle Seasonal Depression

      Person practicing yoga at sunrise on a dock, demonstrating calming strategies to manage anxiety with mindfulness and grounding techniques, like fidget rings

      12 Powerful Everyday Strategies to Manage Anxiety in Utah (or Anywhere)

      A beautifully crafted vision board with images, affirmations, and symbolic items like crystals for healing and fidget rings, designed to inspire goal-setting and mental health focus.

      How to Make a Vision Board That Actually Works

      A vibrant vision board with images, quotes, affirmations, and symbolic items like crystals for healing, fidget rings, and worry stones, representing goal setting, manifestation, and inspiration for the New Year.

      11 Ways to Prepare for New Year Wishes: A Guide to Start Fresh with Positivity

      Trending Tags

      • Tools
        • All
        • CBD
        • Essential Oils
        • Fidget Tools
        • Medications
        • Self Help Books
        • Sleep Aids
        • Supplements
        a collection of spinning anxiety rings

        The Ultimate Guide to Anxiety Rings for Women, Men & Kids: How They Work & Why You Need One

        the best herbs for anxiety can be found in herbal supplements

        12 Powerful Herbal Supplements for Anxiety That Actually Work

        Fidget rings with healing crystals for anxiety relief.

        10 Powerful Crystals for to Lift Your Mood During Seasonal Depression

        A selection of the best cannabis strains for anxiety relief, featuring calming buds, natural stress relief options, and relaxation-focused varieties for mental wellness.

        The Best Cannabis Strains for a Relaxing Start to 2025

        Smartphone displaying an app for anxiety disorder with guided meditations and stress relief tools.

        Powerful Mental Health Apps That Double As Your Digital Calm Guide

        A calming flat-lay featuring CBD oil, worry stones, fidget rings, and healing crystals for anxiety relief, promoting natural stress management and self-care tools.

        Cannabis for Stress: Your New BFF for Relaxation

        light therapy for seasonal affective disorder being experienced by a woman wearing a fidget ring standing in front of a phototherapy for seasonal depression

        No More Winter Blues with Phototherapy for Seasonal Depression

        CBD, Cannabidiol, Hemp oil, CBD benefits, CBD products, CBD oil, CBD health, Cannabinoids, CBD wellness, CBD uses

        The Best CBD for Anxiety and Total Relaxation

        The Blessing Book - A self-improvement book with gratitude quotes, gratitude exercises, spiritual gifts, healing stones, self-care items, and tools for personal growth, emotional healing, and anxiety relief

        The Blessing Book: A Life-Changing Self-Improvement Guide to Gratitude, Resilience, and Growth

        Trending Tags

        • Treatments
          • All
          • Alternative Therapies
          • Apps
          • Online Therapy
          Person journaling and using a fidget ring while researching outpatient vs inpatient anxiety therapy options for mental health support.

          Outpatient vs Inpatient Anxiety Therapy: What’s The Difference?

          "A compassionate mental health provider consulting with a patient, offering expert care for anxiety, depression, and emotional well-being. Find the best mental health provider with the right credentials, therapy options, and holistic approaches like self-care items, crystals for anxiety, and relaxation gifts.

          How to Select the Best Mental Healthcare Provider for Your Needs

          A person getting mental health support for anxiety, using fidget rings, crystals for anxiety and other coping tools in addition to online therapy for anxiety.

          Mental Health Support for Anxiety and Depression: Types of Professionals and Their Roles

          Ayahuasca brew in a traditional Amazonian setting, used for anxiety relief, emotional healing, spiritual growth, mental wellness, and holistic therapy.

          Everything You Should Know About Ayahuasca For Anxiety

          A serene med spa environment featuring luxurious treatments, relaxing fidget rings, spinning rings, and thoughtful mental health gifts for revitalization and self-care.

          10 Ways a Med Spa Can Help You Revitalize Yourself

          Acupuncturist targeting pressure points for anxiety, including Yintang and Spirit Gate, to promote the use of calming self-care items like fidget rings and wellness tools in the background.

          Acupuncture for Anxiety: Best Pressure Points to Relieve Anxiety

          A compassionate family therapist in Rhode Island guiding a family through counseling in a warm, supportive setting.

          Tips for Choosing Family Therapy Services in Rhode Island

          Online therapy, Virtual counseling, Teletherapy, E-therapy, Internet counseling, Remote mental health, Telepsychology, Digital therapy, Web-based counseling, Cybertherapy, group therapy

          6 Best Online Therapy Services for Healing in 2025

          Therapist guiding a patient through an EMDR therapy session for trauma and PTSD recovery.

          How EMDR Therapy Restores Hope and Heals PTSD for Good

          Trending Tags

          • Parenting
          • Lifestyle
          No Result
          View All Result
          Anxiety Gone
          No Result
          View All Result
          • Home
          • Shop
          • Mental Health
          • Techniques
          • Tools
          • Treatments
          • Parenting
          • Lifestyle
          Home Overcoming Anxiety

          Root Causes of Anxiety and How to Find Them

          Chantal McCulligh by Chantal McCulligh
          May 24, 2024
          in Overcoming Anxiety
          0
          Share on FacebookShare on Twitter

          Full Disclosure: Clicking on these links could mean a tiny commission for me, at no extra cost to you.

          Anxiety can manifest in any ways. You likely know the exact things that trigger your anxiety and may even mistaken them as being the root cause. However, the root causes of your anxiety often go deeper than surface level. They’re usually buried deep into your subconscious and linked a painful experience, trauma or memory. While this isn’t always the case, the feelings you experienced when you first had anxiety are stored in your memory bank. In order to heal yourself fully – on a subconscious and conscious level – you have to get down to the root cause of the problem. Painful? Usually. Worth it? Absolutely.

           

          What are The Root Causes of Anxiety

          Root causes of anxiety, Exercises to find the root cause of anxiety. How to find the root cause of anxiety, How to get to the root cause of anxiety

          When it comes to the root causes of anxiety, they can typically be summed up in the following categories:

          • Genetics
          • Parenting Style
          • Early Trauma
          • Learned Behaviour (watching a parent with anxiety)
          • Brain Structure
          • Isolated Childhood
          • Expectations
          • Environment

          However, the real root cause of your anxiety goes much deeper than these factors. You may even find that you identify with several different categories. For example, I contribute genetics, parenting style, early trauma, expectations and brain structure to be main sources of my anxiety disorder. But I also know, by learning how to find the root cause of anxiety, there’s a common denominator in all of these that is the real, deep, root cause.

           

          Importance of Finding The Root Cause of Anxiety

          Sometimes, ignorance is bliss. This is not the case when it comes to the root causes of anxiety. Just like anything in life, you can cut down all the leaves and tree branches but if you don’t remove the root, the tree will remain and sprout again. In other words, you can do all the healing you need to do on a surface level. This will provide you with relief and perhaps even long-term relief. However, the real reasons for anxiety will stay intact. In order to fully overcome anxiety and free yourself of the pain and suffering, you have to dig deep and get down to the roots.

          How to Get to the Root Cause of Anxiety

          Before we head into the exercises to find the root cause of anxiety, it’s important to fully understand what you’re getting into. Learning how to get to the root cause of anxiety isn’t always a pleasant experience.

          Your brain has buried these things for a reason. Doing exercises to get to the root cause of anxiety can bring up emotions and memories that you may not expect, remember or even know you had. It can be a painful experience. The good news is that whatever comes up, no matter how hard it is, presents you with the opportunity to heal it. It’s kind of like taking one for the team, with you being the main player. You may feel a bit of a sting, but the win at the end is worth it. Most importantly, if you were to continue suppressing the root causes of your anxiety, inner healing wouldn’t be possible. So, go into the exercises to find the root cause with an open mind, set your intention and flow with the emotions that come up.

          Shadow Work

          One of the most common ways to learn how to get to the root cause of anxiety on a subconscious level is through shadow work. Created by psychologist Carl Jung, shadow work is an introspective psychological practice that anyone can do – anxiety or not, to live a more fulfilling life. It’s the process of bringing your subconscious pysche into your conscious experience to allow the positive aspects of the shadow to come through. In other words, it’s doing the work to become aware of your subconscious and finding the positive in the shadows of your past/subconscious. It’s about healing your wounded self.

          With shadow work, you can get to the root cause of your anxiety and achieve greater authenticity, creativity, and emotional freedom.

          How to Do Shadow Work?

          Shadow work is a comprehensive process that can be done in many ways. You can choose whichever exercises resonate best with you but the main goal is to discover the underlying message of your wounded self. Your negative emotions are portals into the shadow and they help you bring forth your wounds and fears so that they can be healed. Here are some ways to do shadow work:

          1. Watch Your Emotions Exercise
            1. Pay attention to your emotional reactions toward other people so you can recognize what those emotional reactions are actually trying to tell you
          2. Talk To Your Shadow Self
            1. Start a dialogue with your shadow self to acknowledge its presence and to integrate it, positively, into your conscious
          3. Good and Bad Exercise
            1. Make a list of all the things you love about yourself… And all the things you don’t love about yourself and find acceptance with both
          4. Th 3-2-1 Work Shadow Exercise
            1. Choose someone or something you have a strong emotional charge with, such as someone who drives you up the wall or who pulls the worst out of you
            2. Imagine this person or thing and describe the things that bring out your negative emotions, either outloud or in a journal
            3. Speak to this person in your mind, as if they were standing right in front of you and ask questions about why they do the things they do, say the things they say, etc.
            4. Take on the qualities of this person that both you and put them into first-person statements, such as “I am angry”
            5. Pay attention to what you’re saying because the traits you are taking on are the exact traits you have been denying in yourself

          Journaling

          A personal favourite method for finding the root cause of anxiety is journaling. There are many different types of journaling you can do to tap into your subconscious and figure out what’s really going on there. I highly recommend writing to the person responsible for the “root cause” listed above, such as the person who caused you to experience trauma or an isolated childhood. Let it all spill out in this journal and keep it there. Some other types of journaling you can do include:

          • Shadow work journaling
          • Trigger tracking
          • Art journaling
          • Intuition journaling
          • Automatic writing

          Ask Yourself Questions

          Another excellent exercise for getting to the root cause of anxiety is to ask yourself important questions, such as:

          • What am I feeling?
          • Why am I feeling this?
          • How long have I been feeling different than I used to?
          • What has changed in my life in the last two months, six months, year?
          • Are there other times in my life where I felt the same way, albeit in a different situation?
          • Is there a common thread here?

          Meditation

          As always, meditation is the pure definition of quieting your mind to see what comes up. It’s a powerful exercise for finding the root cause of anxiety, as it gives your subconscious a voice. You’ll be amazed at what comes up.

          If you’re new to meditation (and not), I highly suggest trying Seven Minute Mindfulness. It teaches you how to meditate in seven minutes or less while also showing you how to activate your natural relaxation response.

          Self Help

          Knowledge is power. Never stop indulging in self help. Read every article you can; pick up every self-help book you can find and try everything and anything at least once. Implementing self help practices into your daily life will give you the knowledge needed to understand and learn how to get to the root cause of anxiety, and much more.

          Try Online Therapy

          Therapy is therapeutic. I’ve said it before and I likely won’t stop saying it anytime soon. Using online therapy and counselling is a huge component to overcoming anxiety, as you receive professional guidance for identifying the root cause of anxiety and healing it. I recommend for everyone to try online therapy vs. traditional therapy because it’s much more affordable and convenient. You don’t have to wait on a month-long list to get started and you also get assigned the best therapist for you specifically. So, give online therapy and counselling a try.

           

          Related

          Advertisement Banner
          Previous Post

          Best Types of Therapy for Anxiety and Depression

          Next Post

          Managing Anxiety During Covid 19: Providing Peace of Mind through Blood Oxygen

          Chantal McCulligh

          Chantal McCulligh

          Chantal is the heart and soul behind this mental health and wellness community. Her journey into the world of mental health is deeply personal, stemming from her own battles with anxiety and panic disorder. This personal connection fuels her passion for making mental health discussions more accessible, relatable, and free of stigma.

          Next Post
          Managing Anxiety During Covid 19: Providing Peace of Mind through Blood Oxygen

          Managing Anxiety During Covid 19: Providing Peace of Mind through Blood Oxygen










































          Don't Miss Out on the Fun

          Connect with our community & get your daily dose of dopamine & serotonin.

          Daily mental health tips, inspiration, stories and more.
          ♥ A place for you to rest; don’t quit.
























          Most Helpful

          increase dopamine levels

          How to Boost Dopamine: 14 Ways to Increase Dopamine Naturally

          7 years ago
          Billy Bob Thornton's mental health, interview, weird facts, phobias, mental illness, child abuse, trauma, OCD, success stories, celebrities with mental illness

          The Pain and Glory of Billy Bob Thornton: A Mental Health Journey Like No Other

          5 months ago
          calming plants for anxiety and depression

          12 Best Calming Plants for Anxiety for Transforming Your Space and Mind

          8 years ago
          the dare program, dare anxiety method, dare program anxiety, dare anxiety technique,

          The DARE Program: A Simple & Effective Tool for Managing Anxiety

          7 years ago
          personal boundaries, relationship boundaries, setting boundaries

          7 Types of Boundaries to Have in Place For Your Mental Health

          1 year ago

































          Join Our Wellness Club

          Anxiety Gone: Your Go-To Resource for Coping with Mental Illness, Anxiety Relief, and Mental Wellness Strategies

          © 2025 Anxiety Gone

          Support The Movement

          • About
          • Donate
          • Join Newsletter
          • Mental Health Resources
          • Contact
          • Privacy & Policy

          Join The Club

          Welcome Back!

          Login to your account below

          Forgotten Password?

          Retrieve your password

          Please enter your username or email address to reset your password.

          Log In

          Join 300+ Amazing Entrepreneurs who took the risk and succeeded!

          Here is your chance to be part of the exclusive Freedom Empowerer Group!

           

          Start to grow your business with the best tips!

          Here is your chance to get access to my exclusive freebies!

          Start to grow your business with the best tips!

          Here is your chance to get access to my exclusive freebies!

          Join our free newsletter for those interested in improving their mental health!

          Get helpful tips and expert advice sent right to your inbox.

          No Result
          View All Result
          • Home
          • Shop
          • Mental Health
          • Techniques
          • Tools
          • Treatments
          • Parenting
          • Lifestyle

          © 2025 Anxiety Gone

          This website uses cookies. By continuing to use this website you are giving consent to cookies being used. Visit our Privacy and Cookie Policy.