As we begin this New Year, I have begun posting a series of articles on helping to get the best possible treatment for your anxiety in the coming year. Last week, I posted information on creating an effective treatment plan and hope that many of you found information you can use to create a plan of action for managing your anxiety.

This week, we will discuss identifying anxiety triggers.

When treating anxiety, it is important to manage symptoms of anxiety, such as chronic worrying, heart palpitations, sweating or shaking. However, it is just as important to discover the triggers of anxiety.

Triggers can be either physical or emotional. Some triggers may be obvious, such as seeing a relative that has been abusive in the past or visiting a place filled with bad memories. But sometimes, our triggers are not so obvious. Treating anxiety is more than learning how to manage symptoms. It is also understanding triggers and facing each one in order to alleviate, or at least minimize, the trigger's effect on us.

The following worksheet can help you to identify some of the anxiety triggers in your life. (You can print out this worksheet by clicking on the print button.) Each trigger you identify should include additional information: how intense anxiety symptoms trigger and what specific anxiety symptoms you experience are when faced with this trigger. Once you complete a chart of triggers, you should share the information with your counselor, therapist or other mental health professional to develop a plan of action for facing each trigger without experiencing anxiety symptoms.