What is the strangest thing that triggers your anxiety?

[MullerInk]

For me it's when we are having a garden day, walking in and out of the garden to the kitchen. It makes me feel so sick with worry@

People walking behind me.

ASMR videos, especially cooking ones.

@porridgeisbae - I get these thoughts too esp if waiting for the tube. Although I don’t have OCD, DS does and it affects him quite badly (he does have therapy).
Things that make me weirdly anxious are: where there’s a sheer drop so i hate being close to the edge of something or watching that on TV. I think it’s cos my dad always called me back if I was (nowhere) near an edge so he made me more nervous of it.
Sorting out things like house/car/pet insurance.
My work email inbox! Mind you, I told my manager and she feels similarly. There are ‘reasons’. Once I’ve checked it, it’s fine.
I have health anxiety but that’s different as it’s not situational.
Maths - I was asked to tot up some receipts at work recently (not something I usually do) and I did it twice to check all was correct and apparently I still got it wrong!!

This doesn't trigger anxiety in me per se but I do sit there wondering if I didn't get the memo that no one is meant to be there and I'm breaking some social rule 😂

I get really panicky and anxious if I'm woken unexpectedly.
Have always had this. Within seconds of waking my heart is racing.
Its so bad now that I can't have my grandchildren overnight.

The other thing is cross dressing men.
Scares the life out of me.
I'm ok if they are around, as long as I can see where they are, and they don't come near me.
This has only been a thing for me over the last 20 years or so. I was fine about it as a child.

@ ollifer

That would completely ruin my day too.

All the delivery companies have instructions as to where to leave parcels, and I am very rarely at home so I don't have to deal with that. But if I order a takeaway, the second I have done it I tape a note to the door asking them to leave it on the step. This works great .....until a non English speaker arrives 😐

Overabundance of food. My parents overstock the pantry and refrigerator and I just feel like I’m drowning when I’m at their place.
too much food in my refrigerator. It makes me absolutely sick.

people talking in loud voices

dogs

The sound of a key in the door.
The jingle of a belt buckle.
An unexpected knock at the door or my phone ringing.
I agree with too much food and too much stuff in general, makes me very anxious.

I've just realised that I have another that links with the above.

Putting the kids clean clothes away makes me ver anxious. It's the idea of it not fitting in the drawers and then having too many. That I've wasted money on them.
I had full sleepless nights linked to it when dd1 was a baby. Again, it stems from being skint, feeling panicked about spending and trying to work out ways to claw back some money.

Paying for the big food shop and completely filling the car with fuel does the same. Just incase my card is declined.
And yet, I struggle to check the bank balance before hand.

Doorbell going/phone ringing - especially when I don't know who it is

Waiting around at home, either for time to go out or someone to turn up

Noises outside late at night - be it cars in the car park or voices.

Clusters of things and holes - trypophobia (I guess this is more of a phobia than anxiety)

I've thought of another one - meeting people I know unexpectedly out and about. I completely panic that I don't know what to say and I'll say something stupid and they'll hate me forever I've been known to leave a shop to avoid having to talk to an acquaintance.

Distant thunder and lightning at night. Really scares me, I feel some sort of primal fear in the pit of my belly. As a child I had a phobia of thunderstorms, especially at night, and never really got over it.

Motorways - I avoid driving on them at all costs. I used to be very confident on them, driving all over the UK, but ever since I was "raced" by a car in the middle lane when I was doing 80 (sorry) in the outside lane with no way of pulling in and also a car tailgating me at the same time, I've lost my confidence.

Crowded, hot theatres.

Expecting workmen in and around the house and then when they are actually working - even the window cleaner and gardener.

Walking across the sky bridge to some of the gates at Gatwick North Terminal...so high up and a sheer drop at the escalators. I take the lift up and down instead and try not to look at the sheer drop close by the upper lift.

Oh my goodness me too. Why ? The Teardrops song I mean. I cannot hear ot without feeling instantly uneasy

Herpes

Yes, same here. I avoid them at all costs, especially the long ones. Always feel like I am going to faint or trip over on them. Can't get my balance right to step on the downward ones.

Yes! I have done that.
I'm even bad at the school pick up/ drop off. I see these parents regularly and like a good few of them. Buy what are you meant to do? Find one on their own? Join a group? Stand near your child's class? Wave? Smile?

Wildly over thing everything? FFS

Now im 45 I daren't eat a sweet in the car in case I choke in the middle of nowhere.

didn't give a shit about that when younger and have never choked on anything!

Seeing a police car. No idea why, I've never been arrested or spoken to a police officer!

Big old boats, with rusty metal hulls like fishing trawlers. I love any other type of boat, so I’ve no idea why that particular type of boat sets me off.

Omg I'm the same 😂 I become really hyper aware and once they turned their sirens on and I SWORE they were coming for me

Similar to this...if I bump into someone I know and have a quick chat, I will replay the conversation over and over again afterwards scared I said something stupid.