I have GAD and my anxiety happens for seemingly no reason. It's frustrating because I feel like if I just knew what was causing it that maybe I could do something to keep it from happening. My anxiety is always worse when I'm tired and have not slept well. I do not take meds. I just use belly breathing and other coping techniques to calm myself down and go about my day. Do you drink caffeine when you are tired? It can be a trigger. Hope you feel better.

Yes. I have woken up in the morning having a panic attack or bad anxiety and always asked myself why would I wake up with it from a deep sleep? Didn't make sense at all. Sometimes I think we go to bed with a lot on our minds, not realizing that this can actually affect us the next day. I know how frustrated you are with the "not knowing" anxiety attacks. I wish I could be of more help but I often wonder if there is an answer to your question. Hugs GB

Here is a theory. When you have time, sit calmly and ask yourself "what am I afraid of? " If you are afraid of something but not getting to the root of dealing with it, it can be expressed as generalized anxiety. I have that diagnosis and can honestly say that there are certain things that I am afraid of. I am working on dealing with them. I'm expecting that when I deal with these things better, I will have much less anxiety.

I have done that. Over the years I have tried to be brutally honest about what my triggers are. There have been some days though where nothing will come to light. My counselor had a theory that I would tuck all my stressful things "in the closet" until the door would burst open. She said that is why it would hit me on days when things were relaxed and should have been happy. Not sure if I buy that either.

Here's another question then: are you at peace with yourself?

GAD is what happens when you have so MUCH anxiety that it generalises itself, your endocrine system shits the bed and the adrenaline/cortisol switch is on all day long.

You have to turn the switch off.

And that means you have to start looking hard at your life, to see what you are doing that you don't like. What are your choices, how do you live? How are your relationships with everybody?

How much stress do you normally live under?

These are the causes of GAD.

PS Just noticed your post about triggers.

sod triggers. Look for root causes. Triggers are just the kid who sang a song in the alps causing the avalanche. He didn't earn the avalanche. No. He didn't cause it. He only triggered it.

the cause of the avalanche is the buildup of snow.

So don't waste your time looking for triggers. Look for causes. And solve some. You'll find once you solve a few it really reduces.

I've had GAD. I had it full time for a year. I changed a lot of things in my life and solved a lot of problems, to get rid of it.

Not having any sleep might have cause the anxiety...Sleep is extremely important..Your unconscious thoughts are released during sleep of any unfinished business the day prior to sleeping. Just a thought.

Yeah, sometimes when I wake up with the anxiety I am pretty sure it's due to something I was dreaming. I'm sure on those nights I can't sleep though it just contributes to the snowball