Trying to relax can sometimes increase anxiety if your nervous system is used to staying on guard. In unsafe or unpredictable environments, staying alert may have been necessary. Relaxing can feel unfamiliar or even unsafe because it reduces that sense of readiness.
When you begin to relax, your system may respond by increasing anxiety to bring you back into a more alert state. This is your nervous system trying to maintain what it has learned is protective.
Because of this, some calming strategies, such as mindfulness or deep breathing, may not feel helpful at first and can sometimes increase anxiety. Over time, with repeated experiences of safety, your system can begin to tolerate and eventually accept calmer states.
This page is part of the Why Do Trauma Responses Show Up Even When You Know You’re Safe section of the CommuniDID site, which explains why the nervous system continues protective responses long after the original threat has passed.
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