Treating Anxiety Disorders Naturally

Here we have a look at another five ways you can get help for panic attacks using natural remedies

Starting off with:

Aromatherapy

Treating Anxiety Naturally with Bergamot

Aromatherapy uses essential oils from plants and adds them to massage oil.

There are scents you can use to help you relax, and in this case the one we’re looking at is Bergamot.

Bergamot is good for raising self-confidence as well as soothing frustration.

You can us aromatherapy oils in bath water, in a vaporiser or you can just sniff them from a tissue.

Nutrition

Treating Anxiety Naturally with Green Tea

Improving nutrition is obviously good for your physical health.

By the same token, good nutrition is important for mental health too.

And you can reduce your anxiety by having green tea.
Not only is this powerhouse of a drink full of healthy anti-oxidants , it has also been shown to reduce anxiety.

Drink a cup of tea a day for great results.

Essences of Flowers

Treating Anxiety Naturally with Remedy Rescue

Essences of specific flowers have been used by Dr Edward Bach for a long time, and they are thought to provide physical and mental relief.

Ease your anxiety by using Remedy Rescue.

It has 5 of the 38 Bach flower essences, and this remedy is specifically designed to ease anxiety and stress.

Naturopathic Remedies

Treating Anxiety Naturally with the Chill Pill

Naturopathic remedies are something that many people have turned to to get relief from anxiety.

One of the main ones for this is the Chill Pill. This has got ash wagander root and camomile, Bavarian root and lots of vitamin B.

It’s a vegetarian formula and is sure to help you find your calm in a non-addictive way.

Helpful Articles

There are lots of helpful articles that you can read to find suggestions about natural ways to get rid of your stress.

A good one is “Anxiety Building” by Terry Robson. It’s an article that offers great suggestions for nutrition, exercise and other natural anxiety solutions.

It’s included below…

List of 101 Ways to Treat Anxiety Naturally

Anxiety Busting

We are living in an age of neurotica. Anxiety is the leading mood disorder in Australia. According to the Australian Bureau of Statistics 45% of all mood disorders are anxiety based and they lead to millions of lost workdays each year. More important than not turning up to work though, are the other health problems that anxiety can cause.

The medical journals are full of the health side-effects of excessive anxiety. People who worry a lot are twice as likely to develop Alzheimer’s Disease (Neurology). Anxiety in the family doubles the children’s risk of developing diabetes (Diabetes Care). High levels of anxiety hormones cause a unique type of heart attack (New England Journal of Medicine). High anxiety levels can age you by a decade or more (PNAS). It is a really good idea to do something about your anxiety levels before they damage you and that does not mean just popping a pill or even seeing a counsellor.

There is plenty of evidence that many lifestyle and food choices do affect anxiety levels. People with chronic anxiety tend to have low levels of a neurotransmitter in the brain called serotonin. This serotonin has a calming effect and low levels contribute to anxiety. One way to increase serotinin levels is to eat carbohydrates. In one study people on high carbohydrate diets did better on memory tests than those on low carbohydrate diets because of the impact of carbohydrate on your brain. This is not a recommendation to live on sugar. The best carbohydrates are the complex ones from wholemeal foods and from low GI fruit and vegetables.

A cup of coffee may be something that you turn to at stressful moments but it actually one of the worst things that you could do. Despite giving you a temporary kick, caffeine actually worsens anxiety. It binds to receptors in your brain that would normally be occupied by a chemical that you make called adenosine. This adenosine is a feel-good chemical that relieves anxious feelings so caffeine in the long run is making you more anxious.

Likewise alcohol may seem like a short-term remedy but it makes things worse in the long run. In the short term alcoho is a relaxant but if you consume it regularly it reduces the effectiveness of a neurotansmitter in the brain called GABA. Ineffective GABA results in increased anxiety. On the other hand exericse, laughter and meditation all reduce anxiety.

Exercise causes the release of endorphins (feel-good chemicals) and also enhances oxygen transport around the body as well as promoting the removal of wastes. The result is that you have a greater general sense of wellbeing and less anxiety. Laughter busts anxiety by releasing excessive psychological energy. It has been shown to discharge tension from primitive parts of the brain like the amygdala. Scans of the brains of people who meditate on a regular basis show more activity in the left prefrontal lobe, the part of the brain involved in positive emotions and good mood.

Then there are the supplements that will ease anxiety. The mineral magnesium has been shown to reduce anxiety probably because of its affect on communication between nerves. Inositol is required for the action of several neurotransmitters including serotonin. Low levels of inositol in the brain do correlate with anxiety and depression. Vitamin B6 is needed for the formation of GABA. Taking a multivitamin on a daily basis has been shown to reduce scores on anxiety tests. The herb Chamomile has been used for thousands of years to relieve anxiety states and recent research has shown that the flavonoid apigenin from Chamomile binds to the same receptors on nerves as benzodiazepines (pharmaceutical antidepressants).

So based on all of this let’s make a quick recipe for an anti-anxiety start to your day;
Go for a 20 minute walk (boost endorphins)
Meditate for 10 minutes (switch on your left prefrontal lobe)
Have two slices of wholemeal raisin toast (carbohydrates lift serotonin and riasins contain vitamin B6)
or
Have a bowl of porridge with raisins and banana
Have a glass of orange juice (source of inositol)
Drink some Chamomile tea (anti-anxiety) instead of coffee
Take a multivitamin.

This is not a total answer to chronic anxiety but it is a good start to a pleasurable day. The real answers to anxiety busting are long term. I was lucky enough to attend some of the Happiness & Its Causes conference with the Dalai Lama in Sydney last week. I can’t communicate the breadth of the wisdom that was shared there from both Eastern and Western perspectives. However there was one point that most speakers, including the Dalai Lama agreed on. This is that happiness is something that comes from within you and it comes as the result of training. If your mind attaches to destructive thoughts that breed anxiety, then whatever else you do, you must also retrain that mind. One way to do this is through anlaytical meditation.

Take ten minutes at the end of the day to sit quietly and think over the day that you have just had. Remember the emotions and thoughts that you experienced and which ones led to a happy result. Make a conscious effort to reject your destructive patterning and embrace productive thoughts. I’m grossly oversimplifying some detailed concepts here but try training yourself to be happy and that is probably the best antidote to anxiety.