When dealing with a psychological condition, you want to make sure that you take the right approach.
Behavior
Natural remedies for anxiety
When dealing with a psychological condition, you want to make sure that you take the right approach.
After all, you only get one mind, and looking after it as well as possible means that you are in the best possible condition for years to come and can make the most of life. This can involve turning to natural remedies in addition to the medication more widely prescribed by medical professionals. Find out more about what anxiety is, what natural remedies are, and a series of natural remedies that can lessen your symptoms and improve your quality of life.
Education resources
What is anxiety?
Anxiety affects a vast proportion of the population in the United States and worldwide every year. This leaves millions of people dealing with a highly treatable mental health condition and potentially not knowing the best way to resolve their issues. Anxiety disorder, or anxiety, is a feeling of unease, fear, or worry that varies from mild to severe. Examples of anxiety include worrying about performing in an exam, having a medical test, or trying a food that is entirely new to you when you have a relevant phobia.
These cases of anxiety are entirely understandable, but some people find it far harder to control their worries. These feelings of anxiety can be constant and affect daily life by limiting the activities that people feel safe enough to complete. Some anxiety symptoms include feeling restless and worried and having trouble concentrating or sleeping when waiting for an event, with extreme cases leading to physical symptoms such as heart palpitations.
What are natural remedies for anxiety?
Natural remedies refer to solutions people use when dealing with their anxiety in a way that doesn’t require products from the pharmaceutical industry. People have many reasons for trying natural remedies, including opposition to the pharmaceutical industry, cutting costs throughout various aspects of their life, and simply preferring to use organic and unrefined options. This includes trying certain foods and supplements and involves using techniques such as therapies and conversation.
12 natural remedies for anxiety
There are several natural remedies that people use when looking to resolve their anxiety. These use a combination of conversation, scientific processes, and thorough research to resolve ongoing fears and worries that people are suffering. Depending on the specific remedy you choose, you can deal with the cause of the anxiety and its symptoms. Some natural remedies for anxiety include:
1. Group therapy
Group therapy is a situation in which you, a series of people with the same condition as you, and a psychological expert all gather in one place to discuss the issue. This includes talking about your specific triggers, the way that you respond to these triggers, and some of the methods you used to respond to the challenges of your anxiety. One of the benefits of using group therapy is that you know that the rest of the people in the room suffer from the same issue as you. However, some people prefer to avoid group therapy sessions as these rely on significant social interaction.
2. Individual therapy
Individual therapy is a session similar to group therapy, with the main difference being that you deal with your issues in a one-to-one conversation with a therapy expert. In these sessions, a therapist can discuss your issues, where they come from, and some ideal steps for resolving your anxiety issues. Some therapists have specializations in certain areas of work, so try looking for an anxiety therapist, or more specifically, a therapist dealing with the type of anxiety you suffer from.
3. Getting more magnesium
Having all of the right vitamins and minerals in our body is essential for physical and mental health, which is why the American tendency not to get enough minerals could cause anxiety. magnesium is one of these minerals, and plenty of research shows that magnesium is an excellent tool for fending off anxiety. You can try using either a supplement or creating recipes that use a lot of magnesium, with useful foodstuffs including almonds, black beans, cashews, and spinach.
4. Increasing your vitamin D intake
There are several chemicals, or hormones, in the brain that affect the way that we feel. Hormones are a fundamental part of dealing with anxiety, and regaining a good hormonal balance makes the difference when fighting off the condition. Vitamin D has clear links to the level of serotonin in the brain, a mood-boosting hormone that also helps people to feel calmer. You can get more vitamin D by spending more time in the sun or taking specific supplements. Spending more time in the sun is a better option that works closely in tandem with some natural remedies for anxiety.
5. Try CBD oil
In marijuana, two active chemicals affect how people think and behave. The first is THC, a mood-altering substance providing people with a ‘high’. CBD is the other chemical in marijuana and has several benefits on how people deal with their anxieties. This helps to calm the nerves and reduce blood pressure and is available to people without needing a prescription. Additionally, you can use CBD oil and still work and drive a car. There are several ways of using CBD oil, including edibles and tablets.
6. Think about alternative therapy
Alternative therapy refers to therapies that are not necessarily medically licensed but can still provide some form of benefit to a patient. This includes reducing the level of anxiety that a person feels. Some examples of alternative therapies include:
- Acupuncture: Acupuncture is an Eastern medical practice that is an effective treatment for anxiety, with peer-reviewed research demonstrating its efficacy.
- Animal therapy: Animal therapy is the process of spending time with animals to improve your mood and reduce your anxiety levels. This is also the idea behind the use of emotional support dogs.
- Hypnotherapy: Hypnotherapy is the process of using hypnosis to change your state of mind. Some hypnotherapists use this to reduce fear, stress, and the risk of panic disorders.
- Music therapy: Music therapy involves listening to calming and gentle music and associating positive feelings with that music. In an anxious or stressful situation, someone using music therapy listens to the music and subconsciously becomes calmer.
- Aromatherapy: Aromatherapy refers to diffusing essential oils such as lavender and their calming properties to treat anxiety symptoms.
- Guided imagery: Guided imagery, or visualization, refers to the use of meditation in combination with imagined landscapes, creating a calming and relaxing place in an anxiety sufferer’s mind.
7. Meditate
Mindfulness is a significant part of improving your response to stressful situations. It involves a more consistent understanding of your mind, what makes you feel in specific ways, and how you respond in these difficult circumstances. People achieve mindfulness by doing meditation. If you don’t know where to start, consider downloading a meditation app with guided sessions to take you through the basics of meditating. If meditation doesn’t work for you, you could try a more active alternative such as tai chi.
8. Do journaling
Journaling refers to writing down your emotions, actions, and plans for each day of your life. This is essentially the same as keeping a diary and is the perfect outlet for releasing any pent-up stress and anxiety. As you express these stresses through writing a journal, they are no longer pent up, and there is less risk of an outburst happening soon. This limits the chance of your anxiety symptoms occurring and can lead to you discovering the causes of anxiety attacks.
9. Try more outdoor activities
Being outside and participating in activities is another significant way of reducing anxiety’s impact on your life. There is growing evidence that spending more time in nature can improve our mental health, so consider going on nature walks or long hikes if you feel like life is getting to be a little bit too much. This also boosts the amount of vitamin D you get, combining several solutions.
If you feel ready for it, participating in team sports is an ideal way of getting involved in more outside activities. Some people have social anxiety, which makes this step a struggle, but plenty of people with other forms of anxiety improve their mental health by participating in group activities like soccer or baseball. This combines the fresh air with completing plenty of exercises and results in being better in social situations and getting the benefits of being outdoors.
10. Start to exercise more
If you don’t feel ready for outdoor activities, start doing more basic exercises wherever possible. Your mind is a part of your larger body, which means that when your body suffers, so does your brain. Exercising increasingly means that you improve your physical shape and limit the anxiety you feel about how people perceive you. This doesn’t have to be outside and can include simple things such as circuit training, running on the treadmill, or even just a short bike ride down the river. As long as you exercise, you improve your chances of dealing with anxiety properly.
11. Stop taking caffeine
One of the main reasons that people take caffeine throughout the day is because it acts as a stimulant. Stimulants mean that you have more energy and your brain is more active than it would be without them. However, when your brain naturally defaults to being anxious, greater brain activity is far from what you need. In addition to the mental effects, studies have shown that there are significant physical symptoms that you suffer from when taking caffeine, such as a greater heart rate and shakiness, both symptoms of heightened levels of anxiety.
12. Stop smoking
Smoking is terrible for anxiety for a few reasons. The first of these is that an addiction to smoking leads to consistent withdrawal symptoms once you spend some time without a cigarette. Some of these symptoms include a higher degree of paranoia. The earlier you stop smoking, the less anxiety you feel when you don’t smoke, and you improve your general health simultaneously. If you smoke and suffer from issues such as health anxiety, stopping smoking can be an immediate way of improving your issues.
