slides: 5 Natural Ways to Calm Your Anxiety
Thursday, May 21, 2015
Erin Brockmeyer, GoLocalPDX Natural Health Expert
Anxiety is scary. You feel crazy, alone and weak.
One of the biggest problems with anxiety is that even though you know your thoughts of impending doom are completely illogical, they cannot be stopped. In the beginning of the anxiety attack you may try to distract yourself, or you may reach for some alcohol or a drug — anything that makes you feel normal. I used to drink when I felt an anxiety attack starting because I knew that some of the physical sensations I had during attacks mimicked those of being slightly drunk, and then it felt like at least it made sense to feel that way. This is, of course, a slippery slope and has taken too many people down the road of substance abuse.
When you suffer from anxiety, you feel like your brain has somehow failed you. You are defective. You feel like there is no way out, even at the same time that you are sure there must be a way out. The fact that you are unable to find your own way out only adds to your feelings of failure and your anxiety. This is why you need to find help.
Asking for help — admitting that you cannot manage your anxiety on your own — does not make you weak. It helps you find the way out. Of course you cannot manage it yourself: anxiety is a battle of thoughts, and when you are locked into that thinking (by brain chemistry, stress, etc.), no amount of MORE thinking will get you out of it. Find someone you trust. Talk to someone who knows what it is like — people who have suffered from anxiety disorders and have found their way out are eager to help people who are still stuck. It is why I love to treat people with anxiety in my practice; I know what it is like to be there and you deserve to find a way out. I will say it again: do not suffer in silence. Do not cut yourself off from friends and family when your anxiety is bad. Do not try to act normal and just hope it goes away. Find some help.
If you need medication, use it. And keep reading for some highly effective ways of decreasing your anxiety (whether you are on meds or not).
See Slides Below: 5 Natural Ways to Calm Your Anxiety
Erin Brockmeyer, LAc, is owner and acupuncturist at Solstice Natural Health in downtown Portland. She creates custom health plans for patients to help them tackle their most complicated health concerns, including infertility, prenatal care, fibromyalgia, thyroid conditions and chronic and acute pain conditions. Visit her website for more information and to download her free e-book 5 Simple Ways to Improve Your Health Today.
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1. Get more sleep
Quality sleep. Not just any old restless interrupted sleep will do. If you have an anxiety disorder, someone telling you to get more sleep is kind of laughable. One of the biggest problems is often that you can’t sleep. You can’t shut off your brain long enough to stop the panic, and the more you try to quiet your brain the worse it gets.
So get help. Find an ND or a Chinese Medicine herbalist who can give you an herbal sleep aid. Ask your doctor for something to help. Fall asleep watching tv (I normally do not advocate this at all, but if you are desperate and can’t get into your doctor right away, don’t be afraid to put on a good old romantic comedy that you’ve watched 1000 times so you can fall asleep). Read a mindless book until you fall asleep. Use rose and lavender essential oils. Do what you need to to fall asleep. The less you sleep, the more anxiety you’ll have.
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2. Get acupuncture
Acupuncture changed my life when I had anxiety. I am not overstating. It is one of the reasons I became an acupuncturist. Acupuncture releases endorphins — natural feel good hormones in your body. It also is incredibly relaxing, and most people sleep much better the night of a treatment.
Your acupuncturist can treat the root of your anxiety while they treat the acute symptoms so that your anxiety actually gets better over the course of treatment. Acupuncture also has the added bonus of making your body and mind more connected, and in doing so you may be able to more easily recognize the triggers to your anxiety. Recognizing your triggers can help you tailor your treatment and find some control.
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3. Drink less caffeine
You already know this, but I am imploring you to try to cut caffeine out of your life if you suffer from an anxiety disorder. Caffeine increases blood pressure and increases your heart rate. An increase in heart rate, or palpitations, is often one of the first signs of an anxiety attack. Once you feel the palpitations begin it is often enough to start your anxiety rolling. Cut down slowly, and don’t trick yourself into thinking that you need it because you aren’t sleeping enough — the caffeine is only going to make that harder.
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4. Exercise
Movement can help you in several ways. It gives you the space to clear your head without being the kind of too-quiet space that can trigger your anxiety. You still have to pay attention to your body and your surroundings when you jog in a way that sitting alone at home does not afford you. It can also help you release endorphins, which are calming and make you feel happy. It is also theorized that increasing your body temperature has a calming effect, and this could be one more reason why exercise works. Choose anything that sounds appealing and go for it — it can only help.
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5. Pay attention to your hormones
Hormonal imbalances can be triggers to anxiety. New moms have it happen all the time in the early postpartum period, and pregnant women are also susceptible to anxiety issues that go beyond the commonplace fears of pregnancy.
Anxiety can be triggered when almost any hormonal system goes awry, from the estrogen-progesterone system of women's health to blood sugar issues, thyroid issues, adrenal issues.
If you have been dealing with anxiety for a while, one of the best things you can do is to complete a timeline of noteworthy events/times that seem to have been part of your disorder. Sometimes you can trace the start of your anxiety back to a specific trigger, or to a period of time in your life. You may also notice that it coincides with other noteworthy physical issues, like the start of menses or menopause, a thyroid condition, or a big life change. This timeline is something I often do with my patients, but it can be helpful in any area of healthcare, and doing one may give your health care provider a starting point for running tests or for choosing treatment options.
Anxiety is one of those ailments that people who don’t have it just don’t get. For those of you who have suffered from it, you know that this is true, and it only serves to make you feel even more alone and wrong in your suffering. Sure a lot of people take a Xanax when they fly or if they have a stressful day, but if you really and truly suffer from day in and day out anxiety, you need to find ways of dealing with it, and you may not always want or need that to take the form of medication. Anxiety is not something to mess around with, so if your it feels truly out of control or is impacting your life in noticeable ways you need to address it with a healthcare provider of some sort who has experience treating it — a naturopath, acupuncturist, psychiatrist, psychologist or an MD.
