What Is Natural Anxiety Treatment?

I recently created a follow up note to my recent post regarding anti-anxiety drugs. This was prompted as a result of a concerned reader who felt that I was supporting unregulated “natural” remedies. This lead me to wonder how many other people out there were not understanding my message. So I became concerned and wanted to convey to everyone my interpretation of what a natural treatment is.

Now first things first, this issue is debatable. You can go for days with someone that doesn’t agree with you about what exactly a natural anxiety treatment is. I wanted to throw that out there in case someone wants to chat about what is and is not a natural treatment. My purpose today however is not to excite you but only to inform you about what I believe to be natural treatments for anxiety disorder(s).

First and foremost the vast majority of the things that I support and write about on this blog are things that we can do physically. I want to lay out a few of the core physical actions (and a little food advice) we can partake in to help ourselves cope with anxiety.

Exercise: We all know what this is. So I don’t have to go into great detail. Exercise is, for me, a natural way to cope with stress and anxiety. It allows your body to release endorphins (feel good brain chemicals) that result from moderate to intense workouts that last more than 30 minutes.

Positive thinking : I also think of positive thinking as self talk. This is a technique whereby you tell yourself and think to yourself positive messages of motivation and reassurance. You pick a mantra and repeat it in an effort to reprogram you negative thought patterns.

Meditation : This as we all know is an intense state of relaxation that is meant to take you beyond normal thinking. There are various forms of meditation but generally it involves certain types of breathing, sitting/standing positions, visualization and the attempt to reach a very quiet, peaceful state of mind.

Healthy Diet : We have all been schooled on this topic from early childhood. But essentially the goal here is to eat a balanced diet of healthy food. This would include reducing sugar and caffeine intake and also eating less fatty foods. In addition I have recommended supplements such as fish oil and vitamins (b, c, etc). Past eating right, vitamins and fish oil I have not suggested any other so called natural remedy. That includes herbs and concoctions made from other various natural ingredients. Are herbs natural? Yes they are but I am simply pointing out what I use and do – and more importantly what I have encouraged others to do and use as a means of coping with anxiety. The food issue is tricky, but lets just say for now that vitamins and fish oil supplements are all the natural eatables I promote aside from your everyday food like fruits, veggies, meats, etc.

Education : This is a key part of my natural treatment plan. This simply involves you learning as much as you can about your anxiety disorder so that you understand fully what is happening to you both physically and mentally. It is also important so that you can know how to cope effectively. This allows us to remove the mystery and reveal the real source of our angst and not just go about our lives scared and confused.

Acceptance, Letting go, Patience : This is by far the core of my natural treatment plan. To accept all the things you feel and think so that your mind and body can rest. And so that you can condition yourself to not fear your fear as much as you do now. Letting go is what you do when you accept and having patience, well that is just the understanding that this anxiety business will not just leave. It will however slowly subside overtime once you have mastered the acceptance of your anxiety disorder.

Breathing techniques : There are several different kinds of breathing techniques but virtually all of them are designed to slow you and your mind down. Generally speaking it focuses on slow, sometimes to a count, breathing to increase oxygen and reduce stress and hyperventilation. There is much more to this but I think you understand.

There you have it. For me and my message this is the extent of my natural treatment. Are there more natural treatments in the world? Absolutely there is, but I have yet to explore, research or understand them. And until that time I have and make no further recommendations on natural treatments.

Do I sound a little riled up? Well that is only because I want to be clear about what my message is. I think that the concerned reader is not a regular reader/listener of mine and so I understand the mix up. But nonetheless the reality is that not all people that read my posts will be familiar with my message. They may only catch today’s blurb on news effecting the anxiety disorder community, symptom posts, etc.

Lastly, I still say that anti-anxiety drugs should be a last resort – not your first choice when dealing with anxiety. Drugs should be reserved for those times when things get out of control, but even then drugs should only be used under the supervision of a doctor and on a temporary basis only.

I really don’t think that I could be any more unambiguous about what natural treatments are for Anxiety Guru. My conception of coping techniques are wrapped in our own ability to help ourselves and our capacity to learn new things to adapt to our nervous problem. I write this blog because I care and want to help, never would I jeopardize anyones health or sanity. Believe me it’s not like I don’t already know that you have enough going on in your daily struggle to be “normal”. I am here to help and provide you with what is hopefully useful information presented in a mildly entertaining fashion. I am like you in the sense that I deal with anxiety on a regular basis. I am not a preacher, but a practitioner of what I outlined above. Over the years these techniques have helped me a great deal and I hope that I can share them with as many people as possible. Remember to keep it natural.