The world can be a terrifying place at times, and we’ve all been reminded of that in 2020. It’s been a hard year so far, and it’s tested the coping mechanisms of even the hardest of it. If you’re someone who’s prone to feelings of anxiety and you’ve felt it pulling at you recently, you won’t be alone. Many of us know the feeling of anxiety creeping up on us and have learned to dread it, and most of us have our own strategies for dealing with it. Sometimes, though, those coping strategies aren’t enough.
When the normal methods fail, and we find that our anxiety is getting in the way of our day-to-day lives, the easiest thing to do is to call the doctor and ask to be medicated. That works for some people, and we mean no offense by this article if it works for you. It doesn’t work for everyone, though, and that’s becoming more apparent as more and more people start to realize that they have an anxiety problem. Many experts believe that there’s an anxiety epidemic in the world at the moment, and they have the statistics to prove it. If the trend continues, we’ll be in danger of becoming a society where almost everyone is on prescription medication, and that can’t be a good thing.
Almost every form of anxiety medication synthesized in a lab and prescribed to you by a doctor has side effects, and you can’t know whether or not you’ll be affected by them until you’ve started taking the pills. Instead of automatically reaching for a prescription, you might want to consider trying one of these all-natural anxiety treatments instead.
Five Natural Ways to Treat Anxiety
Hops
No, we don’t mean you should stand on one leg and start hopping around your home. As any beer drinker will know, hops are a key component in beer. We’re not advocating drinking beer to treat your anxiety, though. When taken in isolation, hops contain a volatile oil that acts as a sedative, which can help to take the edge off your anxiety. You might be able to find it or use it in tea, although its bitter taste means that this might not be the most pleasant way to consume it. Instead, try to find it offered as an aromatherapy product or even inside a hops pillow. A few hours lying on a hops pillow might be all you need to regain your calm and focus and keep anxiety at bay for another day. As an added bonus, some studies suggest that it can even help you to sleep.
Lemon Balm
We like to think that our lives are more complicated and anxiety-inducing today than the lives of our ancestors were, but that isn’t necessarily true. Anxiety treatments have existed since at least the Middle Ages, and back then, lemon balm was commonly used to treat such a condition. There are a few ways you might choose to consume lemon balm as an anxiety aid, but the most common of them are as a tablet, as a tincture, and in tea. As it’s an adaptable ingredient, you might even wish to combine it with another anxiety-reducing substance like chamomile or even hops, as we mentioned previously. Be careful with dosages, though; too much lemon balm may increase your anxiety instead of reducing it.
Passionflower
Here’s a herb that American audiences won’t know much about, but European audiences might. Passionflower has been approved for use as a sedative by the government of Germany and is used widely as a stress and anxiety treatment there. Like other anxiety cures, it’s also just as potent as a cure for insomnia. It’s actually a little more potent than the other two suggestions we’ve made thus far, and so it’s suggested that people don’t take it for more than thirty days consecutively. As a sedative, passionflower has the potential to make anybody who takes it drowsy, so it shouldn’t be taken in conjunction with any other sedatives or if you’re required to be alert and active at all times. Taken just before you try to get to sleep, though, it could be your key to a restful night.
Breathe to Control Anxiety
There’s a reason that learning to breathe properly forms a central part of most yoga classes. Our bodies are complicated in a lot of ways but surprisingly simple in others. As an example, they struggle to generate an anxiety response and process a deep breath at the same time. That’s why deep breathing exercises can stop anxiety dead in its tracks. The 4-7-8 technique is especially popular, and it goes like this. Breathe in deeply through your nose, counting to four as you do so. Hold your breath, and count to seven. Once you reach seven, breathe out slowly through your mouth while you count to eight. Repeat this twice, and you should feel noticeably calmer than you did before you started. You can do this any time you feel like your anxiety is building up, but doing it twice in the morning and twice before you go to bed at night should help you get through the day.
Stop Skipping Breakfast
There might be a correlation between people who don’t eat breakfast, and people who suffer from anxiety. Research into this field isn’t yet at an advanced enough stage to draw conclusions, but if you’re someone who doesn’t eat breakfast and you suffer from anxiety, you might want to find out whether eating breakfast does anything to solve the problem. One possible reason for the connection is that anxiety sufferers often demonstrate low levels of choline in their systems. Most of the choline our bodies need comes from food ingestion. Eggs, in particular, are a good source of choline. Have an egg in the morning, and feel like a good egg all day!
Anxiety is an unpleasant condition to experience it, and if you’re dealing with it at the moment, we hope you feel better soon. If these small tips can help you find a way to deal with it, we’ll be even happier.
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