How to Overcome Excessive Anxiety
Stress and anxiety are normal parts of life. However, prolonged stress and high anxiety can be debilitating and may even contribute to memory impairment. Fortunately the following suggestions from studies, articles, books and videos compiled by the American Brain Council reflect some of the most effective strategies known for reducing this stress and anxiety.
Fortunately the following suggestions from studies, articles, books and videos compiled by the American Brain Council reflect some of the most effective strategies known for reducing this stress and anxiety.
If you are a person who suffers from excessive anxiety then you know how miserable and debilitating it can be, as well as how hard it can be to reduce or overcome those feelings.
While there are medications that can help with this, generally they have side effects and can become addicting, leading to other unpleasant or damaging consequences. Some medications can blunt emotions to the extent that not only will the person not feel anxiety, they become unable to feel sorrow when appropriate, as in the death of a loved one, nor joy as well.
Moreover, some anxiety meds, particularly the Benzodiazapines, as well as some sedatives have been shown to increase the risk for cognitive decline, memory problems and eventually even dementia. However, prolonged anxiety and the elevated cortisol that comes with it, can also damage delicate cells in the hippocampus, the memory center of our brain, with the same eventual outcome -- an increased risk for dementia down the road. So what’s a body to do?
If the statement above causes you some anxiety, not to worry, the good news is there are now a host of strategies and practices that have been shown in controlled scientific studies, plus millions of lives all over the world, to be extraordinarily effective in addressing the root causes of anxiety and overcoming the angst of this distressing emotion. And more and more people, for the reasons noted above, are turning to these, although many don’t know where to find them. For this reason we have compiled some of the best practices below.
However before we go there, often people on meds ask:
“Why Didn’t My Doctor Tell Me About These?”
There are several good reasons for that. Go here for a good indepth review of how and why most M.D.s don’t promote, and don’t often prescribe the following.
For our purposes here is an abbreviated answer. (If you already know the answer to this question or don’t care to, you can skip to The Synergistic Advantage below.
First, when modern medicine took over the field of health care, in the early part of the twentieth century, the focus was on finding new remedies that were quick and effective, and ideally in a pill form that was easy to take to alleviate the suffering as quickly as possible, with as little hassle as possible.
Armed with that focus and new scientific knowledge from the field of biochemistry pharmaceutical companies were formed to find and develop these new more effective medications.
Of course, there were other traditional and herbal remedies that different cultures had used for millennia, meditation practices from the far East, herbs and oils from the middle East and the various practices of endogenous people of other continents including the Americas.
However, the US government ruled that patents could not be granted for medicines that mother nature has already developed. So in order for these new companies to make a decent profit they had to come up with new compounds, that were at least somewhat different in their chemical composition than those found in nature. And in doing so they found that many of these could stop pain, and otherwise take effect faster than the herbs and spices that grandma used.
But… because these were different than what our bodies were designed for (either by God or evolution) most of these new “drugs,” as they were called, came with significant side effects – as noted above. (See also www.drugs.com “side effects” following each medication description.)
With the marriage of this newer more “scientific” medicine, with pharmaceutical companies, doctors adopted the practice of prescribing these newly developed pills and shots, in place of the old traditional “unscientific” herbal tonics and other “natural” medicines. In fact, until recently, the whole field of diet and nutrition, meditation, and other ancient practices were basically ignored as irrelevant, or “quackery,” in this new focus of modern medicine.
Therefore, if your doctor was a regular M.D. who has been practicing for more than 10 years, it’s likely they were well schooled in the use or pharmaceutical meds, but not very familiar with alternative therapies in the fields of nutrition, mind control, relaxation, breathing techniques, light therapies, etc. Moreover, since most of these older therapies lacked strong empirical (scientific) support, or their studies were not published in modern medical journals, most doctors are not aware of them. And like any of us, doctors are likely to go with what they know, i.e. pharmaceutical meds, rather than one of these “unproven” alternative therapies.
Nevertheless, in recent years there have been great strides made in cellular biology and these other “complementary” fields. So many of these older traditional practices, like meditation and the use of herbal remedies, as well as more modern nutritional insights, are now proving to be very effective for various conditions, including anxiety and depression reduction.
Many books have been written and videos made on these topics and how they help to reduce anxiety, and we will link you to some of these below. But in this article we want to share and link you to 4 strategies which have been shown to be exceptionally effective in dealing with anxiety.
If you can’t wait:
If you are in a hurry or just want a quick fix, you may want to skip to 4 Simple Steps to Neutralize Anxiety On The Spot at the end of this article.
The Synergistic Advantage
Each of these approaches to reducing anxiety have been shown, independently, in studies to be effective for that purpose. However, it’s when they are combined that they can have the greatest impact. For instance, certain nutrients, vitamins, minerals, proteins, and fatty acids have been shown to be helpful in addressing biological factors that can contribute to anxiety.
As an example, thanks to the pharmaceutical industry, or at least the scientists that support that industry, we know that if a person is low in a chemical messenger called serotonin, they are more likely to feel anxious or depressed. Therefore they have developed a variety of meds, called SSRI’s (selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors), which help to keep the body from wasting this important neurotransmitter. But for some people they can have side effects.
However, there is a protein or amino-acid called L-tryptophan that comes in most high protein foods, like fish, nuts, seeds, beans and eggs, that can supply key building blocks to generate more serotonin. But L-tryptophan is more likely to increase serotonin, if it is taken along with foods or supplements containing Vitamin B-6, pyridoxine, and the mineral magnesium. These three together are much more powerful than each taken alone. We call this combined effect “synergy”. So normally 1 plus 2 equals 3, but in this case these 3 taken together can achieve a much greater effect, like a 6 or 10 on a Likert scale. We call that a synergistic effect - the whole effect, working together, is much greater than the sum of the separate parts.
Now to extend that example. We also know that physical activity, like going for a walk, can reduce cortisol, and also have a calming effect. However, if a person is lacking some of the chemistry of calm, like serotonin and GABA, the effects of exercise on anxiety will not be as great as it could be if the body had the nutrients it needed to produce more of those calming transmitters.
Moreover, exercise can also facilitate the digestion and assimilation of those calming nutrients, and help to provide better circulation of these to the brain where they can perform their intended function. Additionally, exercise can facilitate the production of endorphins, that help us feel good, and BDNF (brain-derived neurotrophic factor), which promotes the growth of new brain cells – to replace any lost due to high cortisol. So physical activity can enable us to get “more bang-for-our-buck,” out of the food we eat.
So we can say that good nutrition/diet and exercise, when combined, can produce a powerful synergistic effect that would not be near as great if these were not done together.
Two More Powerful Agents of Calm
So in the pages that follow we will share more about the foods and food supplements that have been shown to help relieve the angst of anxiety. As well as some of the physical activities that have been found to be helpful in this regard as well. But then we will also go into the value of, and link you to more information on, several Relaxation Techniques, that you can use anytime and almost anywhere to relieve anxiety, as well as various ways to promote better Rest/Sleep and Relief from the stressors and dangers of our world.
Once you gain command of a few of these ancient and new techniques and practices, and begin to apply them in concert, we think you will find a renewed synergistic power and inner strength that will make it much easier to deal with the difficulties in your life free from the debilitating effects of anxiety.
