No More Stress Monthly

May, 2007

The No More Stress Monthly is a newsletter that provides featured articles on depression prevention, proper anxiety treatment techniques, reviews of natural depression treatments, interviews with psychologists, and information on both adult depression and teen depression, stress, and anxiety. The No More Stress Monthly is brought to you by Stress-Anxiety-Depression.org.

Anxiety Treatments

By Dr. Edward F. Group III, DC, ND, DACBN

Anxiety is an exhausting condition, both mentally and physically. It can zap your energy, reduce your physical capabilities, and diminish your mental condition. But there are several steps that you can take to reduce your level of anxiety and recapture your ability to enjoy life.

Eat Up and Eat Right

The first step to controlling anxiety is taking care of your body. It needs over forty different nutrients on a daily basis to maintain and repair cells. Make an effort to eat a balanced and nutritious diet and drink plenty of water to give yourself the physical energy you’ll need to handle stressful occasions.

Get Physical

Exercise can be a great stress and anxiety reliever. It helps to improve your circulation, boost your self-esteem and take your mind off of stress. Swimming, running, biking, skiing, hiking, aerobics, and tennis are just a few of the physical activities you can engage in to stay in shape and reduce anxiety.

Sleep Tight

Poor sleep and high levels of anxiety can go hand in hand. And it’s often difficult to determine which situation is the cause and which is the effect, so in order to break this vicious cycle, make an effort to get quality sleep. Try to go to sleep at the same time every night. Take several deep breaths and relax for the last half hour before bed. Avoid stressful activities like watching the evening news, paying bills, or cleaning the house. Make it a family activity to spend the last half hour of your day reading, sharing stories, or relaxing some other way.

Relax

If you frequently suffer from anxiety, it’s a good idea to practice relaxation techniques to calm your mind and alleviate some of the symptoms of your condition. Regularly practicing relaxation will also give you the tools necessary to stay calm and focused when a particularly stressful event pops up. Yoga, tai-chi, guided imagery, and deep breathing techniques can help you reconnect your mind and your body, ease your stress, and calm your body.

Find Natural Relief

For those who suffer from chronic and persistent anxiety, nature offers a number of safe and effective anxiety treatments. The most common and popular herbs used for anxiety are kava, valerian, hops, and passionflower.
Kava works to calm the body, relax muscles, and clear the emotional center of the brain. It’s useful for headaches, backaches and other tension. Valerian reduces anxiety, alleviates tension, and improves sleep. Hops, or Humulus lupulus, have been used for centuries as a mild sedative and sleeping aid. It helps to calm the nerves and induce sleep. And passionflower can be used to promote a deep, restful, and consistent sleep. It’s also commonly used in the treatment of concentration problems in children.

Get To the Point

In traditional Asian theories, anxiety is seen as a dysfunction of the heart because the heart is said to be the seat of the mind and spirit. This heart dysfunction can either be due to a deficiency of the Chi or the presence of phlegm and heat. Acupuncture can be used to treat this condition by stimulating the Chi, or eliminating phlegm and heat in the heart. Insertion points may also be chosen to strengthen and calm the mind and spirit.

Get Help

If you can't manage your anxiety by yourself, don't be afraid to ask for help. Friends and family may be able to provide the emotional support that you need to overcome your anxiety. A therapist or counselor can also be a useful resource for helping you manage your anxiety. Desensitization therapy helps those who suffer from anxiety disorders develop a resistance to the objects or situations that are triggering their symptoms. This type of therapy requires a great deal of physical and emotional energy from the patient. But it can also produce long-lasting results. Group therapy can help you connect with others who suffer from anxiety and understand its physical, mental, and emotional symptoms. If your condition is severe, your health care professional may recommend a prescription medication.

A number of medications are used in the treatment of anxiety. Antidepressants, such as tricyclic antidepressants, selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors (SSRIs,) or monoamine oxidase inhibitors (MAOIs), work by inhibiting the absorption of a chemical or several chemicals in the brain that could lead to feelings of anxiety. Benzodiazepines are high potency anti-anxiety medications that can be effective at quickly relieving the symptoms of anxiety. Buspirone, or Bu Spar, is a newer anti-anxiety medication that is used in the treatment of generalized anxiety disorder. Propanolol and other beta blockers that are commonly used in the treatment of heart disorders have also been found effective in the temporary treatment of anxiety, especially social anxiety disorder. If an anxiety-causing social situation, such as a public speech, can be predicted in advance, the patient can take a beta blocker to prevent heart palpitations, sweating, shaking hands, and other similar symptoms of anxiety.

Learn more about stress, anxiety, depression and the newest natural remedies at www.stress-anxiety-depression.org.