✓ Curcumin
The medicinal and ancient power of the prestigious turmeric root is undeniable, it is simply one of the most beneficial medicinal herbs of our time. Recently, several scientific studies have confirmed the benefits of turmeric root as a natural treatment for anxiety, depression and stress relief. Indeed, Curcumin is widely used by people with seasonal or emotional depression by reducing stress levels; it said to stimulate the central nervous system by increasing serotonin levels.
Turmeric Powder, Turmeric Capsules
✓ Boswellia
Traditional Ayurvedic medicine has suggested that Boswellia can be used in therapeutic anxiety and stress prevention. Indeed, Boswellia extract is known to have a relaxing and calming effects on the brain by helping to balance stress hormones (cortisol).
✓ MultiVitamins
Multivitamins are said to contribute to a good mental health because they would help to produce serotonin and melatonin, the anti-stress hormones. A lack of certain vitamins such as B vitamins or magnesium leads to emotional fragility as they are known to reduce anxiety and fatigue.
✓ Ashwagandha
Ashwagandha, or Withania somnifera, is in a group of herbs called “adaptogens”. Adaptogens affect the systems and hormones in the body that regulate a person’s stress response. Ashwagandha has a long history of use in traditional Indian medicine, or Ayurvedic, and it has been investigated about its efficacy for stress and anxiety. It has been shown that those who take ashwagandha show less cortisol, the stress hormone, than those who do not. They also experience better sleep quality.
✓ Valerian
Valerian is a plant native to Europe and Asia. Its scientific name is Valeriana officinalis. For many centuries, people have used its root to help treat sleep problems, anxiety and depression. Valerian root is available in the following forms: tea, tablet, powder or tincture.
✓ Kava Kava
Piper methysticum, or Kava, is a shrub native to the islands of the Pacific Ocean. People of these islands and from other parts of the world use kava in a ceremonial drink to relieve stress and alter mood. Kava drinkers showed a significant reduction in anxiety compared to non-kava drinkers.
✓ Passionflower
✓ Lavender Oil
Lavender essential oil has long been used for relieving anxiety and calming nerves. This oil contains chemicals called terpenes which may have a calming effect on chemical receptors in the brain. That is why lavender essential oil may be an effective short-term treatment for anxiety disorders.
Anxiety Home Remedies
When an individual is faced with potentially harmful or worrisome triggers, feelings of anxiety are not only normal but necessary for survival.
From the earliest days of humankind, the proximity of predators and imminent danger sets off alarms in the body and allows for evasive action. These alarms become noticeable in the form of elevated heart rate, sweating and increased sensitivity to the environment.[1]
Danger triggers a rush of adrenaline, a hormone and chemical messenger in the brain, which in turn triggers anxiety reactions in a process called the “fight or flight” response. This prepares humans to physically confront or flee from any potential threat to their safety.
For many people, fleeing from larger animals and imminent danger is a less pressing concern than it would have been for early humans. Anxiety now revolves around work, money, family life, health and other crucial issues that demand a person’s attention without necessarily requiring the fight or flight reaction.
Nervousness before a major life event or during a difficult situation is a natural echo of the original fight or flight reaction. It may still be essential for survival, for example, anxiety about being hit by a car while crossing the street causes a person to instinctively look both ways to avoid danger.
Anxiety is a feeling of fear, dread and unease. It can cause you to sweat, feel restless and tense, and have palpitations. It can be a normal reaction to stress.[2] For example, you may feel anxious when facing a difficult problem at work, before taking a test, or before making an important decision. While anxiety can help you cope with a situation, as well as give you a boost of energy or help you concentrate, for people with anxiety disorders the fear is not temporary and can be overwhelming.[3]
Occasional anxiety is a normal part of life. However, people with anxiety disorders often have intense, excessive and persistent worries and fears about everyday situations. Anxiety disorders often involve repeated episodes of sudden feelings of intense anxiety and fear or terror that peak within minutes (panic attacks).[4]
These feelings of anxiety and panic are difficult to control, are disproportionate to the actual danger and can last for a long time. In order to prevent these feelings, it may happen that you avoid certain places or situations. Symptoms may begin in childhood or adolescence and continue into adulthood.[5]
Some examples of anxiety disorder are: generalised anxiety disorder, social anxiety disorder (social phobia), panic disorder,…. You can have more than one anxiety disorder. Sometimes anxiety arises from an illness that requires treatment.
An anxiety disorder is a condition where anxiety does not go away and can get worse over time. Symptoms of anxiety disorders can interfere with daily activities, such as performance at work, school and relationships. Anxiety disorders are often accompanied by other conditions such as depression, eating disorders or substance abuse.[6]
The cause of anxiety is not known. Factors such as genetics, biology and brain chemistry, stress and your environment may play a role.[7]
What is the best thing for anxiety?
First, you have to accept your situation! The more we suffer, the more we tend to feel bad about the discomfort we feel. This creates a vicious circle: we feel guilty, which feeds stress and the development or reinforcement of anxiety. Accepting that we are currently suffering is the first step towards understanding our situation and developing more positive habits.
But it is also important to welcome your emotions. Since our childhood, we have learned to hide our emotions, especially our negative emotions like anger, fear or sadness. These emotions are part of us, and must be felt and welcomed fully in order to be released. So don't feel guilty if you need to let them out, it will help you feel better and let go!
What are 5 symptoms of anxiety?
- Numbness, tingling, sweating and trembling;
- Having an increased heart rate and breathing rapidly;
- Difficulty concentrating or thinking about anything other than the present worry;
- Having a sense of impending danger, panic, doom and fear of dying;
- Sleep disturbances.
What is the main cause of anxiety?
The way we think and act when faced with certain situations can play a role in the development of anxiety. Some people may perceive situations as more dangerous than they really are (e.g. fear of flying). Others may have had a bad experience and fear that it will happen again (e.g. dog bite). Psychologists believe that childhood experiences may also play a role in the development of anxiety.
Researchers have learned that certain imbalances in brain chemistry can contribute to the development of anxiety disorders. Among the neurotransmitters (chemical messengers) in the brain that play a role in anxiety are serotonin, norepinephrine and gamma-aminobutyric acid. Scientists have also noted that anxiety is accompanied by changes in the activity of certain brain regions. Many anxiety disorders run in families and are likely to have a genetic cause.
Sometimes anxiety symptoms are caused by certain conditions such as anaemia and thyroid disorders. Other factors such as caffeine, alcohol and certain medications can also trigger anxiety symptoms.
Anxiety disorders are sometimes triggered by traumatic events, such as the death of a loved one, war and natural disasters such as hurricanes or earthquakes.
What is the best way to deal with anxiety?
But the most important is to use mindfulness to connect to the present moment. Mindfulness is the perfect antidote to anxiety. When you are anxious, the first step should be to stop, slow down, breathe deeply and connect with your five senses in the present moment.
Ask yourself the questions "What am I hearing right now?", "What am I seeing?", "What am I touching?", "What am I tasting?" and "What am I smelling?".
Then talk to your wrapped up brain, which is afraid right now, believing the fear phantasm, and say out loud "I am here, and right now, in this moment, I am safe, I am fine, everything is fine, there is nothing to worry about". It's like deploying an army of Canadair planes to put out a fire of anxiety that is ravaging your privacy.
Most of your moments are good moments if you can connect with them. If you can't, because your head is filled with worries and fantasies of fears about the future, then those perfect moments don't exist. The more you learn to connect to the present, the less anxious you will be.
Simply sitting quietly for 5 minutes a day allowing yourself to connect to the present can significantly reduce your anxiety.
What does the feeling of anxiety feel like?
- Simple phobias can be caused by fear of spiders and snakes.
- Social phobia is when anxiety is triggered by social situations that require one to socialise with large groups, give oral presentations, or meet new people. Social phobia can cause people to be afraid of eating or using public toilets.
- Panic disorder is anxiety that occurs without a trigger. Within minutes, the intensity of symptoms can peak. A person might believe that they will have a heart attack or faint. The episode typically subsides in less than an hour and leaves the person exhausted. These episodes are frightening and the person starts to avoid situations in an attempt to escape them. Fear of being afraid is what becomes the most crippling.
- Anxiety is almost always present in generalized anxiety disorder. An individual worries about everything, including their future, their health and relationships, as well as their finances and the state of the world. The worry will become excessive and consume a lot more time than necessary, which can reduce the person's ability for daily tasks. They seem to be unable to accept uncertainty as an integral part of their lives.
- Obsessive-compulsive disorder is characterized by anxiety that can't be suppressed. This could include fear of getting AIDS, fear or doing wrong like stealing or raping or a recurring question about their sexual identity. Some people develop rituals or compulsions to help them get rid of their anxiety. Common compulsions include excessive cleaning, washing, counting, and checking the lock, stove, window, and questioning (am i gay?).
What are 3 warning signs of anxiety?
- changes in mood, energy levels, sleep and appetite
- excessive signs of worry, embarrassment or nervousness
- difficulty making contact with with peers.
Is anxiety a mental illness?
Anxiety is a feeling of inner tension, of imminent danger. It can be paralysing or, on the contrary, cause agitation (with an inability to stay in place). It can crystallize on a particular situation or a specific object: new fear of a social context with an incapacity to face it (change of job for example), excessive preoccupation with one's health... Anxiety becomes pathological when it disrupts the subject's life in a significant way; generally, in this case, somatic symptoms are associated with fears: chest tightness, palpitations, sweating, trembling, tightness in the throat, difficulty in swallowing...
Anxiety disorders are a frequent psychological illness that expresses itself in various forms (generalized anxiety, phobias, panic disorder, etc.) and greatly disrupts daily life. Many psychological, biological and environmental factors can contribute to their occurrence.
Anxiety, which manifests itself in the form of great worry, is a perfectly normal phenomenon of life. When it becomes excessive and leads to a pathology, it is an anxiety disorder, affecting the behaviour, thoughts and emotions of the person. Although they can be disabling, they are, according to the author, quite affordable from a therapeutic point of view. The author proposes a review of these conditions, which include a large number of apparently very different states.
What is the most common fear?
Here many others:
- Acrophobia: fear of heights;
- Aerophobia: fear of flying;
- Arachnophobia: fear of spiders;
- Astraphobia: fear of lightning and thunderstorms;
- Autophobia: fear of being alone;
- Claustrophobia: fear of confined spaces;
- Hematophobia: fear of blood;
- Aquaphobia: fear of water and drowning;
- Ophiophobia: fear of snakes;
- Zoophobia: fear of animals.
Sources
Telling Anxiety
University of Toronto Romance. 2023
In Telling Anxiety, Jennifer Willging examines manifestations of such anxieties in the selected narratives of four women writing in French.
Anxiety and Depression
Providing a step-by-step, organized solution for those coping with these debilitating problems, this book teaches readers how to identify factors that can build up to cause anxiety and depression. With specific suggestions on diet, breathing, relaxation, biofeedback, and exercise, the program helps sufferers empower themselves to prevent ongoing distress and recurrences.
Anxiety Disorder
Occasional anxiety is a normal part of life. But anxiety disorders involve more than temporary worry or fear. For a person with an anxiety disorder, the anxiety does not go away and can get worse over time. Today only, get this bestseller for a special price. Feeling on edge on occasion is a typical piece of life. It can even be useful when it alerts you to the threat. Anxiety turns into a disorder when it happens as often as possible, feels exceptional, keeps going hours or even days, and...
Anxiety Disorders
Springer Science & Business Media. 2002In this book, the discussion of the normal and pathological aspects of anxiety is critically examined. A chapter on the molecular basis of anxiety is included, outlining the potential of such approach in the discovery of novel effective pharmacological interventions. The face validity, predictability and usefulness of animal models in the design of valid new efficacious products are discussed. Separate chapters dedicated to each particular type of anxiety such as generalized anxiety...
- Ortolani P. (1998) – Psychoanalysis, Anxiety, and the Anxiety Disorders, Current Neuropharmacology, Godwin Roplica Books, [online] 18(2), pp.350–361. doi:12.1014/j.ctam.2012.06.002.
- Isseger F. (2002) – Treatment of Mood Disorders and Anxiety Disorders, Journal of Psychopharmacology, vol. 15, no. 2, pp. 141–151, [online] 15(4), pp.279–301. doi:11.1015/j.psy.2002.02.007.
- “Anxiety: What You Need to Know. – Negative childhood events and family history could increase risk”, NIH MedlinePlus Magazine | View at: Publisher Site
- Alexander T (2018) – Cognitive Processes, Anxiety and the Treatment of Anxiety Disorders: : A Preliminary Report, The Journal of Alternative and Complementary Medicine, [online] 22(6), pp.438–459. doi:12.1079/acm.2018.0324.
- Gotenermen D. & Crispa P. (2021) – Depression and Anxiety Issue Information, An Update on Safety and Side Effects of drugs: A Review of Clinical Data and Relevant Animal Studies, [online] 17(5), pp.1370-1397.e7. doi:10.1016/j.cgh.2021.06.047.
- Jose U. & Swedo P. (2005) – The Role of Cognitive and Somatic Cues in Anxiety and Anxiety Disorders, Gartner – Little Green House, Acta Neuropsychiatrica, [online] 24(3), pp.206–267. doi:9.1014/neu.2013.9.
- Gifland O. (2017) – Anxiety sensitivity and the anxiety disorders, Rachman – Routledge, Experimental and Clinical Psychopharmacology, [online] 22(2), pp.243–311. doi:12.1047/pha000275.