Curing Your Anxiety Disorder With Natural Remedies

I am studying anxiety disorders because I want to find out if it can be cured without medication so that I can better understand how to cope with it myself. Anxiety disorders affect more than 40 million adults in the U.S. alone, which is about 18.1% of the country’s total population (Anxiety and Depression Association of America). Anxiety and Depression Association of America also state “1 in 13 globally suffers from anxiety according to the World Health Organization (WHO). It’s normal to have anxiety now and then but when it’s starting to affect your lifestyle, your everyday life, it’s most likely an anxiety disorder. Anxiety disorders are a serious mental illness that causes significant worry or fear that doesn’t go away and may even get worse over time. American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry states ‘those with an anxiety disorder generally voice a specific worry or fear, which they may not realize is excessive or unreasonable’”(What are the signs and symptoms of anxiety?).

There are five major types of anxiety disorders which include Generalized Anxiety Disorder, Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder (OCD), Panic Disorder, Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder(PTSD), and Social Phobia(Social Anxiety Disorder). Generalized Anxiety Disorder is the most common anxiety disorder, which is characterized by chronic anxiety, exaggerated worry, even when there is little to nothing to provoke it. Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder (OCD) is an anxiety disorder characterized by recurrent, unwanted thoughts, and/or repetitive behaviors. Panic Disorder is characterized by unexpected and repeated episodes of intense fear. Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) is an anxiety disorder that can develop after exposure to a terrifying event or ordeal in which grave physical harm occurred or was threatened. Lastly, Social Phobias an anxiety disorder characterized by overwhelming anxiety and excessive self-consciousness in everyday social situations (What are the five major types of anxiety disorders). Although these are the 5 most common anxiety disorders, there are so many more out there. Everyone has different life experiences, and therefore everyone experiences an anxiety disorder differently. You can have all the signs and symptoms of one specific anxiety disorder, while someone else has symptoms relating to three different anxiety disorders.

There are many signs and symptoms of having an anxiety disorder. Some of the most common symptoms include feelings of nervousness, sweaty/cold hands or feet, irregular heartbeat, muscle tension, insomnia, and trouble concentrating to name a few. Although it may be amongst one of the biggest mental health problems around the world, it’s a highly treatable disorder, yet only 36.9% of people with these anxiety disorders are being treated (Anxiety and Depression Association of America). There are two popular ways in which one can get treated for an anxiety disorder by doctors, either by medication or by cognitive behavioral therapy. This leaves the rest of the population either feeling hopeless or trying to find natural ways to cope with their anxiety. However, there are natural ways to overcome anxiety, having the same effect as medication and therapy. I have suffered from anxiety for many years and was not able to have therapy or medication because my family does not believe in mental health issues. This forced me to look for natural ways to fight the disorder and after many years I found the perfect combination to help me do so. There are three things someone can do to effectively cure anxiety disorders: daily exercise, a nutritious diet, along with mindfulness practices. With the combination of these three steps, anxiety will no longer be a problem you have to face every day.

Exercise can be a very effective way of alleviating anxiety and mental health in general. It is a great way to improve your habits, attitude and overall lifestyle. One reason for that being is that exercise helps decreases your stress hormones such as, cortisol and increases the body’s endorphins, which are the feel-good chemicals that make you happy (Exercising to relax, 2011). Cortisol is the major culprit behind stress and anxiety. Cortisol makes everything in your body run faster, which is great if you need to escape a hungry lion but devastating to overall health. As a result of training your body regularly, your body will learn to better regulate the stress hormones that it is releasing. It will learn to adapt and release fewer hormones in situations of high stress and therefore will release even fewer hormones during situations of low stress (The Effects of Stress on Physical Activity and Exercise, 2014). Cortisol kicks your brain and body into survival mode. It adjusts your blood sugar, metabolism, immune response, heart and blood vessel contractions, and other important internal functions to get you ready to “fight or flight” When we exercise, we drop those cortisol levels and replace them with endorphins. Endorphins inhibit the amount of pain you experience, combat depression, and can generate feelings of relaxation and positivity following workout sessions. (How Does Exercise Reduce Stress? 2018). These endorphins are what causes me to feel so good after leaving the gym.

Another important hormone involved in regulating your stress response is norepinephrine, which is released by your adrenal glands when you’re feeling stressed. The part of the brain that produces 50% of your norepinephrine is strongly connected to brain regions involved in both emotion and stress responses. When this part of the brain senses stress or danger, it releases norepinephrine. Norepinephrine, in turn, activates other neurotransmitters that respond to stress. These neurotransmitters fire off and tell your heart to beat faster, your lungs to breathe faster, and your muscles to tense up for battle (How Does Exercise Reduce Stress? 2018)

Exercise also helps a lot with confidence and confidence correlates strongly with anxiety. I believe that when you feel good about yourself, you subconsciously stop putting yourself down, which brings me to one of the biggest causes of anxiety; poor self-esteem. Anxiety is strongly linked with self-esteem and solving poor self-esteem issues could help relieve one’s anxiety. In one study, the relationship between physical activity and self-esteem was investigated by including a questionnaire for participants to complete that would be used for further analysis. The results supported the hypothesis, stating that exercise does positively affect self-esteem (Physical activity and self-esteem, 2016). Exercising can boost our self-esteem in a variety of different ways from losing weight to getting bigger muscles. Losing weight gets you a more toned body, which ultimately makes it firmer. Physical strength can also give you mental strength as well. The heavier you start to lift, the more confident you become (Nikitina, 2012). Exercise helps create a better boy image for yourself and gives you satisfaction from seeing results. When you start to focus more on your results from the gym, you take your mind off your other issues. Your brain only has so much space and using energy in areas such as the gym is a good way to shed off unwanted thoughts and stress. Exercise is overall a great way to improve your overall self-esteem which will help to significantly reduce your anxiety as well.

When you exercise, you then crave a healthier diet, and we all know the numerous amount of benefits we get from eating a healthy diet. A team from Indiana University conducted a study to prove that exercising affects one’s diet. They put together a study of more than 6,000 people born between 1980 and 1984, which tracked their eating and exercise habits from the ages of 18-22 and 23-27, and then their eating habits alone from the ages of 27-31 years old. According to the academics behind the study, there are two main reasons for this. One being, that exercising regularly and eating well both lead to the same goal of better overall health. Two being, once someone has made exercise a habit, it no longer needs as much mental effort, therefore freeing up the brain to start scheming about new ways to feel better. (Here’s Why More Exercise Makes You Crave a Healthier Diet, 2015)

Fueling yourself with the proper foods is essential for everyone, especially for people with anxiety. There are whole grains, vegetables, and fruits that help a lot with relieving anxiety in various ways, such as, helping to even out blood sugar levels, which help with calmness. Diet has been so essential in my battle against anxiety, and with a few foods a day, your anxiety could be gone in no time. Some numerous vitamins and minerals should be consumed and that’s why it’s important to have a wide variety of nutritious foods included in your daily diet. However, certain vitamins and minerals can decrease anxiety levels drastically. Some of these nutrients include; Foods rich in magnesium are great to decrease anxiety levels such as foods like nuts, seeds, and whole grains. Zinc is another vital mineral that helps relieve anxiety with foods such as oysters, beef, and egg yolks having high numbers of this. Foods that have high amounts of B vitamins such as avocadoes help release neurotransmitters to the brain which release feel-good hormones. Having foods with high antioxidants also helps with anxiety various fruits and vegetables have plenty of this. Spices such as turmeric and curcumin also have both antioxidant and anti-anxiety properties (Naidoo, 2016).

Another important nutrient when it comes to our diet is water. Did you know that dehydration is the number one cause of stress in your body. “it’s a self-perpetuating cycle: dehydration can cause stress, and stress can cause dehydration.” When your stressed, your body then produces extra cortisol levels and it makes the adrenal glands work harder than usual, resulting in lower electrolyte levels. To prevent this from happening, stay hydrated all the time whether your stressed or not. The daily water intake for an individual is based on gender, weight, and stress levels but average men should try to aim for 15 cups a day while a woman should aim for 11 cups (Water, Depression, and Anxiety).