Holistic Alternatives to Ease Your Anxiety

Anxiety can make sufferers miserable and interfere with their everyday lives by making social situations difficult or a by a loss of self-esteem. Attacks can occur without warning and can even appear without an apparent trigger. Fortunately, there are numerous remedies for anxiety, and if you know the cause, dealing with it is even easier.

Not everybody reacts to remedies in the same way. One type of remedy may be a lifesaver for one person, but have no effect at all on another. Individuals have to find the right solutoion best suited for them. This may mean experimenting with different types and combinations of therapies and strategies. If you can find out what the root cause of your anxiety is, you may be able to avoid it. You may find that the amount of anxiety you suffer is greatly reduced.

For most people, the anxiety solution that comes to mind first is drugs. Some commonly used antidepressant medications are Selective Serotonin Reuptake Inhibitors, or SSRIs and benzodiazepines. This option is only available while under a doctor’s care and by prescription since it’s important to obtain the proper balance of positive results against the negative side effects.

Your doctor may also recommend therapy. One of the more common therapies for anxiety is Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT), which is often used in combination with medication. CBT helps users transform negative, destructive thought patterns into positive, proactive ones as they work to address the underlying cause of their anxiety. This is most often performed by a trained psychiatrist or psychologist, but you can also find online courses and materials.

Natural Alternatives

If you are wary of drugs and doctors, there are a wide variety of natural and holistic options including:

• Relaxation Exercises
• Herbs
• Acupuncture
• Breathing Exercises
• Massage

Herbal Remedies

Herbs such as Kava, valerian or passion flower have been used to great effect for centuries as a way to combat anxiety – particularly in Eastern cultures such as China. Although the side effects are much less severe than prescribed medications, herbal remedies do contain some side effects and should be taken with caution. In particular, be careful with Kava as it can cause liver damage, even when used short-term.

Relaxation Techniques

Relaxation exercises such as yoga and QiGong, balance the chemicals in your body and help both your body and mind relax. Breathing exercises help increase the body’s intake of oxygen. Both Yoga and QiGong are known to be effective in lowering anxiety as well as the intensity and frequency of anxiety-caused panic attacks. Going to a massage therapist or an acupuncturist on a weekly basis may also help reduce anxiety levels – not to mention an enjoyable and relaxing experience in itself.

Exercise

Exercise is another way to treat anxiety at home without a prescription. Thirty minutes of exercise a day not only distracts your mind from the issues and problems causing your anxiety, it also has the added benefit of making you healthier overall.

It may take a bit of experimenting with different techniques and combinations to find the therapies that are most effective for you. A holistic approach is usually more effective than relying on one treatment only. For instance, a person with work-caused stress might attempt to lower the amount of work related responsibilities they take on, go to a yoga class or gym after work, practice meditation and deep breathing exercises, as well as seeing a psychologist for therapy and taking prescription medications (if the natural methods aren’t working). The most important factor in allowing therapy to work for you is having a positive attitude.

Believing that the treatment you decide will be successful, often times, bring success. Likewise, if you’re convinced your treatment will fail, it probably will. Perseverance and confidence are the keys to positive results.