Anxiety is an unusual mental health disorder, because it manifests more like an illness than a personality or physical issue. Other mental health disorders like schizophrenia, depression, and borderline personality disorder all turn people into someone they’re not – they change the person’s personality. But most of those that live with anxiety are generally happy with who they are – they’re just affected every day by the stress of their anxiety.
That’s why pharmaceutical treatments for anxiety simply do not make sense. SSRIs and other anti-anxiety medication options are regularly accompanied by the same side effects:
• Fatigue
• Personality Changes
• Addiction
Natural Ways to Overcome Anxiety
These side effects change who you are. They make you not the person you used to be. That’s not what people with anxiety want. They want to be the same, but anxiety free.
It’s for these reasons and others that many people seek out natural treatments for anxiety. The right natural treatments can relieve you of anxiety without the accompanying changes to who you are, which makes them highly preferable for regular use. Some of these natural treatments include:
• Kava – Kava is the king of all natural anxiety treatments. It’s safe, it’s natural, and it’s been proven effective in genuine scientific studies. It has no side effects (although it should not be taken with alcohol and you should consult a doctor if you take any other medications), it’s non-addictive, and it has a profound sedative effect without changing your personality.
• Passionflower – Passionflower is not quite as powerful as kava, but still very effective at relieving mild anxiety and presumably has fewer interactions with medications – although you should still discuss this with your doctor. Passionflower also comes in tea form and supplement form, while store bought kava teas rarely come with enough of the kavalactones for the effects to kick in.
• Jogging – Not every type of natural anxiety treatment is herbal. Jogging has a profound effect on anxiety, as it releases “feel good” chemicals known as endorphins, burns away stress hormones, and tires your body which, in turn, relaxes your mind. Jogging’s effect on anxiety is powerful in addition to the fitness reasons to start regularly running, and so jogging is absolutely something to consider as a healthy anxiety treatment option.
• Thought Journals – Another beneficial non-herbal treatment is the thought journal. Thought journals are a way of taking thoughts that are bothering you out of your head and moving them to a personal place. Any time you have a persistent thought (positive or negative) that you cannot seem to get out of your head you write it down in the journal. Your brain relaxes, knowing that the thoughts cannot be forgotten, and will stop thinking about it as strongly. This is especially useful before sleep.
• St. John’s Wort – St. John’s Wort is actually an antidepressant herb, so it’s not quite as powerful as kava or passionflower. But for some people, anxiety and depression are linked, and St. John’s Wort can relieve the mild depression, thus reducing some negative thoughts and improving mood/outlook. It’s also more easily available and does help with mild anxiety.
Overall, each of these Natural Ways to Overcome Anxiety is completely natural, side effect free, non-addictive and will not cause any personality changes. That makes them much more ideal for regular, long term use than anti-anxiety medications. Kava is by far the most powerful, and the one that has the fastest natural effect on anxiety, but you should also never underestimate the value of jogging as well, nor should you ignore the potential of the other treatments if you decide that kava and jogging are not right for you.
There are several natural ways to treat anxiety that are far more preferable to those living with mild to moderate anxiety – ways that won’t change who you are as a person. Always consider giving these methods a shot before you decide to take an anti-anxiety medication unless recommended by your doctor.
About the Author: Ryan Rivera was a severe anxiety sufferer that depended on natural treatments to cure his anxiety symptoms. Now he spends most of his time writing for www.calmclinic.com.
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