Anxiety relief - HOW?

[Marie]

Anxiety is not an uncommon occurrence; in fact all of us experience it at some point of time or other. Especially when we have a situation full of stress – after a traumatic event or some unexpected bad news – probably the only difference is the degree of anxiety. But watch out – if your anxiety is overwhelming you and making a mess of your daily routine, you have to really worry about it. Anxiety can be compared to fear and is usually triggered off by some kind of imagined outcome or dangerous stuff. If anxiety is taking over your life and not allowing you to function normally, you need help. The good news is, anxiety is absolutely treatable and there are numerous ways to control and reduce your feelings of anxiety. You could consider therapy, different relaxation techniques and a change in lifestyle. It’s in your hands.

Lets share ways and methods that can help overcoming anxiety.

[David]

Certain breathing techniques can really help you get over a bad patch. Here is one effective technique that can release tension in your chest, diaphragm and neck. It also helps in reducing anxiety and panic symptoms. It basically involves a moderate breathing in through the nose and a lengthy breathing out through the nose or the mouth.
Here’s how: first, will yourself to stop, mentally. Next, breathe in via your nose and pause for a few seconds. Not a very deep breath, but not very light either. Now exhale through your nose slowly, prolonging it as much as you can. The trick is in the exhaling. As you exhale, relax your muscles. Focus on your shoulders, releasing the tension in your chest and stomach. Relax your arms and legs. Allow your jaw to relax…calm down completely. This helps in many ways.

[Marie]

How often can this be done – and when?

[David]

This particular breathing technique is like a quick tranquilliser. It can lower your tension levels by upping your blood carbon dioxide levels. It takes your attention away from you – most of us tend to focus on ourselves too much when we’re tense or anxious. Regular use of this technique reduces your tendency to brood over problems. Also, we tend to breathe irregularly or hold our breath, aggravating anxiety. This breathing technique helps get over that. We feel less restricted by relaxing our throat, chest and stomach muscles. Usually if you happen to be suffering from a particularly bad attack of anxiety, practise this breathing technique often – even every half hour. It can control your anxiety from increasing. Whenever you feel yourself getting worked up, breathe in and breathe out.

[Susan]

Usually treating anxiety depends on its cause – anxiety could stem from a physical illness, in which case treating the ailment should take care of the anxiety. What if the cause of your anxiety is psychological? Then you’ll have to figure out what the cause is and then get rid of it or control it. Suppose you have got a problem with your partner you may have to get counselling. If the cause of anxiety cannot be identified at all, then you will have to watch out for the symptoms of anxiety and control those. Anxiety used to be treated with drugs. A combination of medicines along with counselling is usually effective. Maybe there is a way to prevent anxiety from occurring. How can anxiety be prevented?

[David]

Anxiety can really be an obstacle in our daily routine. To prevent it from taking over our lives, it is important to be aware of what degree of stress you are under and how well you can cope with the situation. Not easy, surely. But there are ways to cope with a hectic life and at least be on our way to preventing anxiety. This could be regular exercise, relaxation and meditation techniques, visualization, developing the skills to deal with difficult relationships and parenting skills to tackle children. Another prevention technique is diet, regular exercise, adequate rest and also preventive health care maintenance. Diet plays a big role. The coffee we drink, stimulants, not getting enough rest, etc. can also trigger off anxiety symptoms.

[Jeff]

I read about something called Cognitive Behavior Therapy to treat anxiety disorders. Apparently it can be very effective as a treatment. This therapy focuses on changing the thinking patterns or cognitions and behaviors. Lets say the person suffers from an anxiety disorder – CBT helps to first identify and then challenge the negative thought process and those absurd or illogical beliefs that prevent you from managing yoru fears and worries. There’s something called ‘exposure therapy’ also in cognitive behavior therapy. Here the person suffering from anxiety disorder is made to face his or her fears in a safe environment. This is done again and again until a sense of control is developed, and the person is able to handle the anxiety. The treatment takes roughly three to five months, and the therapy can be administered individually or in groups with similar problems.

[Marie]

After I read your post, Jeff, I was doing some reading up about depression and anxiety since I was wondering whether they are the same thing and found that though they seem similar, they are not the same. Depression gives rise to a sense of despair, anger and you tend to feel as if there is no hope. Obviously energy levels dip and even daily routine seems burdensome along with the effort to cope with normal relationships. Anxiety, on the other hand makes you feel panicky or scared even in trivial everyday situations where another person wouldn’t feel anxious. Sometimes anxiety is felt without any apparent trigger so that you constantly worry for no reason at all. When it interferes with every little thing you do, though, treatment becomes essential. However, both anxiety and depression are treated similarly which is probably why we get confused between the two. Behavior therapy works for both anxiety and depression.

[Susan]

Here’s some more interesting information about anxiety disorders and their connection with panic attacks – someone with an anxiety disorder need not necessarily have panic attacks, although someone who has panic attacks without anxiety disorders. But if the person experiences panic attacks often, it can mean they could be diagnosed with an anxiety disorder. Usually, when someone has a panic attack, you’ll notice that their breathing is slow and shallow. What happens is too much oxygen gets into the brain and they feel sort of light headed, with the feeling that the walls are closing in on them without sufficient air to breathe and with the feeling that they might die shortly. Naturally, they start to stay away from situations where they experience the panic attacks for obvious reasons.

[Marie]

I think its possible to gradually get over anxiety or depression with exercise, since there are so many benefits associated with it. For one thing, you develop a sense of self-confidence since physical activity makes you feel as if you have achieved something. You look better, and feel a lot better. This is very important since anxiety can make you feel quite miserable – exercise distracts you in the best possible way. Brooding over problems only blows them out of proportion making them last longer. Exercise can shift your focus from the problem to something nicer. Some people will become reclusive when they suffer from anxiety and depression. Exercise can help you interact with people you meet. Its much more fun to expend pent up energy through walking or jogging and being cheerful than letting the misery grow in your mind. It is important to cope with anxiety disorders in a healthy manner.

[David]

That is true. The concept of exercise being effective for relieving anxiety is because anxiety has a physical connection because of the panic attacks. That is why relaxation techniques involve exercise and form a part of any treatment package. The most common are abdominal breathing gradually relaxing each muscle group and ‘biofeedback’. Many mental health professionals teach these techniques to reduce stress and anxiety. In fact, research shows that most of the physical health problems that cause anxiety can easily be minimized through regular exercise. Exercise helps reduce skeletal muscle tension. The excess adrenaline and thyroxin in the blood are metabolized through exercise. This helps in letting go of all that pent up anger and frustration.

[Marie]

Are there any foods one can avoid to relieve anxiety?

[Kim Wilde]

Yup – it is believed that caffeine and nicotine aggravate anxiety leaving you open to panic attacks and anxiety attacks. People also feel more anxious with stuff like sugar, some food additives – its best to monitor diet and nutrition with the help of a therapist who knows the works because they can help with figuring out which foods act as irritatants and which foods to avoid in your specific case. There are many supplements and herbs as well that are supposed to calm you down making you less nervous and anxious. I’ve heard of chamomile teas, kava, gaba, vitamin b, etc. that are helpful. In fact, Kava is supposed to be a safer alternative to Prozac.

[Susan]

I am scared of any kind of medications especially antidepressants because I am afraid of getting addicted to them. I know friends who are on regular tranquilizers, prescribed by the doctor of course, but when we research these drugs on the Internet it is quite worrisome to look at all the possible side effects. One of the biggest hassles is that the problem just comes back after medication is stopped, so it takes a lot of control not to continue the medicine even after the doc tells you to. They only treat short-term anxiety and panic attacks. So imagine getting hooked on to a drug to get relief and discovering too late, that it has slowly developed other health problems while you were thinking you are getting better! How do antidepressants work, anyway?

[Jeff]

Problems arise only if you go against the doctor’s orders. So there’s no need to worry – pun intended! See, in people who suffer from depression the levels of the chemical messengers or neurotransmitters in their brain becomes changed. The two main chemicals are noradrenaline and serotonin. Our brain’s nerve cells produces and absorbs back the serotonin. So – the logic is..when the level of serotonin is low, the wrong messages are transmitted and give rise to the symptoms of depression. There are antidepressent drugs that increase the levels of the two chemicals noradrenaline and serotonin – to bring them back to the necessary level. In this category you’ll usually hear names like Prozac, Zoloft, Paxil, Lexapro, Wellbutrin, Effexor, Luvox, Celexa, etc. And always remember – it is imperative to follow what the doctor says in terms of dosage – no more and no less.