Do you suffer from depression or anxiety? Do you feel sad, blue, negative, worried? Do you have trouble sleeping, struggle with low libido? Find relief using natural remedies. Learn how in this article.
Humans are emotional beings with different emotional levels. When these levels are being disturbed, the new doors towards stress and anxiety are open.
Stress comes from many directions – work, family problems, or finances. Finding ways to relieve stress is important because it helps reduce your risks of anxiety. Through exercise and either medication or a natural remedy, you can tremendously reduce your amount of daily stress and start living a happier, more fulfilling life.
If you currently suffer from anxiety, life might seem overwhelming at times. Anxiety can cause even minor problems to seem unbearable, so you might choose to ignore regular daily tasks and withdraw from those you love. Anxiety attacks can cause insomnia, and you may feel helpless at times. Panic attacks can be very scary even when your body seems to be healthy otherwise.
Taking prescription medications can help both of these conditions, but many people don’t realize that there are natural ways to find relief as well.
An anxiety attack is often referred to as a panic attack, and it can take many forms such as a rapid heartbeat, sweating hands, shaking, churning in the stomach, tingling in every limb, or a panicky and nervous feeling.
With a natural supplement, you might find relief from depression or anxiety without spending a fortune on doctor bills and prescription medications. Sometimes the answer can be as simple as taking a particular herbal remedy or making minor changes to your diet. With natural supplements, you can enjoy relief while avoiding many of the unwanted side effects that can occur with prescription medications.
However, if you suffer from severe depression or anxiety, share your findings with your physician to come up with a viable solution.
Don’t let depression and anxiety control your life. Take back control with natural remedies and start living once again. Here are six useful natural alternatives to help with an anxiety attack.
Anxiety Herbs
1. Lemon verbena – Alosyi triphylla
The highly aromatic Lemon verbana is a soothing and uplifting herb used in restorative teas. As a massage oil, lemon verbana is used for anxiety and other stress-related conditions.
2. Oats – Avena sativa
Oats are cultivated as a cereal crop often added to breakfast cereals. Oats are known to be restorative for the nervous system. A tincture made from oats is used to treat tension, anxiety or depression.
3. Hops – Humulus lupulus
Hops have been medicinally used since the 11th century for nervous disorders especially anxiety and to stimulate digestion. Hops are recommended for people who have hot-type attacks, such as when the face becomes flushed (almost hysterical).
4. St. John’s wort – Hypericum perforatum
St. John’s wort has been used as a wound herb and to treat hysteria and mental illness. Today, St. John’s wort is used for depression and for anxiety. For a quick response, St. John’s wort tincture might work best.
5. Jasmine – Jasminum officinale
Native to Himalayan culture, jasmine is cultivated for its essential oil used as a sedative and antidepressant. Jasmine oil mixed with a massage oil relieves anxiety, insomnia or depression.
6. Valerian – Valeriana officinalis
Valerian root is nourishing and soothing to the nervous system, and it is considered to be nature’s Valium. It is used to stop panic attacks in progress or to prevent attacks. Valerian can be found in capsules, as a tea, or as an extract.
7. Ashwagandha – Withania somniferum (family Solanaceae)
Used for thousands of years to soothe the agitated mind, Ashwagandha comes from Ayurvedic wisdom. Also known as winter cherry, Ashwagandha’s roots is an adaptogen, which means it helps us ‘adapt’ to our environments, and that includes the stressful ones and it has immunosuppressive and immunotonic abilities, it modulates stress responses and shows great results in the central nervous system (increases memory, and learning capabilities).
8. Passionflower – Passiflora incarnata
Passionflower is the remedy for people who are so burned out and exhausted. This is the remedy for people who give and give until they have nothing left for themselves. This plant is effective in both tea and tincture form (tinctures are easy to use and ready in an instant). Use 20-30 drops of tincture in a little bit of water (for a 150-pound person) and increase the dose by 10 drops at a time if you don’t feel relief after 15 minutes.
P.S. Extra Anxiety Tips
This is a recipe by David Wolfe to alleviate stress or anxiety: make a juice from 5 leaves of kale, ½ head of green cabbage and ½ head of loose-leafed lettuce. According to David, all you need to do is process the ingredients and drink the juice 30 minutes before an event. The combination of ingredients contains sodium-potassium balance which has a calming effect on the body.
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According to Dr. Axe, these foods are good for anxiety relief:
Foods high in B vitamins (helps regulate mood) – Include grass-fed beef, wild-caught fish, poultry, brewer’s yeast and vegetables.
Foods high in calcium – Calcium is a relaxing mineral which can help reduce anxiety. Try yogurt or wild-caught salmon.
Magnesium rich foods – Magnesium helps calm the nerves. Foods high in magnesium include nuts, avocados, and sea vegetables.
Omega-3 fatty acids – Cold-water, wild-caught fish can reduce inflammation and help stabilize mood. Omega-3s also contain DHA, vital for brain function.
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Dr. Mercola suggests to exercise, optimize your gut flore and introduce Omega-3 Fats to your diet.
Exercise – Exercise boosts levels of potent brain chemicals like serotonin, dopamine, and norepinephrine, which may help buffer some of the effects of stress.
Optimize Your Gut Flora – Your gut and brain work in tandem, each influencing the other. This is why your intestinal health can have such a profound influence on your mental health and vice versa. So optimizing your gut flora with beneficial bacteria is a highly useful strategy. This is done by eliminating sugars and processed foods and eating plenty of non-starchy vegetables, avoiding processed vegetable oils, and using healthy fats. Additionally, eating plenty of fermented vegetables or taking a high-potency probiotic would be useful to re-establish healthy gut flora.
Diet – Introduce Omega-3 Fats.
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Good to know: Anxiety can be triggered if there is thyroid disorder when drinking coffee, consuming sugar, or other drinks containing caffeine or alcohol. Also, suddenly cutting down on alcohol or caffeine can make people anxious. It is recommended to follow the body’s reactions when consuming specific foods you are possibly allergic to, or when suddenly cutting down on certain foods and drinks (coffee). Once the cause is found, symptoms can be easily treated and eliminated.
