Anxiety

Anxiety

Worry is a fact of life. But if you’re so stressed out that you often break out in a cold sweat, your pulse races and your blood pressure goes through the roof, you may have crossed the border into the hair-raising world of anxiety.

Anxiety is often vague and undirected, a sinking feeling that something terrible is about to happen. Unlike concrete fears (of illness or losing a job, for example), anxiety often stems from what used to be called borrowed trouble. Anxious people imagine worst-case scenarios and spend lots of time dreading things that may never happen. For persistent anxiety, seek professional counseling. But the natural remedies below—used in conjunction with medical care and with your doctor’s approval—may also reduce or relieve the problem, according to some health professionals.

See Your Medical Doctor When...

You experience panic attacks, which are short, unexplained periods of intense fear or discomfort.
Your anxiety causes chronic physical symptoms, including headaches, dizziness, breathlessness, chest pains or stomach or intestinal problems.
Your anxiety causes you to avoid certain people, places or situations.

Acupressure

“Find point P 6, approximately two thumb-widths from the bottom of your palm,” says Cindy Banker, co-founder of the New England Shiatsu Center in Boston and education director for the American Oriental Bodywork Therapy Association. (For help in locating this point, refer to the illustration on page 564.) “Press firmly on this spot and take a few deep, full breaths. You may feel some relief right away.”

Hold your thumb, says Wayne Hackett, a Jin Shin Jyutsu teacher in Boulder, Colorado. Do it gently and intently, he advises, but keep doing it until you feel your body start to relax. The Jin Shin Jyutsu philosophy connects emotions with each finger of the hand, and worry is the province of the thumb.

You can also press the spot between your eyebrows at the center of your forehead, according to Hackett. He explains that pressing this spot helps disperse anxious thoughts. Then try holding your middle toe, the point where the stomach meridian ends. “Holding your toe helps bring energy from your head down through the body,” Hackett says, reducing anxiety.

Aromatherapy

Soothing oils such as lavender, geranium, ylang-ylang, bergamot and melissa are great for calming frazzled nerves, particularly when they’re used together, says Los Angeles aromatic consultant John Steele. He suggests mixing together two, three or four of these oils in equal parts and storing the blend in a five-milliliter bottle. Then whenever you feel anxious, he says, you can: Use 50 drops of this blend in a diffuser or an aroma lamp; add 6 drops to a hot bath (stirring gently to disperse); or make a massage oil by adding 10 drops of the blend to one ounce of carrier oil such as almond or olive. (Carrier oils are available in most health food stores.)

For information on preparing and administering essential oils, including cautions about their use, see page 19. For information on purchasing essential oils, refer to the resource list on page 633.

Flower Remedy/Essence Therapy

Choosing the proper flower remedy to treat any physical or emotional problem depends upon identifying the exact feeling underlying the problem, says herbalist Leslie J. Kaslof, author of The Traditional Flower Remedies of Dr. Edward Bach. For those who worry excessively about the well-being of others, Kaslof recommends Red Chestnut. People who suffer from a vague sense of foreboding, a persistent feeling that something bad is about to happen, should try Aspen, he says.

Flower remedies are available in some health food stores and through mail order (refer to the resource list on page 635). For information on preparing and administering flower remedies, see page 37.

Food Therapy

What you don’t eat may be even more important than what you do eat, says Julian Whitaker, M.D., founder and president of the Whitaker Wellness Center in Newport Beach, California. He recommends avoiding alcohol, caffeine and sugar, because they tend to worsen anxiety. If you can’t avoid them, he suggests that you at least cut down.

Herbal Therapy

For a soothing tea, Mary Bove, L.M., N.D., a naturopathic physician and director of the Brattleboro Naturopathic Clinic in Vermont, suggests blending lavender, oats, linden flower, catnip and lemon balm. (Although oats are usually thought of as a food, they also have a medicinal effect, and herbalists recommend them for a variety of health problems.) Look for these dried herbs in most health food stores. Dr. Bove says to buy 1¼2 ounce of each of the dried herbs in cut form, then mix them together. To make a day’s supply of tea, according to Dr. Bove, use four tablespoons of this herbal blend per quart of boiling water. Pour the water over the herbs and steep for about ten minutes. Strain until only liquid remains, then drink the tea while it’s warm. She says this can be sweetened, if preferred. She suggests drinking a cup after each meal and up to six cups a day if necessary.

Homeopathy

A dose of ignatia 6X every 15 minutes may help you reduce fear and anxiety, according to Maesimund Panos, M.D., a homeopathic physician in Tipp City, Ohio, and co-author with Jane Heimlich of Homeopathic Medicine at Home. However, she says not to exceed four doses, since excessive repetition of ignatia can actually trigger anxiety.

“Gelsemium is another excellent remedy that can help you deal with stage fright or anticipation of an ordeal such as an important business conference,” Dr. Panos says. “If you have anxiety accompanied by diarrhea, that’s a sure sign for Gelsemium.” As with ignatia, she recommends taking a dose of Gelsemium 6X every 15 minutes until you begin to feel calmer, not to exceed four doses.

Gelsemium and ignatia can be purchased in many health food stores. To purchase homeopathic remedies by mail, refer to the resource list on page 637.

Hydrotherapy

The neutral bath has a balancing effect on anxious or irritable people, according to Charles Thomas, Ph.D., co-author of Hydrotherapy: Simple Treatments for Common Ailments and a physical therapist at the Desert Springs Therapy Center in Desert Hot Springs, California. His instructions for a neutral bath: Fill your bathtub with water slightly cooler than body temperature, around 94° to 97°F, according to Dr. Thomas. (You can check the temperature of the water with a regular thermometer.) Submerging as much of your body as possible, stay in the bath for at least 20 minutes, adding water as needed to maintain the temperature of the bath.

Imagery

“For quick anxiety relief, imagine that you’re lying on a beach. As each wave splashes on the beach, it rolls up to your neck, and as it recedes, it pulls more and more tension and fear out of your body,” says Dennis Gersten, M.D., a San Diego psychiatrist and publisher of Atlantis, a bi-monthly imagery news letter.

As an alternative, picture that each thought you have is enclosed in a helium balloon tied with a string. If you have an anxious thought, just untie the string and watch the balloon float out of your mind and up into the sky until it disappears on the horizon, Dr. Gersten says.

Massage

You can soothe anxiety with a 15-minute Hellerwork self-massage, says Dan Bienenfeld, a certified Hellerwork practitioner, a massage therapist and director of the Los Angeles Healing Arts Center. The massage (page 575) will ease tightness in the muscles that often tense up when you’re nervous or anxious, he says.

Reflexology

Be sure to work the diaphragm reflex on your feet, in addition to the spine and the pituitary, parathyroid, thyroid and adrenal gland reflex points, says St. Petersburg, Florida, reflexologist Dwight Byers, author of Better Health with Foot Reflexology.

To help you locate these points, consult the foot reflex chart on page 592. For instructions on how to work the points, see “Your Reflexology Session” on page 110.

Relaxation and Meditation

Any of the relaxation and meditation techniques mentioned in this book, such as mindfulness meditation, autogenics, progressive relaxation and stretching, will relieve anxiety, says Sundar Ramaswami, Ph.D., a clinical psychologist at F. S. Dubois Community Mental Health Center in Stamford, Connecticut. It’s a matter of finding the one that works best for you. For a brief description of each of these techniques and how to do them, see page 113.

Sound Therapy

Listening to music with a slow, steady beat may reduce your heart rate and help you calm down, says Janalea Hoffman, R.M.T., a composer and music therapist based in Kansas City, Missouri. Whenever you feel anxious, Hoffman suggests sitting quietly in a comfortable chair and listening to the music for 20 to 30 minutes or until the anxiety has passed. Hoffman suggests her own tape, Musical Biofeedback; for other selections, see “Sailing Away to Key Largo” on page 129. For information on ordering these and other tapes, refer to the resource list on page 642.

Vitamin and Mineral Therapy

An amino acid available in supplement form in most health food stores can help those prone to anxiety, says Julian Whitaker, M.D., founder and president of the Whitaker Wellness Center in Newport Beach, California. “It’s called GABA (gamma-aminobutyric acid), and I recommend taking 750 milligrams three times a day, after meals.” He says that GABA has a calming effect.

Yoga

A daily yoga session combining the complete breath exercise (see page 152), meditation (see page 153) and poses can help quell anxiety, says Alice Christensen, founder and executive director of the American Yoga Association. We become anxious when we start feeling like victims in life, Christensen says, and practicing yoga helps us build the inner strength to combat that mind-set.

For the poses, Christensen suggests choosing three or four from the Daily Routine that begins on page 606. She says to be sure to vary the poses from day to day to keep your interest high and to strengthen different parts of your body