Anxiety can range from the occasional slight frustration that impacts the moment to having crippling anxiety daily.
I’ve struggled with anxiety as well.
Anxiety is one of the biggest problems women face in society today. Nearly 90% of women experience the negative effects of anxiety.
I want to preface this section with the following. Anxiety is a normal human emotion. It is demonized by society and within many medical professions. Everyone wants to get rid of anxiety without understanding it has a natural place in all of our lives.
The feelings of anxiety are your body’s way of telling you that something isn’t right in your life.
And guess what, it’s okay.
We will tackle anxiety, why it’s natural and not a bad thing, and how you can address your own anxiety.
What’s Anxiety
Anxiety starts in our brain with your amygdala. This part of our brain scans your environment for threats such as yelling, smoke, threatening animals or anything else that could harm you. These are evolutionary to our survival.
Within seconds of our brain perceiving a threat, alarm bells go off in our body and our HPA axis (hypothalamus-pituitary-adrenal axis) starts pumping our adrenaline – our heart rate gets faster – our breathing gets shallow – blood and oxygen rush to our muscles – our pupils dilate so we can either fight or flee the danger.
In modern day society, this response doesn’t get shut off much. We can take action to intentionally shut it off through ways such as meditation, journaling, deep breathing, etc.
There are many reasons anxiety rears its ugly head, but I do know this. When we are compassionate and kind to our body, giving our body what it needs and living in a way that feels authentic, anxiety can be managed in a healthy, natural approach.
Getting “Rid” of Anxiety
Daily, I tell my patients that anxiety is nothing to “get rid of”. Sure, there are physiological responses happening when you are anxious such as the production of adrenaline, but when you fight the feelings of adrenaline, as you can imagine, it makes it worse.
The best thing to do is to accept that our body and mind are overactive for the time being.
What you resist, persists.
Many of my patients tell me they have anxiety at night in which I tell them that journaling, meditation, planning out the next day and doing a bedtime routine can help lead to mental clarity and control over anxiety.
When we regularly operate out of a place of fear and anxiety, our brain becomes accustomed to staying there. It is ABSOLUTELY possible to break this cycle and live in a way where anxiety is low and doesn’t impact your whole life.
Triggers
As we discussed above, there are many triggers to anxiety and I’d like to get to the root cause for the most debilitating types of anxiety.
Medical Conditions and Medications
There are medical conditions that can cause anxiety, such as hyperthyroidism, an overactive thyroid or when your medication is too high for treating hypothyroidism.
If we’re on medication and start to experience the symptoms of anxiety, such as rapid heartbeat, feeling shaky and jittery, feeling like we’re floating, dizziness or lightheaded and tingling, immediately notify your doctor.
Although herbal remedies are typically less severe in side effects, they are possible, so the same is true for new-to-you herbal remedies.
Stimulants and Caffeine
For people more prone to anxiety and a fight or flight response, caffeine and other stimulants can really affect them and produce feelings of anxiety.
Personally, I had this for a while when I was drinking caffeinated coffee. I loved the ritual of coffee and I loved the energy it provided me in the morning to feel on top of the world, but as I continued, I started noticing that I was shaky and jittery and I would get lightheaded sometimes.
I knew it was from the caffeine so I started to drink decaf coffee so I didn’t automatically experience those sensations daily.
Foods that Cause Anxiety/Nutritional Strategies that Cause Anxiety
There are types of foods that also can cause these feelings for some people. Sugar and anxiety tend to have a strong correlation. Sugar raises your blood sugar and then causes it to have a sharp drop-off soon thereafter which can mimic the feelings of anxiety for some people.
For people prone to anxiety and/or are dealing with adrenal fatigue, I suggest limiting any intermittent fasting to no longer than 12-13 hours.
There is a correlation between high/low cortisol and blood sugar and when that pair is out of balance, it creates symptoms that also look like anxiety.
In my opinion, if you’re struggling with regularly feeling anxious, your body’s amygdala (the part of the brain that looks for threats) is overactive and therefore could think you’re in a famine if you don’t eat for long periods of time.
Hormonal Imbalances and Anxiety
If your hormones are unbalanced, this can lead to experiencing more anxiety in your life. Anxiety before/after your period is a common symptom of hormonal imbalance and can be treated by using the solutions outlined in on The Complete Guide to Hormones for Women page.
Progesterone and cortisol imbalances can be a factor in anxiety as well.
Perfectionism
When we feel the need to be perfect at one thing in life or at everything, this places a ton of pressure on ourselves. We constantly feel like we’re failing.
Then, the negative self-talk is heightened as well.
Maintaining an unrealistic image to keep up with the Joneses compounds the issues.
If this is you, I urge you to start uncovering why you feel the need to be perfect. A simple action is to, out loud, ask yourself, “Why do I need to be perfect?” It may sound silly to do so out loud, but it makes the action real.
If you think that you must be perfect for your kids to love you or your partner to love you or because you need to be liked by everyone else, you need to dig deeper and shed those insecurities because that is false.
The relationships we need in our life are those that allow us to make a mistake, be messy and fail at times.
When we are perfectionists and hold internal pressure, of course, that’s going to create anxiety!
The rest of your body wants to rest sometimes, relax, do something different and be accepted. This internal struggle has no other option but to create anxiety.
Women should be okay living in their skin, to love themselves unconditionally, ditch the negative self-talk and live their lives with confidence.
People pleasing
People pleasing is the perfectionist’s twin sister. They are virtually one and of the same monster. We want to be a noblewoman who is known as being kind, selfless and altruistic.
These are very admirable qualities, but have you ever noticed the people that struggle the most with anxiety tend to be the “sweetest” women you know. There’s a reason for that.
We should not go out of our way for other people at the detriment of our own well-being.
We’ve all heard that saying, “you can’t pour from an empty cup.” This is true.
I don’t want you to think that I’m saying that you should turn into a narcissistic egomaniac because that is the furthest thing I want for you. I am saying that you need to take care of yourself first and place yourself.
When we are people pleasers, we are probably doing it from a place of guilt.
This also causes repressed emotions and an internal struggle because then you feel guilty for feeling guilty. The cycle of anxiety is born again.
Negative self-talk
I don’t think there is a woman on the planet that doesn’t talk negatively to herself sometimes. It’s human nature to do it occasionally, but we need to be mindful at how often it’s occurring.
When I first started embarking on the journey of personal development, I started being more aware of the internal dialogue I was telling myself.
I realized that in nearly all my activities, there was a negative connotation attached to it. “You should be more fit.” “You should be better at business.” “You should be a better mom.” The list goes on and on. I’m sure many of you reading can relate.
When we constantly tell ourselves how inadequate we are, that causes an internal battle with repressed emotions. Then that causes physical symptoms such as physical pain or anxiety/depression.
Natural Remedies for Anxiety and Solutions
I use a multi-faceted approach to help my anxiety and I use that with my patients too.
Eliminate the Physical Triggers
The first aspect of dealing with anxiety is to look for physical triggers in our environment.
If you remember learning about Maslow’s hierarchy in school, this theory applies here. We have to meet our body’s basic needs before we can get to the second level. If we’re not addressing these necessities, our amygdala is going to be oversensitive.
Manual/Physical Treatments
As we learned in the first section, anxiety is from the production of adrenaline which comes from our adrenal glands. In order to ease anxiety, we need to practice things that genuinely make our bodies feel more relaxed.
I purposefully italicized the word ‘genuinely’. Many people are being proactive by trying to meditate, journal and do all these things to reduce anxiety. However, if we really dislike those actions, it will take us in the opposite direction.
There is no one way for everyone. Test and find the treatment approach that works specifically for you.
Yoga for anxiety is amazing too with the right form and teacher. Doing a more yin form of yoga is really relaxing for your nervous system and also creates better self-awareness.
Acupuncture for anxiety is one of my favorite treatments to give as an acupuncturist. It always helps women calm down, feel supported and reduces anxiety for days to come.
I am a strong advocate for psychotherapy and cognitive behavior therapy.
Ultimately, we are trying to get our body from a place of fear to a place of safety, so whatever we can do to facilitate that is our goal.
Supplements
Supplements are just that. There to supplement the core lifestyle.
Before diving into supplements that can help, I want to make sure we are on the same page.
Once we have our core lifestyle changes implemented, then providing additional supplement assistance can be beneficial. But we need the core in the right place first.
Essential Oils for Anxiety
One of my favorite ways to use essential oils is to diffuse them. Aromatherapy is so powerful and feels absolutely amazing.
Calming essential oils include lavender, ylang-ylang, bergamot, chamomile, vetiver, and rose. I also love smelling the citrus oils such as orange, lemon, and grapefruit for an uplifting feeling.
Integrative Therapeutics makes a product called Lavela, which is a form of lavender essential oil that is ingestible and it works almost immediately to help you feel calmer. I use it frequently in my practice.
Supplements & Herbs for Anxiety
Even though I said to do the mental/emotional work for anxiety to get to the root cause, I do use herbs too.
Supplements can help to break the cycle of feeling anxious all the time.
I also support the adrenal glands and the HPA axis with calming herbs. Some examples of the herbs and supplements are Ashwagandha, Rhodiola, Schisandra berry, l-theanine, 5-HTP, GABA, and valerian root for anxiety.
As mentioned earlier, lavela by Integrative Therapeutics is one of my all-time favorite natural remedies for anxiety.
B Vitamins
B vitamins are water-soluble vitamins that help with cell metabolism. They are amazing for stress, energy levels, and anxiety/depression. People even use vitamin B3 niacin for anxiety because it’s an antidote to adrenaline, which we know is the feeling of anxiety. I personally recommend taking a methylated B vitamin complex so you get the benefits of them all.
There are calming teas on the market that help women feel fewer effects of adrenaline and anxiety. I like chamomile, lemongrass, licorice, rose hips and valerian root for anxiety. You can find these in blends from your favorite tea retailer. I think calming teas are of the most popular reasons to drink tea.
Go-To Mineral
Magnesium is a mineral that is involved with hundreds of chemical processes in the body, but it’s needed for the adrenal glands and to support a feeling of calm.
The best magnesium to take for anxiety is magnesium glycinate because it’s absorbable into our system, whereas magnesium citrate just goes straight through us, which is why it’s great for helping with constipation.
I use a formula by Integrative Therapeutics called TriMag that works great with several types of magnesium in it.
You are Stronger than Your Anxiety
Crippling anxiety can have wreak havoc on your quality of life. The solution to it is a multi-faceted approach between better understanding the symptoms of anxiety, educating yourself, learning self-soothing techniques, lifestyle changes, and approaches, and then using supplements and herbs to help assist the process.
I can tell you from personal experience from living a life full of anxiety that there is hope.
If you’re suffering from anxiety, find a practitioner that can help you – whether that’s an acupuncturist, naturopathic doctor, or psychotherapist.
The sooner you acknowledge and manage the anxiety you have, the more control you will have over its effect on your entire life.
