When I was first diagnosed with Generalized Anxiety Disorder (GAD) and Panic Attack Disorder, my doctor didn’t even send me to a therapist to talk out my issues. Instead, he gave me a prescription for Zoloft.
Typically, doctors will admit that the cause of GAD is unknown, but one theory is that GAD is caused by an imbalance of serotonin in the brain. Zoloft “may help” to correct this balance.
That’s right. Zoloft might help correct the theoretical imbalance of serotonin in your brain, which might be the cause of anxiety.
Yeah. Sounds sketchy, doesn’t it? But if you’re anything like me – and most other people – you’ll take your doctor’s advice because he’s a professional, and because you don’t have any better ideas. All you want is relief.
So I took my Zoloft. For the first three weeks, as my doctor had warned me, I felt no changes. On the fourth week, however, the effects of the medicine kicked in. Zoloft did, indeed, stop my anxiety. However, Zoloft also stopped all my other emotions. I no longer felt happiness or sadness, anger or fear. I couldn’t cry, even if something seemed like it should be sad.
And, worse than all of this combined, Zoloft took away my creativity. I realized this one night as I sat down to write a paper. I couldn’t form a sentence. The words got clogged up in my head. All my thoughts were shuffled around. I couldn’t create a simple sentence because all my thoughts were confused and jumbled. That night, I stopped taking Zoloft.
Zoloft made me a walking zombie with no emotion and no creativity. Next, I tried Prozac.
Prozac carries a risk they list right on their warning label. Some people who take Prozac for emotional disorders run the risk of increased suicidal thoughts and behaviors. Because of the alterations Prozac makes in the basic chemical levels in your brain, Prozac can make you feel suicidal. Doctors heavily warn the family members of patients taking Prozac to carefully monitor the patient for signs of suicidal tendencies.
While Prozac did not give me suicidal thoughts, it did have a very bad side-effect. About three weeks after I began treatment, the Prozac-induced chemical shift in my brain created a new problem for me: Hypomania. The warning label does state that Hypomania is indeed a condition that can be activated by taking Prozac.
For me, hypomania meant sudden bursts of insane energy that lasted for about twenty minutes. During these spurts, I would feel uncontrollably compelled to dump cereal all over my kitchen floor, throw things around the house, jump on furniture, and run wildly around the neighborhood at midnight until I finally wore myself out. While doing these things, it felt like I had no control, like the real me was locked inside my brain, watching the hypomania take over my body and create messes that I would later have to clean. These hypomanic bursts only came about once a month, however, and I continued taking Prozac because I wanted to finally get past my anxiety and panic attacks.
The doctor also prescribed low-grade valium. This medicine does not cure anxiety; rather, you a 1mg pill just to “take the edge off” your anxiety. They work like magic, relaxing your muscles, easing your mind, and letting you rest. However, they’re also pretty addictive and can be tempting to take even when you aren’t having an anxiety attack. Furthermore, they leave you feeling tired and lethargic – too relaxed to be productive during the day!
So, you may be wondering, what should I do then? If all these pills are bad for me, my mind, and my body, what should I do instead to help my anxiety?
About three months ago I began working on more natural methods of relaxing. I’ve found quite a few wonderful, natural treatments that have helped me far more than Prozac or Zoloft ever did. Plus, most natural treatments have an added benefit of being healthy habits even if you don’t have anxiety!
1. Use your energy – I’ve found that anxiety is usually a symptom of not using up all your spare energy. Many times, I’m most anxious when I’m sitting at home, thinking about all the things I need to do, rather than actually doing them. If you keep up with all your work, anxiety melts away naturally and is replaced with a sense of accomplishment. Exercise also helps you use your energy. One of the best cures for anxiety is to begin exercising as soon as you feel an attack coming on. With your mind focused on something else and your body engaged in a high-energy activity, you will be expending so much energy that you won’t have any left to waste on being anxious.
2. Yoga – All forms of exercise are excellent for anxiety, but I’ve found that Yoga works exceptionally well. Yoga is calming. Rather than raising your heartrate, it teaches you how to use and relax your muscles. Yoga helps you breathe slowly and release tension. At the end of a yoga session, your body feels peaceful and your slow breathing keeps your heartrate down, which decreases anxiety and promotes relaxation.
3. No Caffeine – If you have anxiety, the last thing you need is caffeine. Caffeine can cause anxiety by itself, and it prevents healing. Cut out soft-drinks and coffee.
4. Drink water – Water fixes everything. Water makes your body function more smoothly, and a fresh supply of water in your body helps remove toxins. Your body is built to be self-sufficient and heal itself. When your body is well-hydrated, you promote your own body’s ability to cleanse itself of anxiety.
5. Herbal tea – I’ve learned to love tea! The aroma of warm peppermint or chamomile tea sends me to a land of bliss. Chamomile tea is especially good for anxiety because the herb chamomile is naturally soothing. There are many kinds of tea at your grocery store, many with pictures of sleeping teddy bears, that are used as natural sleep-aids. I use tea as a comforting cup of warmth each night before bed, and it helps me sleep.
6. Meditation – “Oh god. New Age meditation and herbal stuff. That won’t work for me.” Meditation is not simply a form of spiritual communion; meditation is a growing form of medical treatment. My doctor actually told me that I should meditate to help ease my anxiety. Meditation is a very simple way of focusing your mind. Take ten minutes out of your day, curl up in a quiet room, and just focus on your breathing. Try not to let other thoughts aggravate you during this time. This is your time. Assure yourself that it’s okay to take ten minutes to not think about all the work you need to do, and then allow yourself to not worry about it. This is excellent for anxiety because it gives you a small time of peace during the day; furthermore, by practicing on focusing your thoughts, you are strengthening your mind. A strong mind can compete with anxiety.
7. Meat – This step will definitely not work for everyone, but I considered it worth mentioning. The meat most of us eat is filled with anxiety-causing chemicals. Eating meat can increase your anxiety. When animals are killed for our food, they go through a massive amount of stress, trauma, and anxiety. What happens when a living thing goes through a stressful situation? Stress hormones, anxiety chemicals, and adrenaline are pumped through its bloodstream into its muscles. Then it dies, with all of those hormones still inside its body. Days later, we eat the same meat that was completely filled with all of that stuff, and we take it into our own body.
Obviously not everyone wants to give up meat, so my suggestion – merely from an anxiety-decreasing perspective – would be to select only “free range” meat products. Free range animals are killed with more care for their comfort, and have less anxiety-inducing hormones inside of them.
In summary, these are some very simple lifestyle changes that can ease your anxiety and stress. I’ve lived with anxiety most of my life, and medicine never worked for me. Most of these changes are simple and very healthy for even the calmest of people – drink water, exercise, use your energy, and give yourself a little meditation or quiet time each day. Exchange your cup of coffee for a relaxing drink of herbal tea and remember to breathe deeply. Enjoy life.
